One of the benefits of having M. "squiring" (his word; apparently grooming sounds boring) was that I got to hand him a camera and document the XC school. There are only a few photos after the fall, alas, because he kind of freaked out, but so it goes.
First up, two videos. The first was our first attempt at going forward after a jump, which resulted in the little bucks there. The second was our second try, with me keeping his head up and really sending him forward. I like the second one better, for obvious reasons!
Second, a few photos. I'll post them in order with my thoughts.
Warming up, with a little bit of a run.
I like our distance. I do not like my upper body, or my release. My crappy release will become a theme.
So the goal was, after landing off that jump, to get a good head of steam up, make a wide turn, and head back over the same jump. In this picture you can see my biggest and most constant challenge galloping him: keeping him straight, especially through his shoulders.
Better, more forward jump! Even worse release and upper body.
Better distance, good forward jump, a bit of height...holy crap my release sucked.
And then, the jump that undid us. You can see two things here: how I was angled and off-center, and the slight shift in Tristan's body that is him thwacking his RF. (Actually, three things: I'm leaning, which is why I'm about to eat grass.)
So then we rebuilt our confidence with this little jump, over which he is much scopier and centered and I am not leaning quite as much.
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