Last week I booked myself in for another jumping lesson as it has been a while since I had one. This was my third lesson with this guy and I really enjoy them. The lesson was in the same format as our first lesson were we started with poles then canter poles in to a jump, then adding more jumps to eventually make a course at the end. I think the end course had one jump at about a meter and the rest about 90 ish.

I was slightly stuffy from my cold but otherwise fine. Unfortunately unlike my other instructor this instructor doesn’t have a mic and ear piece. To be honest I really fecking needed it!

Anyone else had a lesson while being deaf in one ear? Or is it just me?

I felt sorry for the guy!! I didn’t even realise my hearing had gone in that ear until after he said hello and I just stared at him expectantly.

During the lesson we had a little bit of trouble locking on to some of the jumps. When coming up to a jump with four strides to the next one, instead of coming over the first one and locking on for the next one right in front of us. We do a wobbly line vaguely in the direction of the next one and then realise there is a jump and awkwardly jump it. It got better during the lesson but Eva is a hard horse to keep her mind concentrating sometimes.

It was a tough lesson as there was a lot of canter work involved and it comes down to our main issue at the moment which is the fact that we really need to be fitter – both of us. She is certainly a capable horse but sometimes doesn’t clock the striding, rather than take off early she is more likely to squeeze in a extra stride and the cheeky mare the majority of the time will still clear it. I need to teach her to think for herself more and I definitely feel like we need more lessons like this to improve our jumping.

I don’t think Eva was very pleased at having to work hard…

Homework : Canter work, canter work, canter work….We have a lot to work on in our canter.