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REBEL HAS THEM And he wasn’t nearly as excited as I would have been. Plus: pedicure! Ah, well, he’s no metrosexual — despite being a gelding and all.
BECAUSE IT FEELS BETTER The last few jumps on Thursday were over an oxer. I seek to use the correct terms, and I suppose an oxer is an oxer is an oxer, but this was, maybe, if I was pushing it, eighteen inches wide. [There had been some sort of crazy series of fences set up, and the first two were too close together to be a bounce, so it had to be an oxer, and it was DEEP.]
Anyway, we took it in the trot, and it was mostly kind of lacklustre, until the last one: I stopped thinking, and we made a good run for it, and I felt it, perfectly, I folded and rose with Rebel, as he powerfully rose up over the poles, I felt myself meet him, perfectly, and land, perfectly, together.
Over the fence, I was unthinkingly aware, in the instant, of everything being right, of my arms moving up just so, of my hands staying steady, of my shoulders going forward, of the feeling that the two of us were in perfect harmony, that I knew it looked right, because it felt right. I didn’t need the ‘Goooood!’ hollered from the ground, but it was lovely to hear, all the same.
Thing are much better in the jumping department. The thing is, I’m back to not thinking about it again. I’m convinced that I had been doing so badly for the previous six months because I had been thinking about it so much. But I suppose I had to think about it to be able to, eventually, forget about it. If I hadn’t been thinking about it, all the bits of it — the legs, the position, my hands — then I wouldn’t be able to not think about it, which I am doing now. Meaning that now my body just knows things. And even if I am coming up the long side, looking at the fence, and in my head I’m reminding myself to keep my leg on and not grab with my knees, for example, the awareness of the need to adjust doesn’t come from my brain. And if there’s a running monologue, it’s in my body; my body’s awareness is reminding me to look up, to wait, wait, wait, fold, and sit up. I’m able to forget about all of it because the processing is shared out evenly between my mind and my body, and this essentially allows me to get out of my own way.
Oh, you know what I mean…
Last Tuesday was great. Perfectly sunny, perfect blue sky, and we went up to the upper arena to jump.
I had Amigo, and I think he likes it up there. I sure do. It’s the perfect balance between being outside and being up in the mountains. I’m still a bit leery of the highest hill, and suppose at some stage will be back up it, but for now, the upper arena is an excellent compromise.
You can see for miles. You can see the miles and miles away to where I live. The whole of Dublin Bay is below, and you can see out over the Irish Sea. The hills flow down to the water — it feels as though the entire east coast of Ireland is at your feet. You jump and jump, and stop, and look out, and being up on the back of a horse makes it all the more glorious.
We got some good jumps in, too, I’m feeling Amigo’s approach better, and only fell behind on one fence. He seemed less… unsure of the fences, maybe it’s all that air and space. Once I could kind of forget about him, and what I thought he was gonna do or not do, I just let him do it, and we went really well…
But then came the pony parade…
So, at one stage, whilst waiting to have another go at the fences, we all noticed that a bunch of ponies had… run out of the lean to, or something? and were pelting up the big hill. Flynn was tacked — didn’t care, he went and followed all his friends to freedom.
Ha, ha, so cute, look at them go.
And then we were done, and were about to leave the upper arena… Read the rest of this entry »
People have asked me for more information about the belly button thing, and the thing about the belly button thing is that I did it twice, maybe, and then I lost it.
But that’s just par for the course, isn’t it? Read the rest of this entry »
