this weekend's horse adventures

I went to a clinic hosted by Ledayrd Farm and taught by Bonnie Mosser. Yesterday we worked over stadium-type jumps, but practices some hard questions. Today we schooled on the cross country course. Skip was, of course, totally made of awesome. I made a few mistakes, once of which resulted in a fall today. As falls go, it wasn't bad, but I expect there will be some bruises. One really awesome thing about this clinician, is that she was able to use my fall as an example of something I was doing right. It was really obvious what I did to cause it:  not enough leg, not enough positive attitude resulted in Skip stopping hard in front of a jump and putting his chest against it with his head down over it just right for me to use his neck as a slide to the jump then the ground on the other side. Skip, thankfully, did not go far and allowed himself to be caught. The good thing: I went *straight* over his neck and head - indicating that I was riding with equal weight in both feet and generally in the middle of him. Hey, riders, this is why we wear helmets. Yes, I did have my body protector on today too, but that won't prevent the bruises on my right wrist and both elbows. Yes, both elbows scraped the jump. In any case, I got back on and did a simpler exercise a few times with pretty good success. I have to say, this is my first fall involving a jump in at least 10 years. All of the others have involved bucking or spooking.... I'm happy with that.