FOMTD

Every equestrian knows FOMTD...fear of missing the distance.  It's that crippling anxiety as you canter up to a jump and can't see anything and internally pray for Jesus to take the reins.  Or there might be some external expletives in the form of "Oh shit" or "We're gonna die". Or maybe it's all just me.

Happy even cantering baby fences

In my past two lessons I've had major FOMTD.  I either can't see a distance and circle, or lock my elbows, raise my hands, and make my saint of horse wait till forever to get to the jump. The plus side is my horse IS a saint, and will happily wait to jump the fence until we are on top of it. And, when I do decide that we can do a forward stride and go for the extra, extra long spot he happily says "You crazy lady" and adds the short one so we don't take off a mile from the fence. Thanks Peebs, you're the best!

Hover mode activated!

It just so happens that a semi-local barn is having a clinic with Katie Frank, a h/j trainer, judge, and sports psychologist who specializes in helping riders overcome their fears this week and we managed to snag a spot Friday and Saturday.   Can you say awesome timing or what?!? We'll have a private lesson both days and I'm really hoping to get some good help and tips out of it.

Taking a step back to move forward

In  my lesson on Thursday I was having a hard time finding distances, and getting Buddy in front of my leg.  Jen had me focus on pumping my arms like a little kid to relax my elbows and encourage Bud to come forward.  We also went back and did a mini course of canter poles, working on moving him forward and then collecting. 

At first I was pretty upset that I'd been downgraded to just poles, but it's a lot harder to find distances to the poles than it in to the jumps!  Bud (an most horses) don't really care about ground poles so he was ambivalent about moving forward or collecting when I asked him to.  I really had to get after him, and we ended up hand galloping some of the poles then stopping after to get him to listen.  Once we went back to the jumps it was so much easier.

Again, I focused on relaxing and being fluid with  my elbows.  We then moved on to a little course and it was so much better than when we started.  Bud was tired, but willing and Jen even set some of the fences up a few holes for our final run thru.  We also talked and confirmed that we're going to our last schooling show for the season, Nov 17th.  We'll do the 2'6" pre adult hunter and the mini medal.  Can't wait!