Feisty Funs!

 Laura invited me to come over and jump the little technical stuff in front of the arena at Ashland today. So we went! I hacked over there and of course, she spooked at the upside down water troughs again. Laura said even the Ashland horses were spooking at them. That made me feel a little better. :) 

 

She was frisky! It didn't help that it was really chilly and the wind was blowing. And then a truck pulling about 4 roundbales came by. Then 3 riders came up from a trail ride. Then they turned their horses out after and had their dogs with them. Then the flatbed without the roundbales came rattling by again. I should have been doomed! But luckily, she was a pretty good girl. Especially considering she was already amped up. We warmed up and she was a bit forward and squirty but settled quite nicely. We had only done a little bit of trotting and then Laura went to jumping so we just sat and ate grass and watched. That area is kind of tight and I didn't want to get in her way. Funny was good while she went and they made a lot of it look easy! So then it was our turn. Laura dropped one of the bigger jumps and then moved the barrel to where it had wings instead of just being the single barrel. And then the "point" jump she dropped too and made it more inviting. 

 

So we went. I trotted a bit again and then cantered her through the low cavalettis. The first time through she just cantered through all lovely like. Actually, the whole cantering from the get go was nice and hunter like. And the left lead too! But then the second time through she didn't quite hit it right and scrambled. Hee hee. Not quite as bad as the bouncy llama horse though. So then we just started jumping some things. She did the tiny skinny on the ground. We did the point but I started with jumping it like a vertical on the one side. Then we did it from the non-pointy side. Then we did that to the next vertical and she totally blew out past the jump and then tried to crow hop a time or two. Doh! I steered better the next time through. Then we did the skinny white cavaletti block jump. Then the two stride. And then I figured I'd try the barrels. Which, ha... when we first walked up, she ignored and was grazing next to them. Then as I picked her up to start working, she spooked at them. Laura was smart and suggested she move it to a better location so it didn't roll and then even put the two purple cavaletti blocks on either side as wings. Which, in retrospect.... weren't very "wingy". And might have just served to act as making it wider vs actual standards or wings. But regardless, Funny jumped right over it. Then she got squirrely and squirted past it the next time. Goober. We finished with a pretty jump over the wagonwheel vertical. Pretty darn good pony. She was still lacking steering and still lacking adjustability. But, when I let go of her head, she had some nice jumps. And she's freakin' brave. Those were pretty small fences, but they were new fences, in a new place, tightly clumped together, skinnies, and some had weird decor. So... I'm quite proud of her. She's really going to be so much fun!

 

So then we went for a hack. Funny led some and Smarty led some. We even trotted a tiny bit together. Funny was a teeny bit naughty doing that. She pinned her ears at him and for a split second I thought she might turn her butt in and kick at him. But she didn't. And they didn't turn it into a race! We split up and headed our separate ways and Funny got a little upset. But not bad. I was able to keep her going and she didn't do anything more than wiggle. So then we headed up the field in XC and I opted to jump one log. She tried to run at it the first time so I had to pull her up. She was more polite the second time. But she was still so full of energy that I decided we would go do the hills behind stadium. Or maybe even take a little walk/trot/canter minute in stadium. It was empty so we went in. She was on the muscle but we got a good trot. The grid from before was still set up but the last two fences were now just canter poles and the trot in poles had been removed. So... what the heck! It was a crossrail, vertical, crossrail bounce and they were tiny. Plus the two canter poles were great placing poles. So we trotted in and she picked up the cantered, cantered the placing poles, and then just bounced happily through the grid like a seasoned pro! Okay girl... let's try again to make sure it's not a fluke. Not a fluke... another easy peasy breeze through. So then we had another little trot and then walked the hills behind the jump arena for a tiny bit longer. Then we had to go home. It felt like we could have used another hour of walking, but... it was cold and Mike and I were planning to put up my porch lights. 

 

Good pony! Tomorrow is dressage lesson day. And then on Tuesday is jump lesson day!