SEC arena hire

This week the SEC opened an arena up to hire with show jumps set up. They don't do that very often and i thought it would be a good opportunity to take Henry along. Double bonus is that it's the same arena we will be jumping in for a competition in a couple of weeks.

Henry was on high alert when we went into  the arena since a horse was just coming out. He settled though and got right to work. He knows now that I am the most important and therefore I need to be listened to.  He was obedient to walk/trot/canter and was prompt about his downward transitions too.

We started out just trotting a little x rail which, as you can imagine with Henry, went just fine. He did it both was a few times, then added a second x rail. He was staying nice and steady to the jumps and cantering quietly away. We cantered over and he was a bit more up but when we re-approached he kept his rhythm.

We started to build a little course and it all went pretty well. He got a bit exuberant the first time we cantered an oxer but other than dolphin leaping he was a nice steady-eddy. Henry got a little distracted by another horse walking past and knocked a pole, but focused back on me quite quickly.

We ended cantering a course in a nice rhythm, then I very quickly swapped horses, and rode Coolie.

We popped around a small course, working on landing on the correct lead. I kept it short and easy.

All in all a very productive session!