Partners

My last two jump sessions with Mr. Prisoner have been really great.  Nothing super challenging, but through both of them we have felt like a team.  We have been working hard to get to that point.  When things sort of slowly melted down this spring and summer I went back to the basics.  Trotting cross rails and tiny verticals.  Sometimes we put the jumps up a bit, because jumping, but over all I tried to keep it low key.



Here is a random mashup from July (thank you google).  We played with jumping in a hackamore, and while not my favorite long term it certainly was useful.  All that chilling out paid off and we had two very successful shows in October with jumps ranging from 2'6" to 3'3".  Height really isn't the issue for him, straightness and power are.  If I allow him to get crooked or under powered that is when most of our issues rear their ugly head.  Our new good habits are getting to be just that, habits.  Which, leads us into feeling like a team again.  He knows what I'm doing, I know what he is doing, together we get stuff done.

Like this

 I have to apologize for this video.  I was capturing it from the fence, and the first half is totally blurry, but you can still see a blob jumping and also some kick ass lead changes.



The two stride is super tight and the first few times I was happy with, then we took a little break.  The second set of jumps (when video is less blurry) the second time through he got long and instead of sitting up and woahing I just sat there wondering if he was going to do it one stride.  Gah.  He stuck in two (good boy) and then promptly told me after the jump to man up.  The next couple times I had to earn his trust back and then we finished well.  My favorite part of the ride was his honesty and willingness to work with me.   Then yesterday I figured I should jump again since there was snow in the forecast (and yes it is currently snowing).

Like a boss

The jumps were totally tiny, but I had tires scattered around which had the potential to blow his mind.  Guess what!?  They didn't, he was super duper awesome!  I love him.



One more screen shot to leave you with.

Swoon

Hello stretch and knees.