Sometimes you just have to JUMP

My journey with my big, ugly pony has taken some amazing turns as well as some setbacks. This week was one of those amazing weeks that don’t happen as often as they should, but when they happen they make me fly at the top of the world!

Today, after getting front shoes reset and getting snow pads put on, I decided to enjoy what may be our last warm day for quite a while.  I saddled up my boy in his English saddle, snaffle bridle (western of course), and slipped into a pair of cowboy boots. I haven’t ridden in a proper English saddle in months, so it felt amazing just to get back in that saddle. I started out my ride by warming Bechler up on a loose rein at the walk and trot. Then we built into schooling lateral movement and balanced circles. He is at last really learning how to move off my leg. He will still brace against me at times and be as stiff as a board, but he does know how to move softly off of soft pressure.

After he was soft and responsive at the walk and trot we moved on to the canter. At this point he pretty much automatically picks up his leads. I no longer have a one sided horse! Yay! We transitioned from a nice soft trot to a canter. He wasn’t as chargy as he often is at the canter. After a bit of work, he would do nice round circles at the canter! This is a big deal for the horse that fell through his shoulder into the middle of the arena when I first started working him. He didn’t anticipate the upwards transitions at all! We slowed down through a trot to the walk because he does like to slam on the brakes when given any opportunity.

I set up a cross rail to work over because flat work was going so well. Of course I used our barrel racing barrels as my standards and pole bending poles as my rails… so the jump was very narrow. I trotted him over it a few times in each direction. He was messy with it, but he got over it without rushing, so we decided to try cantering over it. We have only cantered a jump on one occasion before this. When he picked up the canter, his ears perked at the jump. We were off on our striding the first few times, so we took it long once then added a stride another time. The third time I watched our distance a bit more and we were right on. We soared over that tiny cross rail and when we hit the other side I think my horse was just as happy as I was. He cantered away from the jump with a bit of extra spring to his step! I was so proud of my big ugly pony and so proud of how far we have come!