Well today we did something a bit different, we went off XC schooling! This was all well and good, he loaded relatively well, travelled well (putting up with us getting a tad bit lost, it's all good travelling experience though right?) and was pretty chilled when he got there.
He warmed up nice, actually schooling quite well considering we were at a place once he stopped being too excited to get his right canter lead. Then we came to the actual jumping part. As far as Jack goes, I cannot fault him one bit, he was incredibly patient and pretty much perfect in all honesty, he did not do one thing wrong, however it turns out that my nerves are 100% shot.
Why ruin a nice photo Jack!??
I had a few falls off him at the start of the year when jumping, not particularly nasty but enough that my back is still suffering now from one and the fact that I've come off him 4 times in almost 5 years and 3 of them were in quick succession in the space of a month so it's fair to say, even though i didn't realise it at the time, it really did knock my confidence about. Since moving yards, I've done a little bit more jumping over some small fences and we've built back up to being able to manage about 2ft9 without me praying to the Lords above and we've done a few little jumping classes out and about but again its been about a month since I last jumped and it definitely showed.
After spending about half an hour trotting round and clinging on for dear life over some teeny tiny logs accompanied with a very patient horse and friend, I got my arse into gear a bit and we did a few of the 70cm fences. We may not have jumped anything spectacular today, but he was perfectly behaved and it was a confidence boost I definitely needed, plus we ended on a much, much more positive note than we set out on! Oh, and we also went into the water first time, completely by ourselves... twice! I'm not sure who has possessed my horse as this is most definitely something he does not do but what a good boy!
Note to self; contrary to popular belief, you can actually ride and your horse is not as terrible as he may sometimes seem.
Beth & Jack x
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