When In Doubt

I started work again this past Wednesday, so I'm going to make this quick because I'm SUPER tired...

Today at work our assistant trainer (AT) was telling a story about one of the clients lessons earlier in the morning. The AT was talking about the progress the client had made, because when she gets nervous or doesn't see a distance, she gets round with her shoulders and leans at her horse, which always makes the jump uglier. AT had worked with her this morning, getting her to sit up when she was nervous instead of collapsing forward. "When in doubt," the AT said, "just sit still."

I put this into practice today with Johnny. We were cantering some low 2'3" jumps out in the field. One time we came to the jump and were about 4 strides out and I wasn't sure how the distance was going to come up. The AT's words rang in my ears, "Just sit still." And that's exactly what I did. Wouldn't you know that our distance came up perfectly? It was there all along, I was just riding too far ahead to see it. This seems to be the secret with Johnny...just sit still! We didn't miss a single distance all day!

More tomorrow

Peace.Love.Ponies.