We're NOT jumping today Dan... NOT

 Good gravy! Today was.... a day. It was a pleasant enough day that I only had to adjust 5 horses, it was warm, and while there was a lot of driving, I was still home by 4ish, even with stopping at Kroger for a last minute gift. And I had planned ahead and drug the arena and moved some jumps and set up the cavaletti's, so... I tacked Dan up and off we went. 

I took the pivo out so that I could use it to see how collected his trot gets over the cavaletti's and thus compare his regular trot and also compare our version of the collected trot. Sounds good right?! Right... except.. freakin' pivo. I swear... that thing is not only worthless, but worse than worthless because it makes me so irritated that every time I look at it it's facing the pasture so I get so irritated at it and it messes up my ride because I need to go circle back behind it to catch it's "eye" again. I'm not sure it's even worth bothering anymore. It just makes me so cranky. Which isn't fair to Dan. So I told myself to just ignore it and ride. 

We did our transitions. He's getting better and better! Our canter to walks are almost getting smooth, although still a few too many trot steps. BUT.. not abrupt so progress! And his upwards are mostly good if I can remember to keep the inside bend. Then we did some trot work and tried to get some collection. So then I went towards the cavalettis. And good gravy! I don't entirely know what happened but Dan basically tried to bounce through them. Which.. is utterly impossible. Bless him though he did his best to get us out, and at the the last one he basically launched me over his head and I hit my pommel hard with my gut and then whiplashed back. Okay. NO... we're NOT jumping today Dan. That was yesterday. So... we tried again. Yep, same deal. So then I (sadly... and regrettably) ripped his face off, because.. Dude... just trot! We tried again and this time he walked through them halfway then halfway jumped. Okay.. what the heck? We did not have NEARLY the struggles at Rana's. I walked them repeatedly.. they are 5 footsteps apart. Maybe they're higher than Rana's??? so then I tried taking down the first and third one and just making them poles on the ground. Nope.. that didn't work either. So... I just gave up. What the heck?? I have no idea what's happening. The only thing I can think of is that they are too tall, but... I mean... their cavaletti's? I thought they were fairly standard. Guess I'll have to build my own. Or just only do cavaletti's with a competent person on hand. 

So we just quit with the cavalettis'. I knew Dan was a little irritated as here he was... doing his best to be clever with his feet through this tiny impossible grid I set for him... meanwhile I'm ripping his face off... and getting mad at him. So... we went back to the canter and fun stuff and he got lots of praise. Partially because he needed to be told he was a good boy and partially because... he was honestly really super! We had some seriously lovely canter half passes!! And even held the counter canter!!! We also did some simple changes, some three loop counter canter serpentine, and some fancy trot halfpasses! Keeping my outside elbow at my side has really helped with the canter and trot halfpasses. We did a medium or two and then called it quits. I'll have to figure out the cavaletti's another day. 

Then he got a rinse because it was that warm and in theory I'd like him to be clean for Freddie tomorrow. Then he got dinner and then he got adjusted. He's holding up nicely! Tomorrow morning new shoes and then... if it doesn't rain, a lesson. But it's looking like rain. :(