December 30, 2007

Scuba learns to jump

So Scuba came along to the arena today too, to introduce him to jumps! He travelled really well, and didn't freak out at the donkey (yay). He was most interested in everything around the outsides of the arena while we were warming up, but as soon as we got on task he was really great - he didn't even seem to notice any of the filler.

I started him with the little baby crossbars. He was happy to go over, but trotted over the first bunch of times till he started to work out where front & back legs should go. After that there was no looking back. Pics of warming up, and his first ever jump:
Once he was happy jumping he seemed to just sort a lot out by himself in his head. He was cantering to the fences nice and balanced without changing pace at all, and not fretting if we didn't meet a fence perfectly - he still popped over happily. He did drums and flowers and all sorts of fill that I could find to try and scare him with. He's lovely and tidy with his knees naturally - I think he'll enjoy some little showhunter classes:
He actually did quite a lot of work - but seemed to enjoy himself and certainly learns very quickly. Will now plan to do some hillwork on him and get his fitness up and get him out to a few shows.

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