Yesterday we ventured to the Meadows of Moorpark eventing facility for a schooling, and it was quite a wonderful afternoon adventure. Spirit started off a little full of herself - she did not want to stand quietly at the trailer and really felt that galloping was the appropriate warm-up gait. But after a stricter-than-normal warm-up followed by a few jumps, we settled into our groove and got down to business.
The Meadows had a nice selection of Beginner Novice and Novice fences for us to play over. We worked on successfully balancing while going downhill to a jump, spent quite a few minutes on mine and Spirit's bogey - down banks - and did quite well. We even threw in a nice sized ditch, some water, and a jump that is basically a huge box that you jump through with a Meadows sign at the top! We're so pro!
Spirit was fabulous (her new middle name) and seemed to not only enjoy herself immensely, but was very mature and had a down-to-business attitude. She stood quietly while we waiting for Storm and Jessica to take their turns, and she cracked her back over a few of the jumps. I had a few light bulb moments: slowing her feet down before the jump (we were getting a little scuttley), focusing on my positioning and letting her have her head for the down banks (talk about working on TRUST!), and really absorbing the feeling of having her up in front of me, but then still pushing her toward the jump. All in all it was a fabulous schooling and I can't wait for the HT at the Meadows next month!
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