What luck!
Goodness me how lucky we were today. We drove along a little country lane to get to the schooling course we went to this morning, turned a corner and there it was - flagged, numbered and dressed! Flags, flowers and fir trees everywhere. Just what we needed :-) :-) :-)
I warmed Jazz up and then treated the course as a course, starting on a countdown from the box. He stopped at a pallisade, one with a ditch in front, one which was a wide table, one which was very narrow with a drop, and a zig zag with ditch under. Then he went clear for quite a long way including straight through the water and up steps and over a bank and three flower bedded fences. He stopped at the last fence which was just like fences 6 and 8 on the course at the weekend.
I felt that he had made a breakthrough at the zig zag, which was a seriously confusing fence with no straight line to jump anywhere, because from that point on he was trying to work out how to go instead of trying to work out how to stop. I walked him around for 10 minutes to cool off and get his breath back, then went round again.
This time he stopped at the narrow fence with the drop but it was my fault for failing to set him up with enough impulsion. I held him up too much to get the steering right and ended up with no oomph. But apart from that he did the course clear, and I jumped the bigger option at the last instead of the smallest.
I think that he is very close to making, or has already made, the same breakthrough that we have got in the showjumping. Fingers crossed anyway!
I had already ridden Zipperdipper before we went. I was nervous because he is getting bigger and stronger and I intended to take him on the outdoor surface where he got a bit silly four days ago. But he was ace. He stood to be mounted on the third time of asking, and he did some relaxed walk and trot and a little bit of leg yield in walk. He wouldn't halt at one point, so we practiced some and then I got off. I am currently scraping my foot right across his bum as I get off, and "acccidentally" brushing his hips and loins with my hand, so that if it ever does happen truly accidentally, he won't think anything of it. He's not fussed at all :-)
C.
posted by cptrayes @ 2:22 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
What a great opportunity! Apparently the organizers of the schooling course knew just exactly what people wanted. How much better to have all the decorations than just plain jumps! Good for Jazz to put on his thinking cap and start to figure things out. That is a good sign. It means he is past the "How do I jump?" phase and into the more specific, "How do I jump THAT?" phase.
I am glad Zip-the-roo is continuing to be a good boy. I think his intelligence is working through the idea that being ridden is something special. I'd wager he enjoys the diversion. You might put down some rails for him to walk and trot over and think of little obstacles he can negotiate without jumping just to keep his brain occupied. As long as he thinks riding is fun, he will continue to be a good boy.
How are the feet? How does Jazz cope with the jumping on the cross country. Are there any stoney landings?
Judith
I was just lucky Jean, there's a competition there this weekend and they had done the set-up early :-)
Judith his feet are amazing. He is sound on everything. Sounder than a shod horse by far. He can walk on rubble and jump on anything. The hole from the abscess is already half way down his foot and it's only, what, two months old at most? His soles are like soapstone. Smooth and very very hard.
He overreached today and if he'd had shoes on he'd have done himself some serious damage. It was a nasty bloody hole the size of my thumbnail as it was.
C.
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