Over the Moon

[Deleted]

    Cora watched each of her students take the course, pleased with what she saw. They were a talented bunch, all experienced, and she was looking forward to their class for the rest of the year. Once the riders had finished and had returned to the rail, trotting, Cora, spoke up, "Very good! I'm pleased with how all of you handled that. For those of you with forward horses, I'm impressed with how you held them back, not allowed them to rush. That is extremely important, and I want for all of you to remember that though this is a show jumping class, I want for all of you to set your horse up properly to a fence rather than letting him or her rush. I've seen far too many riders make mistakes on course because they're bolting around the ring. You'll all notice that the most successful riders keep their horses in hand and on their hind end, rather than rushing around. Today, I want for all of you to ignore the time factor of show jumping and focus on setting your horses up. I promise that we'll focus on ways to cut down your times in later classes." She'd found that many of her young students focused on speed way too much, throwing away the basics, and she wouldn't let any of her students do the same.



    "Now, I'd like for all of you to line up on the rail at A behind Rose. We're going to run through a longer course one at a time now." Cora walked Fin up to stand before her students as she explained the course (linked in first post). "I'm going to run through the course first, and then you can start. Feel free to circle before the first jump." 

    Picking up the trot in a circle, Cora cantered Fin before the first jumps. As she rode, she spoke, "Now, I'd like for you to stay on the rail after the first jump, turning  after it to make a direct, centered line to the second. After the second, return to the rail until you turn to the third. We'll talk about safely taking shortcuts in a future class." She went without speaking for the rest of the course, letting their demonstration do the talking, and hoping that her students would take her advice and use as much of the ring as possible, as she had done. After finishing, she gave Fin a pat and returned to her students. "Okay Rose, go ahead and begin."
    

[Rose Hoff]

    Rose stopped at A, as instructed, and once Ms. Addison finished, she picked up the trot and circled Eleanor before asking the mare for the canter. Eleanor immediately leaped into it, already strong, but Rose knew that it could falter in an instant if the mare grew nervous. Keeping her hands collected to the bit and lower leg solid, they popped over the first jump, which wasn't an issue, since they'd already jumped it. The following oxer went just as well, and Rose cantered Eleanor to the rail, staying there until she turned to the third jump. 

    As she set Eleanor up, Rose felt the mare falter as they were four strides away. Settling into her full seat position from her hunt seat, Rose sat deep and pushed the mare, asking her to gather herself, and pushed her into the bit, giving her no choice in the matter. Eleanor was strong, but still eyed the spooky jump nervously, and Rose half-halted before holding her to the base of the jump, popping over it and giving Eleanor her head only after she'd taken off. They progressed through the rest of the course without too much issue, though Rose was very cautious with Eleanor and kept her collected and in hand the whole time so that she didn't question any of the jumps.     

[Stefan Eder]

Stefan smiled at the woman's praise, patting Lupus' neck slightly in thanks for being a good sport about working together. Sure, they didn't present quite the same picture, but they were doing okay, and only time would bring them to the comfort and silent communication that the other riders enjoyed.

Once they were given their next task, Stefan watched the teacher and her dark bay mount, trying to memorize the order they would be going in, although he was still happy about not having to lead them, because he couldn't have quite yet. Once Ms. Addison had finished the round and had invited them to begin, Stefan held Lupus back again, waiting for a long enough space between him and the rider ahead before circling once and then pointing the bay at the first jump.

They made it through without too many issues, although Stefan was aware that he had failed to set Lupus up properly in some cases, where her leggy stride had simply gotten the best of his judgment, and he'd had to drop planning to rather 'survive' the jumps, as it were. After he had managed to rein her in, he frowned, shaking his head slightly as he looked over the course, realizing that he would have to plan much more than he was used to with this horse.