Always a breakthrough.:)

My boss is a great trainer. I took my 2nd lesson on Tiki from her, and it was great. She's totally a hunter trainer, and I want to do jumpers, but she's just so darn good at what she does. I have this vision of Tiki and I SLOWLY cantering a lovely course of jumps with lead changes and good distances, and Janet gave me the tools to do that yesterday. Our homework is to help the boy develop good jumping technique. No, form doesn't matter so much in the jumpers, but it certainly does if it causes rails. She MADE me TROT to the base of the jump. Yeah. I chase him to the base WAY too much. I need to chill, wait, and go SLOWER. I get so caught up in FORWARD, that I just get fast and flat.

We also need to work on getting him supple. His neck is SO stiff.:( I need to work him every single time I get on with unlocking and suppling his neck. Then I need to TROT jumps until I can do it without getting left behind. He jumped everything HUGE, which is not all that normal for him. Got me loose quite a few times. But we finished with a marked improvement in him waiting and rocking back to the jump, and Janet was happy. She says he's very cute:)

Let him rest for a bit, then gave a lesson on him to one of my IEA girls. Whether he just liked her ride, or the footing in the covered, or he retained what he learned, he was GREAT. Trotted quietly to the base of EVERY jump, NEVER got quick before or after, and acutally loped through a gymnastic. He's ALWAYS gone fairly forward thru the gymnastics, so to see him just lope through was awesome!!! Good boy! The distance was very short, too, and he always jumped well. Let her do a 3' oxer at the end; that's the pic at the top of this post. Isn't the muffin man cute?

It is a HORRIBLE day today; so bad I cancelled my afternoon lessons at Patchwork. The wind is gusting to 20 mph, and it is COLD and RAINING. About to go to Joyce's and do stalls; waited until late because all the horses will be in. I think I will go in Tiki's stall and do some neck stretches, though. At least work that neck today.:)