Tonight I jumped the accelerating pony in the now-just-spongy-enough paddock. She was great, she jumped everything, including possibly the highest jump we have jumped to date, the plastic barrel and pile of poles on the ground. Better yet, she didn't accelerate.
The most interesting part of tonight's ride was the herd of cows amongst the jumps. We left them be and they chose to exit in true spring time fashion, tails over backs and galloping... for about 50m. Aba didn't mind that at all. We unfortunately upset the horse working in the arena next door though ( sorry Sammy)
She was bitless tonight, it suits jumping for her as she likes to balance into your hands into the jump and the bitless makes me feel happier about that. Also superior riding from me seems to occur when I know she is bitless :)
I love that I can walk a circle, pick a jump, have her take two trot strides, put my leg on and she gives me that great rounded just another canter transition jump. It feels amazing. Also she will jump from just about any angle. Her distances are still a bit wonky, I think I need to work with some ground lines to get her to stand off a bit. I think she has it figured to trot over, then I ask for forward and jump and she runs out of room.
We got some canter time in after jumping. Canter felt better, leads were a bit worse than yesterday. Yesterday I played with doing some simple changes through trot, it worked when I could get the downward transition to trot to be a bit more settled, currently canter to trot is a bit alarming because sometimes she stops dead.
The freshmans may or may not occur tomorrow, work might take over and there is a forecast for strong winds... Ho hum...
Do you know something? This pony is teaching me not to be scared of getting dumped on jumps...oh how I love thee super pony!
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