So, about that lesson…
We jumped. Properly this time, so Sammy wasn’t allowed to take part, and I was put on Gamir. My instructor noted that she had used Sammy twice last week for those basic exercises (our lesson and one more), and she wouldn’t make that mistake again. By the second time, he caught on a wee bit too quick (he always does that if you have the same exercise twice in a week) and did it even faster. Oops.
Gamir is, unfortunately, really feeling his age, even though at 18 he’s 2 years younger than Sammy. When he starts off, he’s very stiff at first, and if you ask for any work too soon he will buck instead. He’s always had some back issues, and they’ve definitely increased with age. So, I allowed him to just jog at first. Once we had cantered some, he had limbered up quite a bit, and felt much better.
The exercise was similar to last weeks, just using larger jumps, so the basic idea was getting the right canter after a jump on a diagonal and with a change of lap. On Gamir, this shouldn’t be so hard. But I always get a little contorted and I try too hard when I am supposed to prepare for a change. I also have a very bad habit of looking down to check which canter I got, since I have no feeling for this.
Our instructor has lately gotten a little more demanding and rather less tolerant, so she was on me pretty sharply for those faults (well, the latter, anyway). But I did manage to improve some, at least. By shifting to ride for the new canter earlier on and staying passive later, I managed to avoid doing too many things right in front of the jump. Of course, with a shorter approach, that would be needed, but first I have to nail down the individual elements. I am thinking I will need a private lesson focusing on getting a better sense for the canter and to get me to stop looking down. Other than that, it was (as always) very enjoyable to jump Gamir, and after jumping he was very soft and happy.