It’s been a bit of a dead week at the barn, overall. Foster twisted a shoe Tuesday, and was ever so slightly foot sore, which improved slightly Thursday but was not entirely eradicated. Saturday he was back to 100% and so I asked him to really dressage, and get-in-front-of-my-leg-dammit. Using the advice from the clinic, when he started to tranter to avoid a more forward trot, I put more leg on, and if he broke into a canter that was fine, but he was going to go forward in that canter before coming back again. Now that I think he is strong enough to do a forward trot I do not want to teach him to escape it with some trantering nonsense.
Still no new media / PC: High Time Photography
Then yesterday I attempted jumping again. Thanks to having to move every single standard and pole in the arena, I was wiped by the time I had a course set up, and was feeling a bit weary thinking about riding. But once saddled up, I was glad I did and felt a bit more at home in the shorter stirrups than our last school. It took forever again to get him in front of my leg, and really I could only do about 5 minutes at a time before pulling up to catch my breath. I had an angled two stride line set up again, an X, a 2’6″ oxer, and I fixed the triple combination so that the distances were reasonable (2’6″ and 3′). After getting laziness again and again over the 2’3″ fences, I decided to pop him over the 3′ fence at the end of the triple line.
Probably what I’ve reverted to… except slower / PC: Hight Time Photography
Verdict? My horse only wakes up over bigger fences. When the 3′ rode well I then did the whole line and rolled back to the 2’3″ oxer, which ended up riding bigger than the 3′ vertical. This may or may not be because we found a long spot, and I grabbed for dear life with my legs which could have surprised the poor pony into a huge effort. In sum, still a whole hell of a lot for us to work on before we get back to Training sized courses.
This week is somewhat miserable in part to higher temps and humidity, but there is an end in sight! We have our [hopefully final] scoping for ulcers on Thursday!
Red on the Right 
Glad that he’s getting back and shape and working hard! Addy will sometimes give me a monster effort over a smaller jump too, it’s always exciting haha
I wish someone could have been there to document the look of surprise on my face and accompanying expletive! Next time though 🙂
Sometimes I almost think slightly bigger jumps, like 3′, are easier to ride than 2’9 and below. Somehow it’s easier to see your distance and get there well. Anyway, in joining you on the get back into jumping shape wagon
I always find bigger jumps easier to ride too, well I did until I took a four year jumping hiatus and now it’s a challenge to get back to bigger jumps in itself!
A lot to work on I’m sure, but it sounds like you know exactly what it is you need to be working on which is always a good thing!
Fingers crossed for a clear scope on Thursday!
yay for getting back into the swing of things! sounds like you’re just gonna have to keep on jumpin big jumps 🙂
Hope Thursday goes well! 🙂