Equestrian Team Summer Day 4

Oh man. I got in trouble today.

Yes sir, I had to ride without stirrups. But let's start from the top.

I get there and ride Tommy again this week. Fine by me! I feel much better in my trot and the canter is beautiful. I really feel like I'm getting the hang of this. I get him to trot over the poles only hesitating once. I feel like I got this.

Then she sets up the little X jump. I'm like "Yes! She thinks I can start jumping!!"

And it goes downhill from there.

There was just something not clicking with me and jumping. I still have a little bit of a hard time with the whole two-point idea, so I'm trying my best. I get over the two poles she lays out before the X jump, go over those and kind of freak, hoping the horse will go into overdrive and do it on his own.

Well he doesn't. More than once, we pop over the fence. I nail it down to not having balance in my two point because, guess what, I'm standing! I couldn't help it. Then I'd topple over, lose my balance, and hang on his neck so he couldn't go over the baby X.

After like 5 tries I never manage to fix this, it's not clicking that I need to SIT MY BUTT DOWN and finally Stacy's just like, "Okay, out on the rail. Drop your stirrups." And in my brain I'm like, "oh crap, wait how do I do this while trotting??" And try to walk and she yells, "STOP TRYING TO WALK, TROT AND DROP YOUR STIRRUPS!" So I fling them off (prolly shouldn't have) and immediately start falling from one side to the other side of the horse. I really feel like I'm gonna topple over and all I hear is her yelling, "POST! POST!" I try my hardest, I think I posted once. I hear her go, "Oh man. Okay, walk. Yeah, you'll be doing that every week now."

Great. I had to cling on for dear life with my little thighs for about 10 seconds and I couldn't feel them afterwards. How am I gonna do this for a good portion of the lesson for the next few weeks!??!

I'll really have to suck it up. All I have to keep thinking is that I'll be able to jump after this. =]