Up and Over

Johnny jumped his first oxer yesterday! He handled it really well, but it definetly caught him off guard! E was riding him again so that I could set the jumps and he trotted up to it (it was just a small cross-rail oxer) and as his front feet left the ground you could see his head uck as he looked at the jump and was like "wooooaaahhhh WHAT is that?" but he jumped it really nicely :) E hpped him over it a few times in both directions and we called it a day. He was super good! I have a lesson on him with my trainer on Thursday at 5pm. Hopefully we can work on his right lead canter some more...it's gone away a bit since he began working in a real arena.

In other news, C and I went over the A's barn today to school some horses for him since he threw his back out the other day. C rode a grey mare named Siren and I rode A's jumper April. It was so much fun!! Siren is pretty green, but C schooled her really well. We warmed up on the flat and then started over a big cross-rail and just kept adding jumps until we had a little coarse. We started up a single on the quarter line, down over a single on the diaganol to an outside single and then around to a 2 stride in and out (vertical to oxer) to finish up. April is a really nice jumper...she did the medals and the big jumpers (like 4'9" or something) and is SUPER fun to jump! We started around 2'6" and A put the jumps up until we were going 3'3". It was SOOO FUNNNN!! I can't remember the last time that I was jumping fences that size and actually enjoying myself...something I haven't really felt in years. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE jumping, but on a horse that I don't know, I sometimes get a little wiggy (I crashed my hunter mare at 3'3" almost 4 years ago and we both got injured pretty bad...it ended her 3' career) so to be on a horse like April was such a blessing. I kept asking A to raise the jumps, and raise the jumps, and raise the jumps...it was a brilliant feeling!

Tomorrow morning I'm going out to see and ride Johnny :) Yay!

Peace.Love.Ponies.