Eat. Sleep. Gallop. Repeat

Saturday was pretty much all about galloping, and eating!

Galloping!

Saturday morning saw husband and I attending our first Park Run. We were pretty amazed at the number of people there! I have been really struggling to run 4km and finally cracked it last week so I was a bit unsure how I would go running 5km. Apparently running with loads of other people is quite motivating as I managed to not only run 5.2km (by my watch!), i did it in 30 minutes. We are definitely going to go back!

Next on the agenda was a little jump with Henry in preparation for our lesson on Monday. Henry hadn't jumped in a few weeks, and our focus has been on transitions and straightness lately as he has been a bit unsettled in his training. I wanted to get a feel for how he might be on Monday.

So cute!

More cute!

I have to say, Henry seems to be getting a good grasp at the whole leaping over coloured poles thing. I really started to feel him bascule and use himself properly. He is also starting to lock on to jumps and take me to them. Sometimes he gets a little too clever though, and wants to go his speed rather than mine. On the whole though he is certainly coming along. Hopefully he will keep himself together and we can jump something off the property!

Awwwwwww

Saturday arvo I was meant to go XC training with a friend but she cancelled on me. I wanted to go anyway so I put a call out to some friends and a regular training buddy said she was keen. So Husband and I packed Coolie and his stuff into the float and set off for solid fence fun-times.

Flying over a warm up jump

It's super being able to train with a friend who has the same coach as you. Our coach has us well trained so we know how we are going to warm up and go about training without having to worry about what the other person is doing! We warmed up in the usual way, then quickly moved on to putting a few jumps into a course. I really wanted to work on getting our pace right. Coolie was feeling fantastic! He was so adjustable and confident, jumping out of stride and listening so well.

Splash!

We did some water training. Water has never been an issue for us. Coolie jumped straight in confidently off a small bank, then even more confidently off the bigger bank. From there we galloped around to a fruit box fence, then back into the water and out over a log. He nailed everything perfectly. By this point I felt like I could have been galloping on the buckle, which is a huge achievement for us. Last year he would have been wanting to go his own pace and not listening at all.

Down!

Close spot!

We headed over to train banks next. Again Coolie nailed everything, and we finished with an awesome course with a big gallop stretch. He was amazing. it was one of those days where I truly felt my horse loves his job, and we were just having the best time. I had the biggest, silliest grin on my face.