10/16/13 A Pole Too Much

Well, Three poles too much, to be specific about it.  I warmed Harley up on the longe, quiet as always.  even in a cooler weather and a breeze.. amazing   I hopped on, and tried not to fall balanced carefully worked on two-point in walk and trot with my new shorter stirrups.  It's going to take some time.  felt like a jockey, I'm tellin' ya.

R came to watch help assist supervise dial 9-1-1 and cheer me on.  First, a walk over all the poles on the ground (9' apart, 5 total).  All quiet.  Then, a trot over.  I giggled when R said, "He started out lethargic, but by the end, he was prancing over them.  How fun."

With the first X set up.  (Reminder.. that's a ground pole, 9' to the X, 9' to another ground pole, then an X pulled down 9' away as ground poles, and one more ground pole 9')  I approached it at a nice trot.  Harley trotted over the first pole, jumped over the X, and cantered over the rest of them, rushed like.  It felt raced, hurried, and incredibly uncoordinated. 

This repeated every other time I went over it, except for one attempt that was a lazy trot through the whole mess of it.  I was worried the distances weren't right -- maybe I didn't pay attention in the lesson.  Was Harley just fresh in the cooler weather?  He usually isn't. 

I emailed MsN and asked.  Oops.. I over-did it.  Turns out, the last two poles (the first, the X makings, the second a pole alone) are too much at once.  "Set up the first ground pole, the X, and a second ground pole, all 9' apart."  A few more instructions about how to approach it, and how to plan for the away from the X.  All completely reasonable, and made logical sense. 

Sorry Harley.. I got a little ahead of us, son.  I'll make it up to you Friday perhaps.  Tonight, we need some dressage miles for the show on Saturday.  I will not ride the tests tonight, so we don't pick up habits.  I will, however, ride the pieces I'm the most concerned about.