Lesson Recap: My body doesn't move like that

Last week, we got to jump, which was the first time I've jumped in almost all year!  Which I really just realized as I was trying to hold some sort of semblance of two point over crossrails.

We started out with just poles, went up to crossrails, and after knocking them down and looking like a lunatic, we went back down to poles until we could be trusted to keep our heads on straight and go back up to crossrails.

Mostly I think I was just thinking too hard, trying not only to get my two point, but to do my two point properly - the way we've been working on with our leg position.

It was good to jump again though, even if I did it in the dark on the back of a 16-year old Canadian whose stomach was maybe the size of a round bale.

This week we did another lunge lesson, and although it is nice to jump, I am finding the lunge lessons amazing.  I'm learning so much about my body position not just in the saddle, but outside.

For instance, my instructor mentioned that I seem to twist my left leg out making my left side less strong and causing a shooting pain in my hip when I sit correctly.  But of course this makes perfect sense because I actually walk with my left leg twisted out.

This week I had a serious revelation about the length of my stirrups, which have pretty much been wrong for two and a half years.  I've always been fine with the length in a Western saddle, but when I was taught the proper length of the stirrups for an English saddle (ankle height or above ankle, depending), I was lifting my legs up a bit to find where my ankles should be.

Which means that this whole time, my stirrups have been too short because I wasn't properly letting my legs fall down long.  Talk about a world of difference when I was actually able to stretch my leg to the proper position.  Mind.  Blown.

I am starting to get a little nervous about Winter though.  For one thing, I almost froze to death on Monday.  I was clearly unprepared for the weather.  It was that kind of cold where you just want to lay down in a snow pile and die - you know, not to be dramatic.  Anyway, it is dark all night now and soon the ground will freeze.  There's no indoor arena and I don't know what our options are going to be.  Hopefully she has something planned.