Saturday afternoon I had a pretty fantastic ride. The Husband was along getting the pup out for some field exposure, so I tacked BB up for jumping, grabbed my XC vest and booted her up to go play outside. It was raining lightly as we headed out, but Bailey seemed pretty brave and forward going out. Albeit, I did have a stick and was wearing properly sized spurs instead of my 1/4 nubs, but still. Happy, forward horse.
We did some quick warm up and then headed right into our first jump - a baby log - to the barrels. Bailey propped at the barrels but jumped in just fine, and cruised right out of the unfilled water complex over a log. We reversed and went back through, and it took me a ride or two to figure out I was presenting the barrels on an angle, and that I really had to swing wide going out and ride for the far left of the complex going in to get to the barrels straight, and then pull a hard turn left for the log on the other side; once I was riding more accurately, Bailey was jumping much better.
Thinking we were bold and forward and going, I trotted her over the little bridge, popped her over the log there, and pointed her at the ditch. She cranked to a full stop, stuck her face down in it and jumped over it after waffling a bit; a mistake on my end thinking that a nonevent last time equaled similar nonchallance on Saturday. She was much better going to the barn (ditch > log) but still looky coming back the other way. We moved on after a few hops to the small log in the middle of two A frame style feeder fences, and then to the banks. After playing lightly on the baby and middle size, I was feeling ballsy so I trotted her up to the big one; not a problem! She was a bit more hesitant to go down the first time, but after a few tries was acting like it wasn't a big deal. The next time we went up, I pointed her at the stacked logs that appeared to be a related distance to the big bank, and it was! She did a quiet four and hopped it nicely. We played over the smaller of the two feeders (again, another stop/waffle/hop for the first) and weirdly enough, she was braver going away from home than going towards home.
After re-hopping the half coffin ditch to log combo, I took her back across the bridge and continued over the log to the barrels via water complex - B was feeling so good, and bold and seemed to really be enjoying her job, so I was feeling really brave. Brave enough to let her sniff, then point her at the BN-ish sized picnic table. She jumped it a few times, but propped on the first take off and seemed to stick a tiny bit less at take off the next few times. I finally one-handed it and cracked her one over it, and she jumped better. So much better, I let her lope across the little bridge, jump the log, slow down but jump the ditch and then pointed her at the skinny on the far side. Full coffin! Go! No questions asked, she was a rock star. Going home? No questions either. No propping, just BOOM ditch log picnic table. I was thrilled, pulled her up, and while we puttered through a down bank thing I discovered as part of the water complex, we were done with that.
I wish I had media for you, because B was awesome! I was so proud. I'll have to get a map drawn up of the XC course so I can give my readers an idea of what we're playing with. This shows you the banks (small U shape, far right), and you can kind of see the water complex (grey area to the left)... but there are a lot more jumps, and they're in different spots.
We did some quick warm up and then headed right into our first jump - a baby log - to the barrels. Bailey propped at the barrels but jumped in just fine, and cruised right out of the unfilled water complex over a log. We reversed and went back through, and it took me a ride or two to figure out I was presenting the barrels on an angle, and that I really had to swing wide going out and ride for the far left of the complex going in to get to the barrels straight, and then pull a hard turn left for the log on the other side; once I was riding more accurately, Bailey was jumping much better.
Thinking we were bold and forward and going, I trotted her over the little bridge, popped her over the log there, and pointed her at the ditch. She cranked to a full stop, stuck her face down in it and jumped over it after waffling a bit; a mistake on my end thinking that a nonevent last time equaled similar nonchallance on Saturday. She was much better going to the barn (ditch > log) but still looky coming back the other way. We moved on after a few hops to the small log in the middle of two A frame style feeder fences, and then to the banks. After playing lightly on the baby and middle size, I was feeling ballsy so I trotted her up to the big one; not a problem! She was a bit more hesitant to go down the first time, but after a few tries was acting like it wasn't a big deal. The next time we went up, I pointed her at the stacked logs that appeared to be a related distance to the big bank, and it was! She did a quiet four and hopped it nicely. We played over the smaller of the two feeders (again, another stop/waffle/hop for the first) and weirdly enough, she was braver going away from home than going towards home.
After re-hopping the half coffin ditch to log combo, I took her back across the bridge and continued over the log to the barrels via water complex - B was feeling so good, and bold and seemed to really be enjoying her job, so I was feeling really brave. Brave enough to let her sniff, then point her at the BN-ish sized picnic table. She jumped it a few times, but propped on the first take off and seemed to stick a tiny bit less at take off the next few times. I finally one-handed it and cracked her one over it, and she jumped better. So much better, I let her lope across the little bridge, jump the log, slow down but jump the ditch and then pointed her at the skinny on the far side. Full coffin! Go! No questions asked, she was a rock star. Going home? No questions either. No propping, just BOOM ditch log picnic table. I was thrilled, pulled her up, and while we puttered through a down bank thing I discovered as part of the water complex, we were done with that.
I wish I had media for you, because B was awesome! I was so proud. I'll have to get a map drawn up of the XC course so I can give my readers an idea of what we're playing with. This shows you the banks (small U shape, far right), and you can kind of see the water complex (grey area to the left)... but there are a lot more jumps, and they're in different spots.
Clearly, I need a photographer, or a helmet camera... or something.
Either way, it was a great ride! Unfortunately, B was a total asshat and sat back three separate times in her 5 minute bathing period (including rear/sit back/thrash like crazy) and I had to throw myself clear of her feet all three times. So I ended up with mud on my breeches, a bruise on my ass and a horse with a sore poll, but it was still awesome. Focus on the positives, people. Positives.
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