Still Time : Did I miss something....

Or did Groundhog day already happen this year, and spring has come?! I don't know what it's like where you all live, but it was 60 degrees and sunny the past two days. Talk about lovely riding weather :) Yesterday, I decided to jump a tiny little cross-rail, do some canter poles, and then move the cross-rail up to a roughly 2-foot vertical. Limerick was so adorable and excited to jump, and we had a ton of fun! I also figured out that my jumping problems stem from two issues. One, Limerick has a massive/powerful jump with a pretty insane bascule (when he's being normal), which is kind of hard to ride if you don't have a ton of jumping experience (read: me). Therefore, when I'm already up in two-point or half-seat heading to a jump, I get thrown even farther forward by his crazy jumping skillz.

Two, stirrup length. I have more trouble finding a comfortable length, and yesterday my knees were basically touching my eyeballs, making it extremely hard to balance... I know, my fault, but I convinced myself that I was more stable that way. NOT. I tried extremely hard to focus on staying still and not moving when he left the ground, but it just didn't work. We even cantered the cross rail a few times, which is still new and scary to me, though admittedly much smoother than trotting them. Finally, we did the vertical twice. I know this is the teensiest bit superstitious, but I can't set a certain number of times for doing something. For example, yesterday I said we would do the vertical until it felt smooth to me and wasn't super awkward to ride. That just happened to be two times, rather than something I determined beforehand. This is all because my friend Kate said that she and her horse were going to jump one more and be finished... Long story short, her horse was too tired, tripped immediately in front of the jump, crashed into it, and she went right over his head. She nearly had a concussion and couldn't ride for a few weeks, never mind the fact that she had massive scrapes from the rock-like footing at my old farm. So yeah, that's why I'm superstitious.

Anywho, on to today! I was in a crappy mood due to some sucky things happening at school and being a little bit rushed, so I really needed a good ride and to blow off some steam. Limerick read my mind and was so so good :) We didn't do much serious work, mostly just cantered around and practiced adjustability, which is quite a challenge. I got some feedback from Julie and Hillary that my stirrups looked super short in my videos from the other day, so I dropped them two holes, which helped a ton! I feel like my leg is flapping around, but I can also sit much deeper and have a little bit more leverage for when he pulls on me.

Unfortunately, Jazz is lame, so Kimmie chilled ringside while I worked and decided to take some goofy pictures. This post is going to be yet another photo dump, because our mission towards the end of the ride was to take fun pictures and try to capture awkward moments... then we went out to the front field (for the first time since CRAY) and she took a video of me cantering towards her, which was so much fun!!! I laughed and giggled and Lims was awesome :) Then we went and said hi to some cows, which didn't blow his mind in the least. Both parties just kind of stared at each other like "What are you? You are the weirdest looking creature I've ever seen." We called it a day after that and enjoyed some delicious pizza!

Here's what's coming up in the near-ish future:

Appointment at Rood and Riddle tomorrow to have a general wellness exam and figure out what exactly is causing all of his back problems and soreness
LESSON on Sunday
Hillary visits tomorrow-Sunday!!!!
Schooling day next Saturday at a local show barn :)