Bleh

So yesterday's ride was nothing short of a clusterf***, and hrgh. Just bad, and entirely my fault. I am in a bit of a rush to get things under way for BoTB this year- hoping to move up to 2'3 with her. Obviously, rushing training does NOTHING but make things more difficult.

See, Bunny has a dirty stop to her. It's generally my fault, i.e. I drop her in front of the fence or am not committed to a distance, but nonetheless she can slam on the brakes. I think HER confidence is a little rattled, and mine has never been 100% so it makes for a less than ideal situation. In my wee little brain, I thought, "Hey! Let's set up a gymnastic and set the final fence to 2'3! Yay!" So I did, not taking into account the fact that a.) Bunny has not been able to open her stride up to 12' yet as she is out of shape, and b.) she had not been over that fence before. So you can imagine how this went- she overjumped it by abooouuuut two feet. I got left, only reinforcing her nervousness. Second time through she tried to run out and I got her with my spur in time, but got left again. Third time, she said "Oh HELL no!" and came to a screeching halt. I stayed on fine, but ugh.

So we went through it the other way without any horrible issues. I lowered it for the rest of the work, and we toddled on merrily without issue. I figured I would take her over the outside single a few times and get it over with, so we trotted up to it, she overjumped, I grabbed mane but still got left. Second time, she hit it, which rattled her. I put it down so it was just the flower box for the third time, which she jumped fine, but the next time I came to it she tried to run at it two strides out then slid to a stop, launching me over her shoulder. Hrgh. I smacked her, jumped back on, and spent the next brief eternity coaxing her over it from a walk. Miserable.