Sequel

Last night's lesson served as a sequel to Monday night's. Same fences set up, but some different courses and some varying heights to keep it interesting.

Midge was happy to hear we were jumping again. Or...she thought I might have treats.

We warmed up, then went to work on the 6 stride line, playing with getting 7 (Midge's happy place), 6 (go Midge go!) and 8 (compress the canter please). We were supposed to trot in, and without a placing pole I found it difficult to get 'the' canter I wanted in a timely fashion. Part me asking at a weird time, part Midge thinking on things for a stride before listening, So we got all sorts of awkward jumps in, but Midge was great about adjusting once she actually got going.

We then tackled a similar course to Monday night. The part that made me nervous was the one stride...coming in uphill on a left turn is hard for us (Midge's right shoulder is the one that I tend to lose and we're all about getting sucked into that corner), plus it was coming into a large-ish oxer...the reverse of Monday where we jumped out over the oxer. EC humored me and put the 'b' part down to a cross pole to start, that way if we biffed the oxer it was NBD.

Never fear, though, Bridget tackled it all in excellent style, and we even bumped the b part up to a little vertical  EC took advantage of my focus on the one stride and left the rest of the fences up at my lesson mate's height rather than lowering them a bit. I overheard one of the barn kids say they were setting to 2'9". So, there's that! I my mind I always think we're such babies (and we really are compared to my barn mates!) and am surprised when the fence heights actually measure to something we could compete at with actual adults. It was only my anxiety holding us back! I'm so pleased with how forward and game Bridget is right now. On the plus side, I think the step back has maybe made her a bit more keen and confident as well. It's certainly working for me, I'm starting to feel excited about some events in the spring again.