Centered in the Saddle

I almost titled this post “Best Course Ever” but then I figured that it wouldn’t be our best ever – just the best one so far. The jumps were set from about 2’6″-2’9″ or so. Maybe a 2’3″ in there. And it was awesome.

Other than the fact that he knocked the first rail down, it was pretty fabulous. Also: He gave me three – count ’em – THREE flying lead changes when I asked. That’s three more than we’ve ever done (on purpose at least).

He was super steady and forward but extremely responsive to me throughout the whole thing. I felt our striding and distances were almost uniformly excellent. It was like everything we’ve been working on finally, finally clicked together at once.

And it was SO. MUCH. FUN.

Thinking back, it’s been less than a year since we took our first jump together. It was only in October that we really started jumping in earnest, and we’ve been stuck in the indoor almost since then. I’m amazed by the progress we’ve made in just six months (I’m not counting December because I was basically gone the whole month).

And now we’re going to our first show together this weekend! I’m very hopeful that we can hang on to this kind of ride through the weekend; he’s pretty level-headed so hopefully he won’t be too distracted by the atmosphere of a show. And if I can keep my head on straight, and ride like this – counting strides, finding distances, riding every stride but not overdoing it – well, I think we’ll have quite a fun weekend.

Plus, he’s going to look darn cute with braids…even though there’ll probably be about a hundred of them with that thick mane.