So on Wednesday we decided that the time had come to move Tilly's rehabilitation up a level and try her over some jumps again. We had a family outing to Helen's to run the lorry and use her lovely school...Helen checked it to make sure that it had defrosted as I did want to make sure that if it came to it I would have a soft landing!!!!
I had not ridden Tilly since Saturday and she has not been in Helen's school before so I was expecting her to be a little lively ..... going off past experience! So I went armed with the lunge line and body protector just incase. I set off by just walking round and she was fine and then we moved onto trot where again she was not naughty. She tends to chomp at the bit and shorten her neck when I am trying to do flatwork which makes it hard work as I have to concentrate for every single stride. If she is not chomping then she will back off so then I put my leg on and she speeds up, then she chomps and now is trying to get her tongue over the bit too, then when she decides she has no more tricks up her sleeves she has a paddy!!!!
So I asked for canter and I must have given her the wrong aids as she thought I meant humpy humpy!!!! After three attempts I decided to lunge her first. She had quite a buck and hump round before calming down, so I got back on and cantered her round. Then Peter put a pole on the ground at B, just in from the track and I cantered towards it she decided to take it at flat out!!!! By this point I was starting to think that I was never going to get over a fence in one piece! I trotted over it a few times and then cantered again all in a bit more control and we then progressed to three poles in trot and canter on both reins.
I decided to jump on the left rein first as I was getting a better stride to the poles that way and made Peter put the smallest cross pole you have ever seen in your life up. I trotted towards it expecting to be catapulted into next week and she didn't even jump it....just trotted over it!! Obviously it was an insult to her.....
So then Peter gradually increased the size each time I came round and she shortened and lengthened when I asked her and jumped it really well.
We changed the rein to finish and did a smaller one this way as was struggling to just get her right at the poles. This is her worst rein anyway so I did not want to over face her and ruin all our good work or risk her injuring herself. As you can see from the video below we could have been a bit closer to the pole but I just put my leg on and she lengthens and I remember how fantastic she is and how much she loves jumping!!!
My next plans are to see if Richard Barton is at Osbaldeston any time soon and if not we will hire the school with a course of jumps. Once I have practised in private we may do some unaff jumping at Myerscough College. We also plan to hire Somerford and go and have a play over some smaller XC jumps........
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