We didn't have lessons today and my saddle fitting got postponed so... I met Laura for a little jump school. And we got lucky because the forecast was bad but it ended up barely raining so we got to play!
Before I left for our ride, I did pillar work with all 3 ponies in the arena. Dan included. (Poor Flecky got left out). So when we got to Ashland I just warmed up under saddle without doing our pillar work. Laura wasn't down there yet, so I went in the dressage arena with Kelli and did some walking, trotting and cantering on the buckle for our warm up. He felt pretty decent. Then Laura arrived, so we said by to Kelli and Marvin and headed up to the jump arena. The fences were probably set at mostly beginner novice, with a few novice ones. Oh, and one cross rail. After we warmed up, I popped him over the cross rail a few times. And then, we jumped some. I tried to stick to the smaller stuff, but.. the two stride looked so fun. And then, there was a 2 to a 1, and I couldn't help it, so we did that too. And he felt good. In the very beginning he was taking the flyers. I told Laura that I wasn't sure if he was hurting... or just excited...or unwilling to tighten up... was it me? So.. ha... I decided okay... guess I sit up and ride him like he's not hurting and see what happens. And... he was willing to sit to the base. Most of the time. And he felt good and game and happy. So, I couldn't help myself... we jumped the bigger oxer! Wheee. The first time he totally took the long spot. Whoops. So we had to fix it. :) But we did.
So then we went for a hack. I had already told Laura that he was so upset at the beach that I wasn't sure I wanted to trail ride because he gets upset behind Smarty but won't walk fast enough to stay ahead of Smarty. She offered to keep Smarty behind him, so.. we went. And we picked some wide trails so they were side by side a good bit. And then Smarty got ahead a bit but Dan didn't seem to mind. He really wasn't even chompy! So phew!!! I don't know why he was so upset at the beach.
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