first jump

Had a really awesome ride today. The sun was out and there wasn't too much wind. Went to catch Silviapples from the paddock and she's getting really good at coming back over that creek now (almost beat me to it today). Just got to tackle it again on horseback someday soon. She was good with the bridle too, and just the slightest bit nappy going into the arena, but all I had to do was put a bit of leg on and ride her forward.


She warmed up really well today too - soft pretty much right from the start, and her walk-trot-walk transitions are really improving. She used to sort of put her head up and switch her ears around, but now I find I can ride them just like a regular transition, I don't even need to use my voice to assist. So we just did a few circles on both reins, and a little cantner. Then we headed straight for the trotting poles and she was so wonderful! Just trotted straight over them with her ears pricked and not knocking them with her feet at all. In future I might make them wider apart to help get her stretching down, but for today I was just absolutely stoked that she happily trotted over them beautifully in both directions.


Then we headed into the little crossbar, she was a little unsure at first and halted a few strides out, but I was able to encourage her to walk on and then just sort of walk over it. After that she was really good. We didn't quite get a good flow over it today (still slowing into it, then awkwardly trotting/semi-jumping over it) but I was really pleased with how calm she was about everything. We look a bit funny in the pictures, I think she needs something a little bigger to jump before she'll actually notice what is going on. But yeah, totally wrapped with her behaviour and progress, feels like every few days she is improving in leaps and bounds. So she got cuddles and apples (not a canibal!) then went back into her paddock with a nice big feed.