Grays road today already has some grids set up, so I took advantage of that and did some practise without reins (as I have been meaning to do - but so far have only been doing on the flat and not over fences). Xev was great and mostly we could corner effectively without the reins too - not perfect, but pretty good. I do notice through the grid I am looking down in the pictures though! There is always more and more things to fix when it comes to riding!
Xev was jumping really well, good big bold jumps and no chipping in which was really great to see. I must say, she looked a bit untrusting when I took the saddle off though...
And then got straight back on her to do a little bit of bareback riding. I do a bit of flatwork on her - still have a bit of trouble with the downward transitions at times (if I get them wrong then her wither can be very unforgiving!)
But today was my first time jumping her without a saddle. I am a huge wimp, so kept her to the very low fences (not quite ready to hit a 1m class like with silly Neo!). I found I got a bit loose in my position on landing a couple of times. Perhaps that is because I'm not really looking where I'm going?
Was a fun ride though - good to get out somewhere and do a bit of jumping. And while it was pouring down half the time, the other half was quite sunny and nice. Thanks to Swifty for coming out to take the pictures, and thanks to Xev for loading and travelling perfectly for my first towing experience.
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