Sunday was our cross country school, and we had a lesson on what our is our home turf these days. It was myself and one of my #TeamAdultBeverages team members in the lesson- just two yellow ponies doing what they love.

I won’t lie, I came out fairly groggy that morning, despite having gouged 1.5 Matis (seriously- are these available outside of NC? Because if not y’all are missing out!). It took me a little bit to wake up and get my act together, and I felt bad that I was giving my horse such a lackadaisical ride despite jumping over solid fences.

I woke up when my trainer called me out on my loose leg. I have a slightly different feeling in the irons after using the TSR stirrup leathers- but more on that in a different post.

We warmed up over a small series of fences, stringing obstacles together 4-5 at a time. We did finally get to do the training roll top, and a couple other fences we hadn’t done before, but the trainer likes to keep the fences at the level before a big show (which I agree is the best game plan- no need to knock confidence by making things difficult!).

I was glad that we were able to incorporate the half coffin into our XC school, even more so because it showed me the same weakness that had cropped up the day before- running through the right shoulder.

I didn’t have the shoulder, so didn’t have the straightness, and in one attempt completely blew by the ditch because he wasn’t appreciating my ‘somewhat-there’ right rein aid. Telling? Yes, a bit. We also had a super wonky line the day before when he bulged through my right rein and got really crooked into a fence- so this is obviously something I need to work on.

Otherwise, I am mostly disappointed in how active my hands were and how rushed my upper body was. I don’t know why these couple habits have decided to reintroduce themselves- I can only guess that with my rising anxiety of the AECs that my stress is bringing to surface my bad habits. Thus, I have a casual XC schooling planned where we will just do XC elements- ditches, water, banks- to try and calm both Jack and (mostly) my nerves. I’m especially hoping to make ditches less sticky and way more boring. Nothing like putting a ditch on a circle to accomplish that!

Overall though I feel fairly confident in the XC portion of Novice level questions. Time will tell what Kentucky has to offer!