October 27th - 8:34pm

Final day of a long, long week here at the Rancho Pampa. Dont know if it was the sudden addition of heat, a couple early mornings or what that made it so long. But I was definitely glad to see 6:00 role around. Though I think we were still getting a few final things finished after that.
Spent the morning working the horses. Holandesa on the longe then Jour, Puccini, Geologo, Nacar undersaddle. Jour and Puccini were just hacking but Martin had me take Geologo and Nacar over fences. It was my first time jumping Geologo. We just did a couple of verticals of varying heights with most of the focus on the canter. Its hard to believe that something Ive done for so long (cantering) can still be so very difficult to do correctly. When the jump is little, I over hold to the distance right at the base. When the jump gets bigger I allow the horse to lengthen toward it without even realizing. Especially if I see a distance thats a little long. So we worked on that. Getting the canter up and infront of my leg while still together. Maintaining the same rhythm to and after the fence. Relaxing infront of the jump without allowing the pace and length of stride to change. So hard to consistently get it all just right.
After I was on Nacar with some course work. Worked on some of the same things as we did with Geologo. Pace, rhythm and striding along with Nacar specific things like turning drifting. I also really had to work on moving up the first couple strides of the line then softening to the jumps. With a more expierenced horse I can be a little slow to move up and get out ok. With the young ones, they have to have the time infront of the jump to look at it, balance and jump. Run up to it and they stop or it all comes down. As far as Ive seen, this is the longest and tallest course he's ever done. And he did it like a champ. The last jump on corse was a meter (the final jump we ended on with Geologo) but none on course were small. Such a good boy. Id like to think I did better with moving up early in the line and generally riding better to help my horse as well. Either way, I was very happy with him.
In the afternoon a client from New York came to try some hunters. Martin got a lesson with the trainer, a grand prix rider, on Luli as well. Watching him jump Luli reminded me of why Im here. I want to be able to ride her like that. I want to be that good.
Tomorrow were having an asado here at the farm then heading over to watch a Grand Prix at a show down the road. More watching fantastic riding. Just the motivation I need to keep pushing.