Jan. 30th and Feb. 12th

I had a group lesson on Jan.30th. There were two others in the lesson and we all were ready to jump. We worked a good portion of the lesson on the flat as a warm up and preparing them to jump. Erin then had us canter down a line of 3 poles. I did the same exercise yesterday and it wasn't perfect but when I put the three up to jumps he was spot on, so I wasn't worried. However, the canter would change through the corner and over the first pole and then again before the last. This showed the inconsistency of his canter but it was due to his incredible ease to adjust and his sensitivity. I realized that I didn't need to use my seat as much as I thought for the poles and that I could stay way out of the tack, this keeping the canter consistent since he wouldn't feel the change of my body and think he had to adjust so drastically. Erin then raised the middle up to a 2'3-2'6 vertical. I expected him to be great since he was spot on with his stride the day before..but he changed the canter on me again resulting in long spots. He also was over jumping write drastically which is typical of him but this was quite a big powerful jump for a little 2 something vertical. I became frustrated a little because we are now expected more from him. He is now expected to jump on a consistent contact. This he is not use to since when I was teaching him to jump I was just trying to get over the jumps so I would give him his head and the reins so I wouldn't interfere with anything. We are now quite beyond this a year later from his first ever jump and it is time to make his jumping a little more proper, pretty, graceful, tasteful and stylish with contact and correct leads. This is difficult for both of us but we are working on it and it will come soon.

Since Erin left the day after my last lesson we are having guest instructors. Red(Michelle Lacasse) came to teach. I rode with her my first year at Valinor during the eventing clinic week but this is when I leased Ollie and first started eventing. It was her first time seeing Carino in motion; and she of course thought him to be a very nice horse. This was a group lesson with Allison and we both wanted to jump. Red let us warm up ourselves mostly, Carino was behaving but wasn't really pushing into the contact which he will do when he knows he is going to jump. We warmed up over a small xc and the trot and canter a few times and Carino was very good. We then raised it to a 2'0-2'3 vertical and he jumped that just the same. We then did a figure of eight exercise over a 2'3 vertical in the middle of the ring at x facing towards B/E. He did this very well and got his leads 95% of the time, we only had difficulty with our turn tracking right and then a bad turn would result in the wrong lead. But most of the time during that exercise he was spot on with striding, aids, contact and leads..so it ended very well.