In which we jump and do not get eaten by tigers
Friday Ro was a bit… well, another boarder called her “playful,” and that’s a nice way of putting it. I would have said a bit of a fruitcake.
The problem is the barn grain, which was changed recently, and which I absolutely hate. I have decreased her ration twice and she’s still a flipping fruitcake, so she goes off it tomorrow. I’ll figure something else out by the weekend. Given the fact that she needs to lose weight (can’t feel her ribs, getting a crease on her hind end, etc), she can do with a week or two off grain anyway.
But after Friday’s ride—which wasn’t much more than letting her burn off energy in a controlled way, and finding out that she does indeed love flying changes, even if she’s only doing them when she wants to and we don’t have a cue for them yet—I went out on Saturday expecting… I don’t know what.
I’d arranged to meet another boarder so we could go for a trail ride. The other boarder goes out on trails a lot, and has introduced inexperienced horses/riders to trails, and was happy to chaperone us arena flowers. Unfortunately we had a bit of a schedule mix up, and I ended up being there about an hour before she arrived.
I decided I might as well work Ro some, in case she was still a fruitcake. And if she wasn’t a fruitcake, a little actual work (vs burn energy fluff) would be good for both of us. Right?
She was a lot more settled than Friday, so I didn’t push for very much. But since she was being forward and obedient, I decided to trot her over a cross rail a couple times.
She never jumps them; she goes over them like they are cavalleti. Given how low they are, I can’t blame her for not jumping. As long as she goes forward and picks up her feet instead of demolishing the crossrail, I’m good with it. Right now, I just want her to figure out that poles are no big deal and to learn where to put her feet. I go in two point, stay out of her face, and let her figure it out.
We trotted in, nice and connected, I got out of her way and… she jumped. Color me surprised! Color the trainer who was in the arena surprised, too. I don’t think he’s ever seen us even go over a pole, much less a cross rail, so he sounded a little shocked when he said, “She has a cute jump!”
I’m shocked she has a jump at all!
She also cantered off and didn’t fall apart on the other side of the cross rail; it was a nice canter—not rushing off, not shutting down. I was very pleased.
We trotted it again a second time a bit later, with the same result. I was very happy that she trotted forward to it the second time—no sucking back like she was uncertain, but also no rushing forward like she was worried about getting over it. And a decent canter afterwards again.
She got a break then—I untacked her and let her graze for a bit, then she got to chill out in her stall while the other boarder had her lesson. I was back on Ro by the end of the lesson, figuring we’d practice standing in the arena while other horses did stuff (patience… neither of us has it).
Ro took being tacked up a second time stoically, after an “are you kidding me?” look, and was quite happy to just stand around. They were jumping a gymnastic and she was fairly fascinated by it—kept watching the horses go through it with her ears way forward. I think she may have figured out that jumping is fun…
And then we hit the trails.
Ro has been out on trails once—when we went last fall and she was fabulous. I told the other boarder I thought Ro would be better than me (I am the world’s biggest arena flower), and that proved to be the case. I startled more at things in the bushes than Ro did.
It took Ro a bit to figure out that she needed to pay attention to her feet, because this was not a groomed arena or clear field, but by the end of the ride she was getting better. And she went everywhere I asked with no hesitation—stepping over little logs across the trail, walking on the trail or in grass, and even through some pretty steep ditches. She walked last in the line and didn’t try to charge ahead, but she has a forward walk, so every once in a while I’d ask her to stop and let the others go ahead. She did, every time, and waited until I asked her to walk on.
I was really impressed with her. I love that she takes new things in stride, and I think she actually really likes being out on the trail.
For bonus points, there is a long, straight, wide part of the trail that has some really pretty decent footing. It would be fabulous for doing work—transitions, going forward and coming over the back, or even having a bit of a gallop. I want to take advantage of that—it would get us both out of the arena without sacrificing progress towards my general goals. Unfortunately, I don’t remember how to get there, and frankly I think we broke some laws of physics because passed something we’d passed before, but going in the completely wrong direction according to my internal (mis)compass. But what do I know? I get lost in paper bags.
So my new mission—keep tagging along with people until I know at least some of the trails pretty well, and definitely find out how to get back to that open path. We stayed at a walk just because Ro and I were green, but next time I go out with this boarder, I think we’ll step up the pace. Ro’s clearly calm and happy out on the trails, and as long as she stays responsive, there’s no reason to stay at the walk all the time. Plus, some of those little logs we walked over were very jumpable (good footing before/after). If Ro really has clicked on to the idea that jumping is fun, I bet she’ll have a blast popping over those.
You can guess where this is all going… I don’t think Green as Grass eventing is any higher than cross rails and little logs. If she’ll trot over all this stuff confidently, we may turn into baby eventers yet.