Green Acres
Schooled the cross country course over at Green Acres with Michelle and her super keen horse, Willie. Kingsbury Hill is Sunday and last night's lesson was rained out, so ... It seems like the course over at Green Acres is always expanding, now it stretches out into the back field up by the far tree line with some pretty interesting jumps: sharks teeth, stout suspended tires, coops, even tables.
We warmed up over some stadium jumps set up on the hill facing the road in the front field, there were a couple of horses grazing in the front field who were clearly accustomed to other horses galloping and jumping around them; they grazed casually while we did our thing. I can't imagine my young horse Keane not wanting to get involved no matter how much grass under his nose. Clover gave a few token almost spooks--hard looks, really--but it was manageable and we got through it quick and started jumping around the course.
Things went well--though I still tend to drop Clover a stride before take off, dammit--until I took a line of fences down a hill to a sharp left hand turn over a hanging log over planters. The first three jumps were fine, the descent down the hill was fine, but the turn was a little too fast--even though it was sunny, it had actually been raining that morning--and the footing was a little slippery on the corner. There was a smaller coop right off the turn before the fence I planned on jumping, and unfortunately, Clover had her eye on that as she slipped and stumbled, while I kept my eye on the hanging log and went over her right shoulder as her body dropped from underneath me and lurched left. I heard myself grunt (oh, man) and landed on my right hip and shoulder on thankfully soft ground--finally, I fall off during the summer, not in the winter on to hard ground!
Clover stopped and waited for me to remount. I should have known better, I knew the ground was going to be slippery in places after the rain, and I should have definitely rebalanced better in the turn and been more aware of the other fence as a distraction. I rode the line again and it went fine.
We schooled the water, where a couple of ducks had taken up residence, like the horses grazing in the field, they could not have cared less about the horses charging through the obstacle, unless the horses got too much into their face. Willie was curious about them and they'd get all peeved and quack and snake their necks at him. We jumped around some more, I conserved Clover more so she'd have some energy for the event on Sunday, and that was pretty much it. I probably could have used some coaching, but I know most of my riding sins so it's pretty much up to me to get it sorted out.
We warmed up over some stadium jumps set up on the hill facing the road in the front field, there were a couple of horses grazing in the front field who were clearly accustomed to other horses galloping and jumping around them; they grazed casually while we did our thing. I can't imagine my young horse Keane not wanting to get involved no matter how much grass under his nose. Clover gave a few token almost spooks--hard looks, really--but it was manageable and we got through it quick and started jumping around the course.
Things went well--though I still tend to drop Clover a stride before take off, dammit--until I took a line of fences down a hill to a sharp left hand turn over a hanging log over planters. The first three jumps were fine, the descent down the hill was fine, but the turn was a little too fast--even though it was sunny, it had actually been raining that morning--and the footing was a little slippery on the corner. There was a smaller coop right off the turn before the fence I planned on jumping, and unfortunately, Clover had her eye on that as she slipped and stumbled, while I kept my eye on the hanging log and went over her right shoulder as her body dropped from underneath me and lurched left. I heard myself grunt (oh, man) and landed on my right hip and shoulder on thankfully soft ground--finally, I fall off during the summer, not in the winter on to hard ground!
Clover stopped and waited for me to remount. I should have known better, I knew the ground was going to be slippery in places after the rain, and I should have definitely rebalanced better in the turn and been more aware of the other fence as a distraction. I rode the line again and it went fine.
We schooled the water, where a couple of ducks had taken up residence, like the horses grazing in the field, they could not have cared less about the horses charging through the obstacle, unless the horses got too much into their face. Willie was curious about them and they'd get all peeved and quack and snake their necks at him. We jumped around some more, I conserved Clover more so she'd have some energy for the event on Sunday, and that was pretty much it. I probably could have used some coaching, but I know most of my riding sins so it's pretty much up to me to get it sorted out.
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