Falling Off (and lots of pictures)

I had a lesson with Spencer on Thursday and Saturday, but don't remember much about Thursday. It wasn't super good, he ran out a couple times. A few were understandable since he hadn't seen either the yellow/white plank or the tree jump.

The Saturday lesson was some what better though. It was combined with another ladies dressage lesson though, which was kind of pain in the ass.
He's starting to have problems picking up the canter, mostly because he doesn't want too. Not for any 'real' reason. He's owner is a beginner and she doesn't canter on her own and it was only last week that she cantered him for the first time in a lesson, so he likes this just trotting around business because it's less work. So now when I want him to do real work, he keeps trying to trot faster.

He was slightly better for jumping than on Thursday, once he finally started cantering and we were able to build up a bit of a gallop he did great! And then the yellow/white plank jump got raised up a bit, like two holes or something like that, and it was just the end of the world for him! Usually you can tell when he's about to run out but he was really dirty about it this time and at the very last second, dropped his head and swerved left. There was no staying on after that! This is the jump:


only it was a bit bigger and we were coming at it from the opposite direction. So I got the top of the standard right in the ribs and lower back/hips on the plank, scraped arm and smacked the back of my head on the ground. So that was a treat. It's the only fall I ever remember really, really hurting. Anyway, she dropped the plank down and we came back to it and made it over. Part of it was that we'd been galloping the rest of the course and he'd done so well, even over the tree jump
, so rather than sitting back to it and holding (the arena is also on a very slight downward slope which might have been a bit of a problem too) I'd stayed a bit out of the saddle as I'd done for the rest of the course. He probably still would have run out even if I had sat back but at least I might have been able to stay on!
 That's Roxy, who refused to look at the camera no matter what!
Kokanee! He actually came over to the fence but right when I was about to get a super cute picture Percy came over and chased him off.
Spencer! Finally got a picture off him!

 My wonderful bruise, pretty gross looking and it hurts like hell.



I rode my friends mare for her yesterday and she was sooo good. We did a few 'jumps' they were like a foot high so you can't really call them jumps, and she was great, but she still tucks her head behind the bit which is somewhat concerning when you are approaching a jump, even if it is only a foot high. Because her horse is super calm and pretty much bomb proof we wandered around the property to cool out. We can't use the back fields like we used to because the geldings can go back there since it connects to their pen when the gate is open. So we wandered around by the pond and behind the paths behind the mares pens. It was actually kind of fun even if it was also a really lame excuse for a trail ride.