Lesson Recap

Eli’s follow-up visit with the chiropractor last Wednesday went well, and I took off work to meet the chiropractor/vet. The doctor, thankfully, had a good sense of humor about Eli’s attitude and was able to work on him without sedation again. We joked that although Eli hates him, this visit he hates him less than the time before. Eli will have regularly scheduled adjustments in the future.

Since these initial adjustments, Eli’s left to right lead change has been pretty solid. Still some drama, but I can get one without too much effort & fuss. This played out in our lesson Saturday, and my trainer was thrilled with this development. Eli played hard after every fence–no more derby horse imitation–maybe he just felt really good with his bones back in place?–but he zeroed in on every jump two to three strides out, so I didn’t really care about the in between antics–I just have to steer a little more forcefully with my leg.

After we warmed up, trainer raised the jumps a few holes and set me on some courses.

I kind of hope the jumps get moved again soon, because there is not a lot of room for variety with the way they are set now. The turn from 5 to 6 was particularly challenging, though, because Eli played really hard and didn’t quite see the skinny until we were really close, and we wound up taking a super chippy step and bunny hopping over it. But Eli jumped 7 fantastically, so I guess he thought our effort at 6 was as funny as our spectators thought it was (everybody laughed, including me and my trainer).

I looked a bit late for the first rollback in the next course, but looked early for the next rollback, which helped Eli to land on the correct lead and balance up a bit better.

The courses we worked on weren’t particularly long–my lesson was a little later than usual and it was getting pretty hot. My trainer praised me for finding every fence and riding through Eli being so playful. He expended so much energy in between the jumps, but I was glad he still gave a good effort at every fence once we got there. Ideally, he’d conserve energy in between the fences, but handiness has never been at the top of Eli’s list of advantages, so I know to expect his commentary. He was jumping the single oxer going away especially well each time. The trade off is worth it.

Another note of praise for Lo-Ride breeches–I wore them during my lesson and they were completely dry after. In morning humidity. In Texas. In August. With all the sun. And 90-something degrees.

Breeches dry as a bone. Shirt soaked through. These really are high performance, sport-oriented breeches–don’t let the traditional look fool you.

I also crafted over the weekend. Yes, me. I crafted. But it was the easiest craft project ever–making elastic hair ties. Buy spool of elastic ribbon, cut into 10 inch strips, knot ends. Done.

Eli got the day off and a bath on Sunday. He really enjoyed having his mane scrubbed, which I hadn’t noticed before.

Scrubbing the tail, not so much. I also had Nutella-filled cupcakes from HEB, a local grocery chain that always has an amazing bakery, among other things.

If you are looking to destroy your pancreas and crash into a sugar coma for a few hours, have a Nutella cupcake.

Maybe next weekend I’ll remember to beg a barn minion to film my lesson!