Jump!

I got to the barn as Robert and Jerry were tacking up Imp to head out. I'd decided on the bus that I should put my jumping saddle on Keno, because I think it will fit Niki best out of our saddles, and I don't want to be adjusting my stirrups while I'm on the horse. And, well, because I'd have my jumping saddle on, why shouldn't I do some jumping?

So I set up some trot poles in the arena, as well as an 18" crossrail. A boarder and her very cute Arab were working in there already, and it took me a while to convince her that I was perfectly happy having her occupy our ring and that I, in fact, was the greater intruder, what with not paying to use the ring and all. She said she had a hot horse and he might bother my horse. I told her my horse could damn well deal with it. At any rate, she was very nice, we talked about clicker training and her horse's soft tissue injury.

Tacked up Keno, headed out, he was decent to good. We jumped maybe five or six times, and he was good for almost all of them. I told him "this is the last one unless you screw it up" and he decided he wanted to throw his head around and run and maybe buck a little. So, he screwed it up. We trotted for a bit, went over the crossrail calmly, and ended. While I was grooming him, I talked to the Arab's owner a little more, mostly about neuroscience.

Next I grabbed Niki. She's a mare! So I used the hot pink saddle pad. I don't think Luca will mind too much, especially if he can sniff it afterwards. She wasn't overly thrilled with the saddle but no spooks, no nothing. When we got in the ring I lifted the top flap to tighten the girth and the stirrup slid back and touched her FLANK and oh my goodness that was problematic. She circled for a while til I told her to stop, while I was hanging onto the saddle flap and the reins. Then I dropped the flap. Then I lifted it! Then I dropped it again. I am a magical wizard, who can both gift and remove flank touching.

I just slid over onto the saddle rather than dealing with stirrups and unbalancing today. It seemed easiest. She was thoroughly unhappy about the "working" thing. There was head shaking and veering into the middle and an occasional lopey stride. She was mostly upset about the construction going on by our neighbors', but also she's a mare. She basically got over herself, or at least started doing what I told her to, so we quit at that. No indignation at posting the trot? So that's good, I guess.

We harnessed up Reno and did one circuit of the field, then I helped a client tack up Rocky while Robert worked Reno. He went off for the lesson while I cooled Reno out and unharnessed him.

While they were out, I grabbed Luca and chased him around for a bit. He was more full of himself than usual and was VERY excited when Rocky came back, galloping around and bucking. Then he ran over to the gate and did a fullblown rear, which I was a little uneasy about. He settled down though.

Put on his bridle and hopped on bareback again when Robert got there. Luca was less happy about mounting so we backed up a while and then we went in circles. Stopped before I got dizzy, so I guess we didn't do it for too long. Walked, trotted, cantered, got some really nice bending out of him. Robert called Vic over to be impressed. I'd left the poles out so we did trot poles, and he was totally cool with those, which was nice. He did have two almost-bad moments but nothing really disobedient.

I think Luca's almost oversensitive to my reins, which makes sense being a driving horse. He'll ignore my seat and my legs to answer to the reins. It off-balances me because if I ask for a circle he'll try to make it smaller, throwing my seat bones to the wrong side until I ask him to move out with my inside leg. We're working on it though. I think the bareback helps because he can really feel my seatbones asking/putting pressure on him.

Anyways, the crossrail was still up (totally on purpose, by the way) so Robert casually mentions that "oh, hey, we haven't jumped him in a while have we?" And I said "no, no we have not" and trotted him over. I thought he'd way overjump it but he was very neat and careful. Nice jump, calm, trotted out afterwards. We did it again! Same cool, calm, collected Luca, no rush before the jump, which was what it was like when we jumped last year. Robert asked if I wanted a vertical. I said sure, so we trotted over that too. I really thought he'd jump huge or refuse, and was prepared with velcro-leg and loose reins so I wouldn't catch him but I also wouldn't fall. I admit I grabbed some mane. It's not like he's using all of it. But, very nice calm jump, cantered out of it but was completely balanced and under control. It was great.

Biggest I've jumped since June, and bareback on a greenish stallion. Sometimes I like that boy a lot.