Gia - session 524 - showing at Sedgefield in 2' jumpers

 I took Gia to the Sedgefield Hunter/Jumper show yesterday at the Carolina Horse Park.  I started out lunging her, and she was about the same as she usually is at shows - a bit distracted at first, but eventually more focused on me.

When we walked up to warm up, she was nervous but moving forward.  She was very tight and tense in the flat part of our warm up, so I just kept asking softly for what I wanted, and gave big releases when she gave it.  Unfortunately, that did not work as well this time.  She continued to be tense for most of it.  When she felt more relaxed, I jumped a little.  Some of the jumps were good, but some were not.  There was a lot of bucking and kicking out after the bad ones.  I would pull her up quickly each time, so it didn't get too far out of control.  I did come to realize that she was worse if we were jumping towards the trailer, so I tried to do more of the jumping away from the direction of the trailer.  That was only slightly better.

With no time left to warm up, we had to head to the show ring for our classes.  I knew it wasn't going to go well, so my goal was just to school and hope that things improved.  They did not.

We were entered in three classes at the 2' height, and all the classes used the same course.  On the first course, she stopped at the second jump, which I kind of felt coming, but with the way she had been behaving, I decided not to push to hard to get it.  I did whack her pretty hard with the whip when she stopped though, to let her know that was not acceptable.  Then we came around and took it again, this time going over it with only a little hesitation.  There were no other stops, or hesitations, at any of the fences, but she bucked or kicked out after almost every single jump.  Sometimes, she would buck before the jump too.  I was really getting the opportunity to work on how far back I can sit on a horse though!  At one point, I felt her tail hit my helmet.  A little later, I felt her tail come up over my helmet and slap me in the face.  At another point, I'm pretty sure I felt my back hit her rump.  

On our last course, I decided I would end the jump round as soon as I got a jump that was fairly well behaved.  I finally did.  After jump 9B, with only jump 10 to go.  I brought her to a walk, signaled to the judge I was done, and walked out on a fairly loose rein.  

I have no idea why she was so naughty, but we will definitely be working on that in future rides!