August 25, 2006

first oxer

Went out to the farm with Swifty so he could take some pictures, lovely day for it too. Missy was glad to have her rug off and Silviapples was just glad to have visitors I think. We set up some jumps in the arena with the hope of getting her over a few before the weekend and maybe getting her to do a real jump (instead of the sort of 'run' over them like she'd done with the crossbar earlier). The blue upright below was the first one we did - and she never ran or stumbled over it at all, jumped it properly from the first go. Though if you look closely at the second picture I have no idea what she's doing with her legs... I'm sure it felt like a normal jump, sure doesn't look like one though.


The barrels were a bit harder, she was quite spooky around them even on the flat - so I had to trot up to and around them several times and pull them apart so she could canter 'through' them a few times as well. But after she decided they were safe she was quite happy to jump them. I'm quite impressed by this as 2 barrels is quite a skinny fence and she was very honest about it. She didn't seem to notice the placement pole too much, but also never touched it, so it must be doing its job!


Then we lowered an oxer that someone else had set up in the arena. I took her over the little blue upright, then cantered straight into the oxer. The first time she slowed down a lot, but I was wrapped when she still hopped over with a little click from me (that's the first photo below), then we came around to do just the oxer again and she didn't slow down at all and got quite a bit more air than I expected over it (second picture - I didn't mean to get her in the mouth - poor pony!).


So all up it was another very successful ride. I'm really pleased with her flatwork and her transitions. She is still chewing at the bit a lot, so a friend is sending up a Myler comfort snaffle for us to try out, hopefully that will be a bit more comfy as she has a lovely soft mouth. So after her big ride I got off her beside the jumps and gave her lots of pats and cuddles.


Then she got a wash down and a big feed, such a good horsey. I'm absolutely stoked with progress she is making.

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