Good horses!

I rode the big horse first today, stopping for a bit to talk to J while she picked poo. He was totally trying to cuddle up to me the whole time. Thinking maybe my silent treatment worked. I got him dressed and away we went. He lunged perfectly, and started to give to the Chambon at the walk. Then I got on and he was a super star. He was looking for the contact, and moving off my leg, concentrating on me and paying attention to his trot poles. I was very impressed. He got lots of loving and licorice and stuff. It's funny how sometimes that little bit of "I don't love you anymore" sometimes is the best for learning a lesson.

I rode Miss Fruity next. She was a good girl but she was a little bit off so we cut our lesson short and made sure all of her "melting" was covered in M-T-G.

I rode the grey horse next. We skipped the lunge line and warmed up quickly. The three trot poles became a tiny crossrail, and he managed not to totally fall on his head. Then we added another tiny crossrail a stride away. When they were nudging 18" he finally started to jump the second one, and at one point totally bailed about two strides after. I was laughing so hard I almost fell off (he was fine by the way). We worked up to a tiny verticle, and he did the grid properly once and we called it a day. My handsomest grey horse had his first jumping lesson and I lived to tell the tale.

Next came the fat mare, and since lately she has been more than taking me to the fences, we put her through the grid as well. For her I set a bounce in front of the one stride. The first couple of times through she barrelled over everything and met with Mr. Fence instead of careening around the corner. After she started to think about how fast we were going we put up the second and then the third fences. We ended up having to make it crossrail, 2' verticle, to 2'6/9" verticle to get her to back off. But in the end she jumped great and didn't need to meet Mr. Fence anymore.

Then I hopped on my monkey and trotted her around for a bit. We worked on not being so quick at the trot. I'm amazed at how well she retained her training. Even though she's been ridden a bit over the last couple of years, the last time she was sound enough to really work was like, 4 years ago. She wants to maintain a frame for me, and she remembers very well how to move off my leg (I barely have to touch her). As long as she stays sound I will definately be taking her to the schooling show for the Green (walk/trot only) flat classes.