Flying Without Wings

Cliche I know.

But it's true.  I like to look back retrospectively and I found myself thinking about the few times I've jumped.  It's on my bucket list to get another jumper, but seeing as how my current horse has had a good ligament injury, hock arthritis, and a sprain/strain/fracture in the hind end in the past few years, it's safe to say that anything over cavaletti is probably off the list.

So interjection over.

I wrote the other week on how I accidentally jumped Alex over the log wall.  I suppose that was probably one of the first times I jumped.  I'm trying to remember.  I think I had rednecked it before that with a bamboo pole and some buckets, but nothing seriously.

While in college, I had the chance to take a riding course.  Part of the course was an introduction to fences.  Cool, right?

Well, I rode a half Arabian mare which was right up my alley.  Only part not up the alley was the fact she'd never been over fences.  Our jumping was often more of a skitter, plunge and go through the obstacle rather than over.  In my own world, I would have just let her go through a jump chute or something on her own without the WTF frog human on her back to figure out how to do her job since clearly, I wasn't going to assist her in it.  She was also a horse that preferred to canter over a jump.  When my professor was inside giving a final exam to other students, I finally just let her canter over some jumps outside and we got something more respectable like this.

The human aspect of it still sucks, but hey, I was kind of used to trying to hit the poles or more often than not, stopping and stag leaping.  I realize now that it probably would have helped if I didn't have an incessant problem of looking at the ground.  I still have that problem.  

Along the same vein, I have (had?) an awesome friend/mentor/etc kind of person that suggested I play hooky one nice day to go ride.  I was a good student and I think I can count the number of times I can skip class then...on one hand.

But no regrets.

This horse is a saint.  Ask anyone.  What a good first horse to jump cross country on.  

Then during finals week, this was an appropriate way to study.  I had a riding final right?

Best finals week ever.

And a great memory.  I hope at some point that jumping can be more than a memory.  I certainly appreciate the technical side of dressage and have realized that fixing my posture, lack of core strength, bad habits (looking down anyone) and so forth is so critical to my success as a rider, but there is something to be said about the sheer enthusiasm and skill it takes to navigate fences.  All I even did were baby ones and I still appreciate it more than ever.

So who knows.  Maybe the little feral filly will take a fence or two.  :)

At a month old: "I'm not sure about those stripes."