A Leap of Faith.

So for the past couple of weeks, every time I go in the arena, I stare at the 18" xrails set up. I watch kids on their ponies jump them. I watch the teenagers on their horses/large ponies jump them. I looked at them long and hard, and they looked huge. It didn't make sense to me - I've jumped 18" jumps before. Verticals, not just x-rails. But I just doubted myself.

Today, we had a good ride. It was freaking humid and we both sweated buckets. Walk, trot, some light canter, and then I couldn't help myself. I trotted her over a rail. I got scared right before it, and started to hold her back, but I sucked it up and pushed her on. Because she was almost stopped, we kind of hopped over it awkwardly, but it was all I needed. There were 2 set up in a line on the side, one on the other side, and we jumped around, trot and canter, for a couple of minutes. I didn't want to over-do it, but she was pretty happy about it. She was tired because it was the end of the ride, but her ears were forward and she was happy to be jumping.

She's pretty comfortable right now. She has some "ouch" moments, but letting her have her head is the key to her comfort. If she stays at a point where she isn't really using her topline to the fullest, but not hollowing out her back either, she moves well and without pain.

We won't be doing any more jumping until after the chiropractor's visit. Going back to working on our transitions. Her trot/canter transition is getting pretty nice. She's not running into it as bad. Walk/trot isn't pretty. She's sluggish in her walk and I have to boot her pretty good to get her awake for a clean trot transition. The trot is more difficult for her than the canter. She never has any ouch moments in canter.

She's starting to square off her toes again. That pisses me off, but she is doing it mostly in the pasture and I can't help that. The footing is soft enough that I know it's not dragging it off. At Halcyon, she didn't go out long enough to drag off much hoof, but now she is out 24/7. Toe dragging is a symptom of back/pelvic pain, of course, so I'm hoping the chiropractor's work will cure that too.

For the next week or so, we will just keep exercising her and keep being cautious about the work level.

Did I mention, during our jumping, I stayed out of her face for once? I let her pick her own pace. She didn't rush them at all.