How’d I Do That?

Since I’m supposed to be revising for that exam, I thought I’d post.

The outdoor was basically a mud puddle. I remembered falling off into that wet sand about a year ago… or less… and immediately suppressed the memory. It wasn’t going to happen again.

We were jumping, a double, and then a fence at X. I love doing that, except for the fact that all the horses, not just Rebel, tend to motorbike around the turn after the diagonal jump.

I’ve gotten my mojo back, jumping Reb, as I’ve mentioned. So I wasn’t too worried; we’d done this very same thing last week, and it was great.

Except that Rebel gets a teensy bit dainty when the sand is sucking at his hooves. He expresses this daintiness by being especially bouncy.

Off we went, over the first, and I was preparing for the second, when something happened, and all of a sudden we were going over the fence sooner than I thought we ought to be, and I was just getting into my jumping position — but we were jumping.

Uh. Well. I was thrown that bit too far forward, and wobbled, but I didn’t fall. I didn’t fall, and I sat back, and managed to get him into a canter for the diagonal straight, and everybody was making impressed noises, they seemed to be really loud, for some reason, and we approached the third fence, and Reb seemed to be going faster, and we took the fence, and he did that thing, that thing that he does when he knows the sand is wet and disgusting: he swerved to the left, then quickly to the right —

But I didn’t fall off. And everybody was really loud now, in an affirmative way, and I turned him around, and I don’t know how I didn’t take a tumble.

I guess my balance has finally improved notably. I was, I admit, balancing too much on the reins on the recovery for that last fence, but frankly, if he’s going to mess with me, I’ve got to do what I can to keep in the saddle. Until my balance improves even further.

Barbara said that instead of taking the three strides I expected, he took two and a half, which was why I got caught out. I felt myself shifting all over the place — but I didn’t fall off.

And, I’m hoping, that it was pure instinct, reflex, that sent me back in my seat and around that turn to the fence at X. ‘Cause… I don’t know how I did it, only that I did do it.

I kind of didn’t want to try that again, but I kind of did, but the lesson was over. Bummer.

Not a bummer: sitting on the buses home with a sandy bum. That always makes for an excellent day.