Jump Day!

Every morning Buck writes in "the book" what all the horses are doing that day. So far since I've been down here, all that's been written next to Donald and Hewie is "trotting". Yesterday we spiced it up, we did 40min instead of 20. Trotting on Donald is horrendously boring, and a little painful. He's so big that is trot is sort of bone-jarring. Awesome. Hewie is the opposite, he's so exciting to trot. Exciting does not = Pleasant. Instead of trotting he mostly leaps and bolts, with his tail straight up in the air like an Arab. My horses are cool.

Low and behold, when I showed up to the barn this morning.. What was written next to their names? JUMP. The activity that makes all other horse-related activities bearable! Sweet sustenance of life! I finally was released from trotting prison!

Since the horses did so well at their fall 3-days, they had most of the winter off. After a tough year competing I like to give them at least 4-6 weeks of rest. This was the first time they had jumped since mid-October. I expected to be a little rusty, but I didn't expect to be this bad... we started jumping over a 2'6 oxer so naturally, like any experienced Advanced level rider, I come around the corner and charge at it full speed, while Donald's head is straight up in the air. Nice. I got a serious reprimand for not being able to jump a Beginner Novice sized fence. Failure.

After the fences got bigger we got better. We did some good gymnastics and I was surprised how rideable Donald was and how clean he was jumping. Hopefully I can keep this going all spring. Hewie jumped like a million bucks, but as usual, rode like crap. Rooting and crowhopping in between the fences, barely steerable. Sometimes when I ride him, I'm not really sure what his legs are doing underneath me.

My baby horses are continuing to go well. We are painting jumps at the house to we have stuff to school them over. They are also sick of trotting.

xo

k