Jumping, Cross Country, Trying to do Dressage.....

First, I would like to start out with a disclaimer: I am not a dressage rider, I do not think I am a dressage rider, in no way, shape or form do I think I am good at this.

Since Monica gave me an awesome dressage lesson just yesterday I will talk about my epic dressage failing before I go into the fun stuff (jumping, obviously).  Basically, the entire ride sounded like this:
Monica: "Jackie did you feel that! He just gave to the bit, that's awesome!"
Monica: "Okay, not that, but right before that, yeah not anymore, now he's tense"
*insert Yankee angry here*
Monica: "It's fine, he's hard to do this with, just drop your inside rein"
Jackie: "Drop it?!"
Monica: "He will relax, I promise"
*insert me dropping my rein, expecting death*
*insert Yankee dropping head here*
Jackie: "oh."

As you can tell, I'm not well versed in dressage. We did a great counter bending exercise first to help Yanks get the correct bend, and surprisingly enough, it worked. One second, Dressage made sense, I was a dressage GENIUS, and two seconds later, I was a dressage idiot. It's going to take time, I know that, but I hate, ABSOLUTELY HATE, being bad at something. That would be why I stuck with jumpers, it's easy for me. I do things instinctually, it just comes naturally to me, and it feels right. Dressage is hard for me.
Don't get me wrong my few fabulous followers, I am trying and I will figure it out, but until then, listen to me bitch.
So, after our warmup, which looked like this:

(turn on the forehand)

(some pretty decent trot)

We moved onto just running through an entire test. I know for me, things don't click until I see the big picture. I could have a nice trot all day on the rail, but actually having it through transitions and circles and corners was a different story.

Here is a quick overview of the test (Training level test A) in pictures, you're welcome.

Trotting a circle.....

Trotting some more. 

Circling, again... (sorry, trot seems to be our best gait....maybe after walk, we walk like a boss)

Extending kind of, Monica taught me her trick after, must try this, must. 

Free walk!

Canter circle, yay!

Yankee getting mad at me... (this was after I improperly asked him to extend at the canter)

Actually mad...

Calm again...

THE BEST HALT IN THE HISTORY OF ALL YANKEE HALTS.

Yep. That was it, pretty ridiculous. Mostly I need to work on just being calm, accepting that it won't be perfect every time and feeling his changes. He is a hard dressage horse, Monica can tell you that, in the words of Claudia, "He's great at faking it, he's a mother-faker."

Okay, now that you've seen me epically FAIL at dressage, here's some happy jumping pictures to make your day a little brighter.

I'll have to let my few lovely followers watch the video of me just running around the arena taking every jump, it's fun. 

Game face bro... game face. 

So... much...water....

Just you know, cantering sideways, nbd. 

I really don't understand why I do things..

My favorite, my leg looks so nice, for me that is.

Please note the flying spurs, I took them out with my foot, but kept the jump up. 

Tandem jump with Monica and Pronto. 

So fast...

I really love him, he' so cute, and he looooovveeessss the Hackamore. 

KNEEEEEESZFAROGUAREOGBJVWA{I#R){

omg, knees. 

 And there we are, just being sexual in a field. Anyway, happy tuesday. :D

Watchu know about me?!

Oh man, I'm awkward.
Well hey there nobody, welcome to my life! I figured I would take a stab at this blogging thing considering I have endless amounts of bullshit that I can spin.

Yeah, that's about right, there I am in all of my awkward glory. No, but seriously..

This would be me. My names Jackie and as of right now, I'm living in Columbia, Missouri (studying Animal Sciences at Mizzou). My family lives in Washington DC and that's where I spend some of my year (mostly school breaks and a week or two here and there) but generally, I just hang out in good old Missouri.
About five years ago, my dad was transferred from beautiful upstate New York to Saint Louis, Missouri where I was forced into the worst high school I could have imagined. Not only was I a senior, starting over in a new school, but there were about 600 other kids in my class, all driving fucking mercedes. Seriously?! So here comes Jackie (circa 2007) driving up in her 1996 toyota. Yep, that seems accurate.
Before New York I was in Virginia, and before that, Illinois. Needless to say, I travel a lot. I love new places and experiences and I plan on constantly moving if I can (hence wayward...).

Now for the equestrian part. I've been riding since I was five. I ADORE jumping, but I've done a little of everything..
When I was little, I started riding western on some adorable Fjord horses until finally I told my parents I wanted to jump stuff. My mom was freaking out, didn't want me to do it so my dad went ahead and signed me up for lessons. My first instructor was without a doubt, the best imaginable. She was uptight, tense and crazy. I loved her. I don't have any pictures, since they are all hard copy- family is always moving, somehow we lose shit.
I showed a beautiful gray stallion for most of my New York career- he was fabulous. We used to show in high jumpers (4'3-4'6) and we killed it. Unfortunately, since I'm poor, I rode in mostly unrecognized shows, but we were unstoppable. I rode in New York until I was 17. (I also worked at the racetrack, warming up and breezing the racehorses).

When I moved to Missouri, I rode at two different barns in Saint Louis. The first barn I rode at, I hated it. I rode all their green babies and didn't get to jump anything large. So I left.

Yep, green babies.

The next barn, SUPER FUCKING EXPENSIVE, and seriously not that great. I rode a few green babies there too, yay! Let's not let Jackie advance, let's make her help us advance!

Retard baby...

HOLY FUCK. I wanna be thin again, look at me! TINYYYYYYYYY- kill me now.

Houston and Lucas, some badass babies. But still, useless, not helping me!

Finally, come to Columbia MO. I found a shitty ass tiny barn, and I found a beautiful huge mare. She was dangerous, they hated her, and I wanted her so much. I work with her for about two years. During this time, I did saddleseat too, just for fun. But, I got to learn a lot from Fassa, and what I learned mostly was that I don't like her.

FASSA!

And then theres the other randoms I rode there too:

So there it is. Saddlebreds, jumping saddlebreds, western horses, lesson horses and finally, AGAIN, green horses. Theres a million more random horse pictures I could post, me on this horse, then this horse, then fassa, her trying to kill me and on and on.

What it comes down to is that, I have never had my own horse now, but I've ridden about 150 different horses, shown about 50 and even catch rode at horse shows countless times. I have always wanted my own horse. ALWAYS.
I wished for a horse that could jump the moon, do cross country and even dabble in dressage if I wanted to. Insert Yankee here.

Heaven answered, actually, Monica did- checkmark115 (tbeventer.blogspot).
Now, I lease her fabulous horse Yankee and the two of them are all I could ask for. Monica is not only the greatest friend but Yankee and me clicked.
Over fences that is, we didn't click with dressage. Now, me and him are badass. Monica will put up jumps, and ask me if it's okay, then she will quickly realize that she didn't need to ask me, I was already heading towards that ridiculous whatever she set up.
So now, here I am. In Columbia, riding Yankee, procrastinating, killing time, baking cupcakes and bar tending.
This is a blog about my adventures, my ridiculous life, my boyfriend, my friends but mostly, it's my horse adventures. Right now, Yankee is the star of my show, so get ready to listen to me... Anyone?

Bueller..... Bueller.....?