Don't trust a husband
This weekend was a warm one, especially Sunday when it heated up to about 40C. I avoided it by not riding and going to the beach instead. Far more pleasant!
Saturday though was for riding horses. Well, one horse. I was maybe a bit lazy over the weekend horse-wise, but really we all needed some down time. Anyway, Coolie and I had a great flatwork session on Friday, so Henry drew the short straw to be ridden on Saturday. I wanted to jump but then I was feeling too lazy to set up a course, but couldn't be bothered with riding on the flat so set a course anyway. After I was done the jumps all looked small. Now they were all set to about 60cm, so not at all big, but riding a green horse changes your perspective sometimes.
Anyway Henry was feeling fresh and ready to go, but he warmed up happily and was calm in his approach and departure from our warm up fence. I made sure i could adjust the canter so i could place Henry to the fence before I started building a course, adding in the one stride double to start. The double had a shadow on the take off, causing a false ground line. Henry saw this so jumped long leaving me a little behind the first few times through until I got my act together and gave him more rein.
I worked to place Henry closer to the fences through the double, and ended up getting some good spots. I also made sure to keep him more forward as I tend to opt for too slow. We got a really good flow happening and Henry got some good spots to the fences and we really cruised over everything. Jumps are starting to just happen as they should, although he will still jump huge over somethings.
When we jumped everything and I was happy with how things were going, I bravely asked Andrew to put a few things up. The double I left as it was as Henry is still gaining confidence through such things, but the rest went up. I imagined Andrew would put them a hole or too, but no. Not my husband. I kept my mouth shut as he gleefully told me he wasn't going to tell me how bit the jumps were. I had a pretty good idea anyway! For a change though I was confident, I knew we could do it. So we did!
Henry didn't get the memo about the height change and so gave the first jump a good clobber. We came around and worked him over it while he worked it out. This horse jumps the moon when it comes to scary stuff, he just had to work out how to do it over a plain jump. I helped him out as best I could and once we worked it out we were flying.
We ended jumping between 70-80cm around our little course, which is the biggest we have really done to date, other than the odd jump here and there. It felt great too, super easy, Henry settled into a rhythm and was so easy to pilot.
I can't wait to see how this year goes, I already have a few things in the calendar for this little horse.
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| It was a perfect day for it! |
Anyway Henry was feeling fresh and ready to go, but he warmed up happily and was calm in his approach and departure from our warm up fence. I made sure i could adjust the canter so i could place Henry to the fence before I started building a course, adding in the one stride double to start. The double had a shadow on the take off, causing a false ground line. Henry saw this so jumped long leaving me a little behind the first few times through until I got my act together and gave him more rein.
I worked to place Henry closer to the fences through the double, and ended up getting some good spots. I also made sure to keep him more forward as I tend to opt for too slow. We got a really good flow happening and Henry got some good spots to the fences and we really cruised over everything. Jumps are starting to just happen as they should, although he will still jump huge over somethings.
When we jumped everything and I was happy with how things were going, I bravely asked Andrew to put a few things up. The double I left as it was as Henry is still gaining confidence through such things, but the rest went up. I imagined Andrew would put them a hole or too, but no. Not my husband. I kept my mouth shut as he gleefully told me he wasn't going to tell me how bit the jumps were. I had a pretty good idea anyway! For a change though I was confident, I knew we could do it. So we did!
Henry didn't get the memo about the height change and so gave the first jump a good clobber. We came around and worked him over it while he worked it out. This horse jumps the moon when it comes to scary stuff, he just had to work out how to do it over a plain jump. I helped him out as best I could and once we worked it out we were flying.
We ended jumping between 70-80cm around our little course, which is the biggest we have really done to date, other than the odd jump here and there. It felt great too, super easy, Henry settled into a rhythm and was so easy to pilot.
I can't wait to see how this year goes, I already have a few things in the calendar for this little horse.
yay for bumping up the height - Hen looks great! also i simply cannot fathom temperatures that warm right now, ugh. like right now my ideal is 50-60*F haha (which the google tells me is 10-15*C)
ReplyDeleteThat just sounds cold to me! The lowest we get down to here in winter is about that. Anything less and I freeze. No snow for us, just hot and dry, or cool and wet.
DeleteH looks awesome! And yay for husbands making executive decisions!
ReplyDeleteSometimes they need to just to shove you in the right direction!
DeleteI would not trust my husband to set jumps ;) Glad all went well :) And send me some warm weather (and dry) thanks. THO IT IS 65 today and sunny but so so wet still :(
ReplyDeleteMine has some qualifications, so I sometime let him do what he wants to! Maybe you need a nice, warm holiday, with a nice beach and endless blue skies. I know where you can find those things!
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