Jumpy Mcjumping Photos

Here are the remainder of the photos from the clinic.  This was day 2 and SO much fun!  Having a horse that is so game is so fun.  He just does it.  He is beautiful at dressage and I have never found a height yet that has been remotely a challenge for him.  I try my hardest to be a good rider and work at it but when I screw up he's the kind of horse to save my ass every time.  It just makes it all so fun.  Our number one, numero uno issue in show jumping was, is and will be that right shoulder and my left rein.  Why oh why when he starts falling into his right shoulder do I instinctively grab on to my left rein??!?  I cannot tell you how many a trainer has yelled at me for this and how many times they have had to say it.  I have to say I am getting better BUT it is our kryptonite.  Going to the left every damn time we are straight and steady then to the right we zig and we zag and we some how manage to make it over jumps simply because, he could jump 3ft from a crooked standstill all day long, no problem.  But it's not pretty and surely not what we want.  Especially as the jumps get bigger and courses get more difficult.

Jumps?  No big thing.  But you can take notice which direction we have drifted in the photo.  Surprise we have drifted to the right!

I don't know the difficulty of the course at IEA but I am sure it will not be child's play.  I am praying for more left turns than right but the course at Heartland was probably 75% to the right and it really made our weaknesses stand out.  I HAVE to HAVE to HAVE think about my turns.  I need to know my course like the back of my hand so I can do it with my eyes closed so that when I go in there I can think about my turns.  Where they are, when to make them and where each one of my aids needs to be to make each turn count.  Weight in my outside foot, turn with my outside rein and correct with the right rein before he pops out his shoulder.  Peter says ride every stride.  Don't wait until you have to 'correct' a problem.  Stop it before it starts.  I mean I KNOW my horse will pop out his right shoulder every single chance he gets.  So I need to half halt with my right rein BEFORE a turn.  I need to think about counter flexing when turning to the right.  If we could just get this right shoulder/rein thing worked out we would be golden.  It is truly our weakest link. 

A phenomenal dressage test?  That is nothing for this horse.  Cross country jumps we have never encountered any problems on that front.  Height?  Just never been an issue.  But in show jumping?   That right shoulder and my left rein are going to be our biggest challenge.

We will see how IEA goes but if it wasn't for that right shoulder issue we could take on Novice without an issue.  So that will be our project for the summer to tidy up our straightness so that by fall we can knock out a Novice show and who knows maybe Training will be on our horizon next season!