We started jumping this weekend!

Saturday we unclipped the martingale to free her up for the jumping, and she continued to try for the head set, use her butt, &c. So yay! It's wokring. Good to know, yes? XD She trotted over the crossrail the first few times, and then Steph realized that she hadn't put a ground pole in front of the fence. So she put one down, and Gem got her front feet up, but followed with her back legs one at a time. We went over it one more time and called it a day.

Sunday I kind of sucked. By which I mean to say that it was a great lesson. You don't learn if you don't mess up, right? We had to stay inside because the footing in the outdoor ring was all squishy and bad, plus the humidity omg. Gem was acting a bit ADD though, but when she had her head in the game she was working really nicely. Steph set up just that one small crossrail again, and Gem finally got some air! XD One time she started cantering about two strides away from the take-of point, and I was trying to make her trot and keep her straight and she was wiggly and nopleasedon'trunoutonafencealready - but he jumped it, phew!

And of course I have a list of things to think about and work on, bad riding habits that I unfortunately picked up at GP, lessons I never lerned because the lesson horses were a little too god at their jobs and would pretty much jump no matter what. So:

- Number one, most important thing I have to work on: my leg. Once again. (Hey, at least I admit that I suck, right?) Steph really made it clear why I have to keep my heels down over the fence. Basically, I could feel that if I stood in my stirrups, sank my weight into my hells, and kept my calf at the right spot, I would be able to keep Gem straight and encourage her to move on, up & over the fence. On the other hand, if I let my heels come up, there I had absolutely NO contact with my horse's sides, and since I'd be in the jumping position, no contact with her back either. (Which was the reason I jumped Bailey so badly at Fair a year ago - with no contact, she was easily given the option to run out on the fences, and did so.) Obviously I've always been aware that I need my leg in the right spot to be effective over fences, but now it just makes so much sense. Duh.

- Basically, for now I just need to focus on my legs and give Gem complete control of her head. Which feels a little odd, because I'm used to keeping contact with the bit so that I can control my horse after the fence. But all this work with Gem has been teaching me that that control should come from my legs anyway. So over the fences, I have to be concentrating on keeping my heels down and my leg in place, while basically wrapping my hands in her mane and freeing up her head, making sure NEVER to pop her in the mouth. Which I've already done. X( Crap!

- Jodi used to always say, and Steph uses the same metaphor, 'your legs are a hallway'. Gem's general green-ness (alliteration, anyone?) means that she's already a little wiggly on a straight line, so if I put even pressure on her to move forward, she'll go that way.

- All in all, this: at a good pace, use my legs to guide her straight to the fence, and when she goes over, forget about the reins - drop my heels and throw my hands into her mane. Sounds simple, right? Nah.

- Yay!
(I had to - both of my previous posts on this journal have ended with 'yay' Xd I'm a nerd.)

Thanks to anyone who got through all this, but again it's mostly for my benefit anyway. So any comments of tl;dr won't be taken offensively. :D

AHHHH I have like a minute to post this -

SIX MONTHS!

Today is the six month anniversary of the day I officially bought Gem. :) YAY!

I think that we'll both learn a lot from the martingale. I mean, besides the obvious:

-It will teach me to USE MY LEGS. Steph pretty much made it clear that the first order of business will be to lower my stirrups and work on putting my legs in the right position. This is important, because not only DUH, my legs should be in the right spot, but because with the German, every single time I put pressure on the reins (which will bring her nose down closer to her chest), I will have to push her on with my leg. So that once I take off the martingale, she'll equate my leg pressure with putting her head down. This works (from what I understand about what Steph told me, I've never had a dressage lesson, mind you) because she can't move forward with her head down unless she uses her butt, so using her butt encourages the head to come down. Get it? The martingale just puts her head into the right position first, so that she knows her butt muscles are there and has little choice but to use them, instead of her shoulders. Working and moving forward using her hind end is what makes a natural head set possible. So I need to use my legs properly so she will respond to them properly.

-My natural reaction to her spooking is to haul back on her face. (WRONG.) With the martingale, if I want to pull back on the reins, I have to also push forward with my legs and seat, as described above. So, if you think about it, in the long run, my natural reaction to a horse spooking will also involve sitting in my damn saddle and putting my legs to good use, not just bracing them in the stirrups. And (theoretically), once I use my legs I won't feel the need to yank on the poor horse's mouth.

-I won't worry so much about her taking off and being stupid. With her head down like that in the martingale, she won't have very much space to move in, and she'll be responding better to me anyway, so her reactions will be controllable. And that's the right way to 'de-spook' a horse anyway - take control over their reactions. Eventually they'll react in a controlled manner, or not at all.

OH: my horse backs up again! Steph re-taught her. I hadn't known that Gem ever knew how to back in the first place. Another one of Marianne's handy un-training skills.

If Gem learns nothing else from all this, it'll be to listen to her rider. She had one ear on Steph the whole time she rode her, ignored all the scary things in the great outdoors, splashed through and around puddles. I've never seen my horse paying that much attention. Ever.

YAY. [/rant]