So what has Uno been doing as I slowly spent all our money and had a breakdown.

 In a word, learning.

Happy ears trotting along.

Pissy because WTF Dutch?!

I went the week after the show for a jump lesson where we really worked on making sure my hands stayed forward to the jumps. We had a few refusals where I bailed out and pulled, but it was a positive experience and I really felt like we were  doing well.


The next week I trailered him to a local venue for my trainer to ride him XC.  And boy did he throw a few curve balls at her.  There was once fence that he just NOPED.  He must have refused it at least 5 times, and she was really surprised because he really decides at take off.  There is no warning, and putting on leg doesn't really help.  They got over it and he was really really good for her after that.

Trainer got very little of this...

And a whole lot of this.

My thoughts here are two fold. 1) I LIKE that he will not jump if it is not safe.  That actually makes me feel better about going XC, that if he can't do it he will say NO.  2) We may be there as far as training goes for maiden, but we need more repetition. We BOTH have to be confident for this to work, and that is just going to take time.

I love that I can spy on them throughout the day.

Finally,  at home his flat work is REALLY becoming NICE.  I have only jumped once, and was rusty. However, I just held my grab strap and he popped over everything really nicely.  Our goal is to go XC school again in a week or so.  We might aim for 2 schoolings in a week, one with our trainer riding and one where I just pop over a few easy jumps and get some good vibes going.

He is a very good pony.


Comments

Popular Posts