No Quarter

Last night's lesson took place in the middle of a giant storm. 80km/hr (50mph for our American friends) wind gusts and torrential rain blowing sideways - it felt like we were in a high pressure car wash. My barnmates and trainer are super tough. Nobody cancelled their lessons, even though just getting to the barn was a slightly hazardous affair - flooded roads and downed trees everywhere. At least we are nearing the end of storm season so the weaker trees that were going to block the roads and knock out power have mostly fallen already or at least been trimmed back by the hydro crews.

Midget was not overly pleased to be pulled from her dinner to go out in such weather, but honestly, neither was I :)

Our lesson was a rehash of Mondays lesson - lots of smallish (2'3" - 2'6") jumps set up all over the arena and instructions given to find a nice canter, establish a rhythm, and ride the line I choose at the pace I choose.

More randoms from last weekend

This proved a lot trickier than Monday's ride. Midge was backed off and felt tired, so finding the balance of pushing her along without it turning into her dragging me proved elusive. We could gallop along on the forehand, or I could take my leg off and we could lose all energy and grind to a slow halt. As a newbie to jumping, I find having to push her along hard to ride and prefer the days when she's forward and taking me to the jumps. Also, the random objects blowing across the arena kept me a little too distracted - after Ginger it's hard to believe plastic chairs and pool noodles blowing across our line aren't going to cause some sort of excitement- so I frequently forgot to look at where we actually needed to be and ended up with awkward wiggly lines to our fences.

bigger jumps than this, same bad riding :)

To give the pony her due, she jumps anything you point her at (including that random pool noodle that blew/floated in our way) so what could have been an awful lesson was just sort if a "meh" one - a few crappy distances and a bit of an inconsistent pace through the courses. 

It's easy to get discouraged in the moment, but seriously, we barely had a canter at all a few months ago , and now we are cantering entire courses - the adjustability will become more consistent as she gets stronger and I get a better feel for the canter I need in our jumping lessons. Still, I am impatient and want to be a better rider right this instant!

On the super plus side, we have ZERO excuses not to put in a decent ride under any weather events - if we could jump a course today, we're good for anything!