Just one more lesson left of this semester. The second-to-last was jumping, and it turned out pretty good. I was probably most pleased with the fact that I was able to retain some of those nice canter departures from the dressage. Usually I get too focused on going forward when I jump, but this time around I managed to be much more patient.
The exercise was another figure-of-eight variation, this time with two different diagonal and slightly curved lines. If the distance didn’t quite suit our horses, we were supposed to either shorten or lengthen the canter or, if that didn’t suit our horse, ride the line more or less curved. Given Murphy’s canter, I opted for the latter. The first line didn’t need any adjusting, though, and it felt like it all fit together pretty nicely. The second line we floated out too far the first time because I didn’t have the canter sorted in time, so it took me a couple of tries to a) get the canter sorted in time and b) start the turn in the air so the line ended up straight enough to suit Murphy’s canter.
Each time that we did the left-to-right diagonal, we got the correct (left) canter afterwards, even though that line in itself was harder. Each time we did the right-to-left diagonal, we got the wrong canter, though the line itself flowed nicely. So the main struggle each time was breaking off the canter after that line (Murphy does not do changes except once in a blue moon or so) and getting the new canter established quickly enough. This was complicated by the fact that Murphy likes jumping, so coming back down to a trot wasn’t really something he was very keen on. He also seems to find it easier to pick up a canter from a walk than a trot, at least to the right.
But overall, fun and it felt good to get the timing to work better. And I did bring treats this time.