It was a gorgeous early fall day, so I asked my trainer if she had time to school me on Lily. After some flat work, which went well, we once more tackled the problem of trying to keep me from falling back as Lily jumped small jumps.
I’ve been here and done this on other horses, without a problem, so it has been a bit baffling why I have been so stuck on this. I’ve had a longish hiatus from real jumping, so I thought that might be part of the problem. For a while, we blamed it on me using a dressage saddle, even though I have successfully jumped in dressage saddles in the past. And I seem to have found a combination of pad and jumping saddle that make Lily happy at the present. It just has been one of those minor things that was starting to drive me crazy.
We started the cross rails and I was better that I had been several months ago, but not as good as I should be. My trainer told me she thought I was jumping in anticipation, and that I should just wait. This was hard. The two horses (Hap and Havoc) that I have jumped the most both move up slightly during the last stride or so to the jump. Lily doesn’t. She just smoothly takes it in stride, without changing her pace at all. She seems to be a born hunter, since this is the style that hunter judges like to see.
While I was waiting for her to jump, and not busy doing anything, I realized something very strange. On both Hap and Havoc, I can feel them gather themselves and prepare to jump, even when it is a small jump. I can’t feel anything from Lily. I think so much of my uncertainty with her is that, missing those unconscious cues, I didn’t feel certain she would jump, so I was trying to help her along. This made me stiffen on the backside of the jump so I fell backward slightly.
Presumably, as the jumps get higher, I will start to feel her make an effort, but until then, it seems as though all I have to do is wait quietly and just trust her to do her job.
A long time ago, before she was my trainer, the friend who was schooling me as a favor told me something I have never forgotten. “You are responsible for getting the horse to the jump. After that, there is nothing else you can do to make the horse jump. It is out of your control.”
That is a hell of a thing to tell a control freak.