Aiken Preparations

The day after tomorrow, Saturday March 6, Team Taco is going to Aiken!  Aiken is a small town in South Carolina that becomes a major center of eventing each winter.  The footing is excellent and there are many places to school and compete.  We went for a week last year and it was such a great experience that we decided to do it again in 2010!  It would be lovely to be able to go for longer, but I do have a job, after all.

We have a packed week planned...

• Saturday: We will arrive in the late afternoon, get Taco settled in his stall at Jumping Branch Farm, and go find the people hotel downtown.
• Sunday: Easy flatwork and hacking.  Amy (our provost) arrives in the afternoon with her homebred mare Flo.
• Monday or Tuesday: Lesson with up-and-coming eventer Jennie Brannigan.  I won this lesson in a benefit auction for CANTER Mid-Atlantic-- thank you Jennie for donating it!!  On the day that is not a lesson with Jennie, we will work on our dressage test.
• Wednesday- Friday Cross Country School, another hacking day, and polishing whatever we need to do (showjumps or dressage), under Amy's supervision.
• Saturday: Dressage and Showjumping at Full Gallop Farm Horse Trials.
• Sunday: Cross Country at Full Gallop Farm!
• Monday: Home again

I am feeling very ready to go, and Taco feels fantastic.  We had a very productive jumping lesson yesterday in which I started to feel like we could jump anything.  Amy kept reminding me of the basics: energy, line, and balance.  The right energy feels like a little bit more than is comfortable, and I have to be extremely careful not to take any away as I approach a jump.   As I create my turns and find my lines to the jumps, it is often helpful to think of a slight counterbend (his outer eyelid just visible if I happened to look down).  As for the balance, I must, must, must keep my body tall until he has taken off!  It is all too easy for me to allow my shoulders to tip forward and my leg to drift back.  When I stay upright and engage my core muscles, things are so much easier for Taco.

That's it-- the rest is Taco's job, and I need to let him do it!  One of the best things about this lesson was that I really started to "get" the division of labor within our partnership.  I can't jump for him-- and throwing my body at him is actually counterproductive (Amy started us out trotting a tallish vertical so that I could feel how he could jump up to my body when I waited for him to).  I can trust that he is able to do his job-- and he is so very good at it.

See you in Aiken!