Sea Legs: Engage

It’s been a fantastic week! I got to jump around a horse that was not Frankie for the first time in years, Frankie and I put the jumps up a bit in a lesson, and we made it back in the show ring for the first time since February!

I’ve told you all about sweet Meeko, who is an absolute star that belongs to my good friend at the barn. She’s been super generous about letting me pop on for a hack, and this week I was lucky enough to take him in a lesson. I gotta tell you – as much fun as flatting him is, jumping him is just next level. He is a metronome and beautifully forward; I could keep a light seat and just guide the track, and he took care of the rest.

Honestly I have video of us jumping but I’m too lazy to upload it, so just take my word for it.

And then for the first time in at least 18 months, Francisco and I popped over a solid 3’6″ish jump! He’d been packing me around so perfectly at 3’3″ that we decided to do some grid work and let us both see how putting them up a bit felt. It was nice to be able to focus just on the motion and not think about track/distances/etc.

Honestly? It felt really good. I definitely need some more strength in my core to hold myself in place, I need to work on my angles, I need to step deeper in my lower leg, all sorts of things I need to polish to be proficient at that height. But I feel really confident that I can pull that together.

Even better was how Frankie felt. We assumed that he would be surprised when the last jump went up – previously it was set to around 2’6″ while we worked on other things, and suddenly it was somewhere between 3’6″ and 3’9″. I kicked him into the grid expecting him to hesitate or lurch or have some sort of reaction to seeing a much larger obstacle waiting for him.

What do I ever doubt him? Homeboy popped over it without blinking. You would’ve thought he’s been schooling that height regularly. He was uber casual about it, cantered away the exact same, and didn’t act like anything had changed. All our hard work on strength and adjustability clearly made him feel confident (as a side note, I truly believe he feels stronger and fitter and overall better than he did when we were actually competing at that height, so I’m not surprised that he felt so good over it).

It was just 2 jumps, but it was enough of a test to know that it’s still in there and he still feels good about that job. And while I don’t have video of our trips through the grid with no hands and no stirrups (#SaintFrancis), I do have video of our trips through at height! Head on over to my Instagram to hear me yell “Yes!!!” after surviving. Lots to work on for me, but thrilled with Francisco.

Which brings us to our Saturday show. There is a fantastic show series literally 10 minutes from the barn that has a super extensive prize list, gorgeous rings, and is run beautifully all for a great price. We shipped in for the afternoon to do the open 1m schooling jumpers and figured we would pick 2 out of the 3 classes to get back in the ring.

Spoiler: he was the cutest pony face to ever go around any ring ever. PC – Mosaic Photography

After a quick warmup to make sure we were listening (we were) and awake (we were), we headed in for our jumpoff round. It definitely took a couple jumps for Frankie to realize where he was; you can hear him tap a couple jumps in the first half, and I felt like I was kicking the crap out of him. I think he’s spent so much time slowing down for his lease kid that he genuinely didn’t think he was supposed to open back up. A quick tap with the whip and I could almost see it click in his head. All of a sudden I had my Francisco back and he carried me around beautifully, listening like a pro and helping me out. He won us that class out of 5 or 6 entries!

We opted to not do the power and speed class (I have a deep hatred of that format honestly, it is my least favorite by far) and went in for a speed round, which was the exact same course minus a jumpoff. We didn’t change it up too much except for making one turn a bit more efficient and leaving a stride out in one line. I needed him to help me out when I didn’t quite set him up right to a couple jumps in there, but luckily he was back in Jumper Mode(TM) and was more than happy to take care of me. Francisco ended up winning this smaller class as well out of 3.

I certainly can’t be unhappy with 2 blues for 2 trips, and I certainly couldn’t be more thrilled with how happy, forgiving, and straight up fun Frankie felt. He helped me out in places, he listened and let me help him in places, and I felt 100% confident at every point. The height felt completely doable and (dare I say it) even low to us, so I’m hoping we’ll get to work on polishing up and getting over some bigger fences. Onwards and upwards with the best horse in the whole world!

And of course, this goober will continue to get endless pats and ear rubs no matter what he’s doing. PC – Mosaic Photography

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