She took me to Carla's jumping field at Lidwell today. There I was presented with a lilac and white cross pole about six inches high. I had no idea what I was meant to do with it. In the end I stepped over it a few times, then hopped over it and then did a little jump. I did the same thing with a blue cross pole - then, I suddenly realised that these things were jumps - just like the ones we have at home. A light bulb went off in my head! Then I set off at a brisk canter and soared over all the other jumps, to much praise.
She has been reading 'Equitation Science' by Paul McGreevy and Andrew McLean, and said that I am living proof of the part that says in the beginning phase of learning a new task, reaction is context specific. Apparently I now have to learn to generalise - in other words, recognise show jumps wherever they are. That was a lot of learning for one day.
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