Magical Rides

Ok, so maybe nothing magical happened, but I did ride Magic Tuesday night. I just was feeling kinda lacking in my already rather empty confidence department, and figured riding a schoolie might help. Magic is a grumpy bastard, but once you start his motor, and learn how to keep it running, he will pack you around anything under 3' with little need of your input.

This meant I used a LOT of leg muscle, but I was able to not worry about the jump or changes, just me, my position etc.

This also meant my trainer could throw really weird patterns at me in a rather small area because he's a handy little 15.2 guy. 

If you couldn't figure it from my beautiful artwork lol, there were angled lines, and roll back type stuff that I could really get to liking :) 

I also jumped at 2'3" and 2'6" which for me is really good. He feels great at that height other than his ability to suck back to a crawl before a jump if your legs not on... or a cat decides to cross under the jump as you approach (see video lol).

It was windy and kinda crowded so I got to work on calling out heads up, and planning how to go around people (aka backup landing plan). 

There was very little naughtiness and drama, and it was nice. Finished up and watched L jump Ramonasaurus around then took treats to my princess who barely acknowledged my presence.

Wednesday am brought about lots of fun things I unfortunately don't have much evidence of. Lets justs suffice to say jumping is far more interesting when there are people practicing carrying flags and ropes in the arena with you. I am glad our outdoor is huge, because we used all of it between the three of us.

Warm up was uneventful other than Holly princess needing lots of leg to find her frame, somthing I didn't have a lot of to work with. When will I finally be in shape? 

She spooked at the Evil Man charming snakes (worker watering trees) right before our first jump, so we had to do some canter laps by him until we were no longer interested.

Jumped the little vertical as a warm up (which is all I have video of). The first jump she notices the Evil Man charming snakes again and chips in, crunches my...um proper-ladies-don't-speak-of-them parts... and then I catch her mouth and she throws a fit. Then we settled down, mostly, and got to work. 

After lame video jumps, I actually did variations of a single back to the single in a line. It was again 2'6" and although i'm pretty sure I didn't breathe, it actually felt good. She tucked up so much nicer, and if I listened to my trainer and got her motor going early, we got great distances. We did circle once as she was overly concerned over horses being eaten by flags very closeby, but after a couple circles, she came back to me. I love that, if I stay calm, she gets over stuff fast.

I'll deny it at the barn but I think I could get used to jumping bigger. Not like the rest of you big, but like 2'6" without panic attacks. Now to be able to do a course by the next show, I'm not so sure, that still gives me panic attacks, lol.