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