A learning streak

I'll start with some old history on me.
Back before I ever met Symbah, I used to school 3'3" and showed at the 2'9" height (hunters, of course). I was a gutsy kid and heights didn't faze me. I used to help work greenies and horses with "issues" and never once worried I'd eat dirt. It was fun and I loved it.
But eventually I had crap horses thrown at me constantly, ones whose intentions always seemed to make me want to crash and slowly, ride by ride, my confidence slipped away.

After that, I just didn't have the nerve to pop a horse over 2'3 without tensing up and clinging to the saddle for dear life. So for a while, I just did minimal jumping because I lacked such confidence. And then in came Symbah.
Ignorance really is bliss. Because I hadn't known he wasn't quite halter broke, he apparently had a 'mean' streak in him and was unpredictable with a capital P. We just 'connected' I guess. And thanks to him my confidence has grown and the progress we've made together is fantastic.

I always got a little squeamish with fences over 2'3, and 2'6 made me a bit nervous. But Symbah sure loves to jump, would never stop at a fence and helps me over them. Without him, I think I'd still be a mess!
Well last night I tried something I hadn't done before. I set up a course of a line (first fence was 2'3, second was 2'6), a single fence of just a cross rail to warm up over and then a 2'9 vertical on a diagonal. We went over the fences fantastically, no hesitation, no rushing.. nothing. Then I decided it was time to try that 2'9 fence. So I took a deep breath and cantered him over it.

No problem whatsoever! He was still learning his distances so he did come up fairly close, but popped over it no problem. Another boarder was in there with me, helping me with a neat trick to keeping a steady but forward canter. What I loved most was after the fence, Symbah was doing a flying lead change to swap to the correct lead - no aids asked!
The last time we attempted the fence, we had a nice steady canter and he adjusted his striding himself, and popped over the fence. I had ended it on that - why push for more?

I'm very proud of him, and thankful he's given me most of my confidence back.
And I also have a show this weekend - I'll hopefully post updates on that afterwards! =]

Mooore Updates!

Okay, so I've majorly neglected this blog.

My apologizes!

How about some updates? =]

So I did end up showing Ancaster and thankfully, we didn't end up eating any dirt. Infact, things went fantastic. Warm-up was great, ran through the course without an issue and left it at that.

The show went great as well. We ended up with two fourths overfences but didn't get anything on the flat. I blame it on my poor equitation but still have an issue figuring out how one rider placed above us, yet their horse was doing airs above ground infront of the judge. Oh well though, the past is the past!

Things were quiet through October, no shows. Just plenty of quiet time to work on my many, many equitation issues. Gotta learn somewhere, right? I'll admit that I have improved immensely, hands down to that.

Our next show was at Blacks Equine Centre and simply showed in the 2' division. There's a bit of a backstory to this and is not one of my proudest times. I allowed someone to get to me, and her constant criticizing of my riding finally set me off. I ended up showing in the same division as her on equal ground (aka, we both had green horses who had the same amount of time off). I figured we'd put both our riding skills to the test and the better rider would be revealed.

Well, Symbah and I received a 2nd place on the flat, two 4ths overfences and a 3rd in the Stakes class (so we received $25 ontop of that). The girl didn't place at all and I figured that drama was over. It sure isn't, but there's no point going into detail!

Now, not too much is going on. I found out that I am in 5th place for the Year End Awards for my division. I'm only 20 points behind first place, so I'm very excited about it. BEC has had two shows so far, but I had only shown at one. So I have high hopes! My next show there is in two weeks on January 25th. Same division, going for the red this time! I've got my fingers crossed!