Two Days, Two Spills.

On Thursday I had Fiance up on Ashley to hold Nine while I get on. It went well up until I asked Nine to move his hindquarters over so we could move out, then Nine started bucking. My fiance says I stayed on really well until he started spinning. But I made it about 5 seconds! Not bad, if I do say so myself. I wasn't hurt badly; My wrist hurt and I now have two bruises on my legs, but I'm fine. I got back on and had Fiance pony Nine around for about 7 minutes; that's all I could do because I started feeling the nerves. An airplane flew over head, which didn't bother Nine at all, but it made me feel like I would throw up, gah. So I got off, stumbled to the fence and sat down until I stopped shaking... Then I went and sat on Hammar and cried (I have no idea why that hit me that hard and so long after I had been thrown) while Fiance worked with Nine, sacking him out and all that.

Then, yesterday (Friday) my friend came over to get some more pictures taken for her Senior Pictures. We had daylight left over, so I saddled Hammar up in his English tack and took him over some jumps. Casie was crouching next to the bigger jump to get a shot while Hammar was air born, but evidently Hammar wasn't expecting it, he swerved to the side, and I fell off. Again, I was okay - I had dirt in my breeches, my hand is scraped up and my pinky finger was hurting... Luckily I was wearing my helmet, because my head did hit the ground fairly hard. But I didn't even have a headache later. I was also wearing the helmet on Nine but I didn't hit my head that time. Anyways, I got back on Hammar, walked him back and forth around the jump so he could see Casie and knew she was there, then he tried again. He did the jump, but the pictures we took came out pretty blurry...

The idea was to get some pictures of us jumping so I can have my position evaluated - I'm taking a Hunt Seat Equitation class at the horse show next month. So I guess I'll post them here and anyone who sees them can give some input. We have some decent ones of Takeoff, Airborn, and Landing. Sorry some are blurry! We'll try to figure out how to do it right by the time the show rolls around.

Takeoff on the smaller jump (I know my hands need to come forward; I have this problem on small jumps apparently):


REALLY blurry Airborn over smaller jump - again my hands should be more forward, but hey:


Takeoff on larger jump:


Landing from larger jump (yes, Hammar over did it, he gets very enthusiastic; and yes, that's my daughter on the mounting block in the background):


So there it is. Let me know what you think!