For the love of God.....SIT UP

I'm sitting here tonight with a little bit of egg on my face. Actually it's dirt because I took a little spill off of Glare. I wish I could say that he ran off with me and did a "bucking bronco," but really, the whole thing was my fault. 
So when you're riding up to a fence there's a distance which is made up of how many strides the horse will take before leaving the ground. Ideally a horse will leave the ground from the distance of the height of the fence. For example- if you're jumping a 3ft fence, the horse will leave the ground 3ft before it. Sometimes you come in short and the horse takes an awkward half stride. Other times you may be long and leave out a whole stride. A rider can adjust the stride by lengthening or shortening it based on the distance they see to the jump. 


The problem arises when the rider does not see the distance. Typically they will sit back, keep a feel on the reins, and let the horse decide where to leave. I thought it would be best to lean up Glare's neck. Maybe for a better view? So when he stopped I had no seat and just flipped right off. Poor Glare. When I get nervous, he'll usually just pack me around the course. But coming off of an amazing ride on Saturday I was a little disappointed that I had resorted back to some old habits. Nothing left to do but get back into the saddle!