My Dream, Here We Come!

Obviously, this is a happy report of my ride on Wednesday. Actually, in stead of riding Tarzan like I normally do, I rode April and jumped a bit; Erica rode with  me and she rode Tarzan... just to give all of us a change from our normal routine.

As all of you know, my dream is to be a top-of-the-line show jumper (or at least a good hunt seat rider with a talent in jumping), becoming famous and being that person that the little girls say, "I wanna be just like her when I grow up!" So it was a thrill when today Erica told me to ride April... and jump her a bit. The jumps weren't very high, maybe 8 inches if not a bit more. But still, it's a place to start. Back in the 'old days,' when I rode Emmy and April consistently, I was jumping maybe 18 or 20 inches all the time. After Em died, though, and I started riding Tarzan, there's no time to put in an extra exercise on April, much less any time for an entire jumping workout.

So, last night, I ended up being the one trudging through the thigh-deep mud out to get Tarzan - even though I didn't ride him - and Erica got to stroll out into the not-muddy mares' field and fetch April. We saddled up our ponies and got to it.

I warmed up April with a nice posting trot, keeping my legs back and my knees rolled in. I concentrated on my own posture instead of April's, because April is just a perfect horse and there's really no need to worry about her. After about three or four trots - all posting... I happened to 'forget' to do sitting trots today, but no one noticed - I pushed April into a canter. It was strange, riding a 'normal' horse with 'normal' canters and trots after riding Tarzan for a while. But it was nice. I went over the first jump after a while - an extremely low cross-bar with no challenge to it whatsoever - and my jumping position was a bit sloppy, but not too bad. Then, I cut across the arena to the left and went over the second jump, having a bit of a more collected jump and shortening April's stride before her take off; I also regulated her speed so that we had a consistent pace over the second jump instead of a messy speed. (A picture of the type of jump that April and I jumped is below.)

After warming up with those small jumps, I slowed April to a walk to let her catch her breath before signaling for a canter again. This time, we went over the two jumps at least 10 times each, attempting to master them before calling it a night. Once we had it down that way, we reversed and pulled it off with flying colors the second way. It was brilliant, and I loved every second of it. ;) After that, I had to cool April out, for we were running out of time. Still, I was deeply satisfied with our ride, and I hope that I can ride April again soon, if not jump over a few higher jumps.

That's about it! But one more thing... MY DREAM, HERE WE COME! =D