This time, he started out a little more up and wild than last time. I lunged him before I got on and he trotted around like a madman for awhile and then stopped to eat grass. But getting on didn't settle him immediately this time, so I still had another 10-15 minutes of work to do to organize the trot/his brain. We had two pony club kids and one adult ammie riding with us. They were all looking at me like "oh jesus the green horse again," but I knew that once we started jumping he'd be fine.
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| OMG HIS BUTT |
Soooooo like remember how logs used to look like the Great Wall of China to him or something? At this school he warmed up over bigger logs than he'd been asked to jump at Loch Moy, and it was no biggie at all. Within the first few minutes of the jump warmup, he trotted a course of four logs that involved going away from the group. I was impressed with him. He handled the day really well. There was one very freaky looking brush jump that he thought was scary, but he never stopped at it. And everything we did last time, he was all about doing this time, too. He gave me zero hesitation about anything he'd seen before. We even did the bank into the water like he'd been doing it for a year.
M is incredibly excited about him, as am I. He's made a huge breakthrough. I don't think he'll get another XC schooling in for a couple of weeks, but that's totally fine. He's proven his point for now. There's some work to do in dressage, because he's got a schooling dressage show coming up and I'm going to enter Intro B and C. And C has cantering.
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| Scary brush at Gordonsdale used hay bales for the ground line. Ha. |
You know that feeling when you'd rather point your green horse at the 3' brush jump than try to canter in the dressage ring? Is that what it means to be an eventer?
I'd rather point my horse at a hell of a lot of XC fences than go in a dressage ring. Terrifying rectangle of death.
ReplyDeleteI have a good friend who prefers dressage because it "isn't scary." I think she's nuts.
Deletesounds like both of you are enjoying xc more than you expected??? good luck w that pesky dressage tho :P
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm as surprised as anyone else!
DeleteHahaha. Dressage makes jumping look easy, but dressage doesn't scare me at all. Sooooo whatever that comes out to. I don't know.
ReplyDeleteYes. Yes that's what it means to be an eventer. =)
ReplyDeleteWheeeeeeee! Baby Mo finally found his brain again :D
ReplyDeleteYay for Mo! Y'all are doing so well together
ReplyDeleteWoohoo Big Mo; totes rocking it!!!
ReplyDelete