It was beautiful today!
Hard to believe just last week we had single digit temperatures! Oh New England and it's ever changing weather!
The Wednesday after that last entry, I jumped UK again and used him to help Stef learn how to relax and let jumps come to her. UK was very patient while she worked on her position while trotting crossrails. I jumped him over verticals, and we did more simple changes. Even though we got some awesome weather after that, I didn't get to ride. I had a nasty cold/flu thing that I preceded to battle for two weeks straight. I managed to lunge UK on one of the better days, but other then that he had a little vacation.
Then this week I rode him more, doing flatwork on the barn's dirt driveway (ring was a lake, and the field wasn't much better), as it's a gradual hill. Lots of trot work! UK then tried to get me to take him on a trail ride by heading to the trail head while we were walking out on the road. I would have loved to, but I had other places to be. Damn normal life getting in the way of my riding time!
Today, as I'd forgotten my cell phone (which I will not trail ride without), I tacked UK up english and took him in the ring. I'd set up two verticals, one on each diagonal, a single barrel as a skinny jump with nothing on the sides, and there was a crossrail on the outside line. We warmed up and started by trotting the crossrail, which the red horse insisted on actually jumping because he was so excited. He was a very feisty pony! At least it was happy feisty, and not rebellious feisty!
We did the crossrail at the trot the other way, and then cantered one of the verticals. Then we did the barrel at the trot, and he never even considered running out! So I gave him major praise and we didn't do it again. Next was our other vertical, which had some shadows in front of it. UK decided to jump those too, which made the thing about three feet wide, and he jumped it like it was 3'6". Boy does he have a rocket pack for a rear end! I stayed with him, granted a bit behind the motion, but I stayed on and didn't hit his mouth or anything, despite the serious airtime I had! UK then realized he'd oopsed a bit, and got a little nervous. I calmed him down, and assured him it was okay, and we went back and did it again, this time jumping it's actual 2'3" height.
I made us a simple course, and we were doing great, until UK decided that rather then stopping at it's end we should really keep going and do them all again. He'd been so good lately that I've been jumping him without a standing martingale. Well, after some irritated head tossing because he didn't want to stop, I think we'll be bringing it back for awhile.
Well his freshness meant no more courses, and that we'd wrap things up by jumping a jump and halting in a straight line, relaxing, walking, and then we'd do another jump. He found this hugely unfair but eventually got the idea.
Overall I was rather pleased, as even when he was frisky, he'd still settle down and keep a consistent pace to each jump, only getting fast after landing, which is an easy fix. I think we'll do more halting, and then work up to lines where we halt in the middle to teach him to wait. We'll do either flatwork, lunging, or a trailride tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on how my non-horse things go.
Hard to believe just last week we had single digit temperatures! Oh New England and it's ever changing weather!
The Wednesday after that last entry, I jumped UK again and used him to help Stef learn how to relax and let jumps come to her. UK was very patient while she worked on her position while trotting crossrails. I jumped him over verticals, and we did more simple changes. Even though we got some awesome weather after that, I didn't get to ride. I had a nasty cold/flu thing that I preceded to battle for two weeks straight. I managed to lunge UK on one of the better days, but other then that he had a little vacation.
Then this week I rode him more, doing flatwork on the barn's dirt driveway (ring was a lake, and the field wasn't much better), as it's a gradual hill. Lots of trot work! UK then tried to get me to take him on a trail ride by heading to the trail head while we were walking out on the road. I would have loved to, but I had other places to be. Damn normal life getting in the way of my riding time!
Today, as I'd forgotten my cell phone (which I will not trail ride without), I tacked UK up english and took him in the ring. I'd set up two verticals, one on each diagonal, a single barrel as a skinny jump with nothing on the sides, and there was a crossrail on the outside line. We warmed up and started by trotting the crossrail, which the red horse insisted on actually jumping because he was so excited. He was a very feisty pony! At least it was happy feisty, and not rebellious feisty!
We did the crossrail at the trot the other way, and then cantered one of the verticals. Then we did the barrel at the trot, and he never even considered running out! So I gave him major praise and we didn't do it again. Next was our other vertical, which had some shadows in front of it. UK decided to jump those too, which made the thing about three feet wide, and he jumped it like it was 3'6". Boy does he have a rocket pack for a rear end! I stayed with him, granted a bit behind the motion, but I stayed on and didn't hit his mouth or anything, despite the serious airtime I had! UK then realized he'd oopsed a bit, and got a little nervous. I calmed him down, and assured him it was okay, and we went back and did it again, this time jumping it's actual 2'3" height.
I made us a simple course, and we were doing great, until UK decided that rather then stopping at it's end we should really keep going and do them all again. He'd been so good lately that I've been jumping him without a standing martingale. Well, after some irritated head tossing because he didn't want to stop, I think we'll be bringing it back for awhile.
Well his freshness meant no more courses, and that we'd wrap things up by jumping a jump and halting in a straight line, relaxing, walking, and then we'd do another jump. He found this hugely unfair but eventually got the idea.
Overall I was rather pleased, as even when he was frisky, he'd still settle down and keep a consistent pace to each jump, only getting fast after landing, which is an easy fix. I think we'll do more halting, and then work up to lines where we halt in the middle to teach him to wait. We'll do either flatwork, lunging, or a trailride tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on how my non-horse things go.
