I’ll start this week’s lesson report with a daaaaaaaaarn. Not about the lesson, but about that jump off in the Olympic show jumping yesterday. If only that pesky last fence would have stayed up, feh. A shared gold would have been just fine by us (though I suppose it may not have been exactly the same time for both riders if the fence hadn’t come down), since we don’t have one yet, and I would have loved for an equestrian sport to be our ‘saviour’ in these Olympics. Rolf-Göran Bengtsson is also a great example of how you don’t have to be filthy rich to succeed in show jumping ... just filthy talented. ;)

Anyway, with that out of my system, what about the lesson? Well, no Olympic-level jumping for us, that’s for sure. Or dressage, for that matter.

I was on Murphy again (barring unforseen events, I should be on him for a a few weeks), and we made some preliminary plans for the semester. We’re going to divide the semester up in blocks, with each being dedicated to one part of a dressage program, and we’ll try to ride a single horse per block. We’ll also try to use horses that are good for whatever we are training, so I won’t be getting Murphy when we do canter work. I put down Sammy and Gamir as my second two choices, and I may add Fleur too. I am hoping she might squeeze in a pony or two as well, but that’s not likely.

The decision was made to start off by focusing on riding circles. Its easy enough to get the horse around in a circle, but to do it well? Not so easy. And Murphy was not quite in a mood for it. He had worked the lesson before, and had come out of it a little too strong and quick. Or rather, he ended up that way when I woke him out of the slumber he’d been put into during that lesson. I was also having some issues with my arms and shoulders following Sunday’s dog show, so I tensed up a bit more than usual even.

On the whole, I don’t think I did that well. I got some decent cantering out of him, but my instructor seemed to feel I was back to pushing too hard. I think it was actually that I tried to canter without stirrups, and with Murphy being a bit faster and stronger than usual I ended up doing a bit of parrying to stay on. I ended up opting for taking my stirrups back. I also got some okay trotting, especially after the cantering, but I struggled with the circles a lot of the time. I think I probably tend to be a little slow in shortening my reins when I do get him to shorten himself a little, and then I give his outer shoulder a chance to slip out again. The best circles I managed were, not surprisingly, when I really got him packed together. He’s slippery like an eel, so unless he’s bundled up thoroughly he’ll escape in all sorts of directions.

Hopefully, a few weeks of concentrating on circles will help me get a good grip on my shifty Irish boy.