Aspen Farms course walk

XC course walk at Aspen Farm Horse Trials, Beginner Novice...
(I took these after the event, was too nervous to do it before!)

1- Baby logs into the deep dark woods.

The deep dark woods

2- Logs next to a big dark scary jump. He was overwhelmed by his surroundings and we had our only refusal here...

Log jump in the speckled shade, I was worried about this one because the lighting was really harsh and the jump was hard to see. Wasn't a problem.

Around a bend and... Spooky slatty thing. I was nervous about this one because of all the light coming through it, it almost seemed to move as you approached it. I believe we cleared this one by about twice the height and depth needed.

After the slatty thing he found his pace. He pulled me to these big logs on a slight uphill slope. Up the hill, bend to the right and...

What the hell? This was dark and slatty. I decided to trot from a long ways away so he could get a look at it as long as possible before we got here. He came to a trot, saw the jump, broke into a canter and sailed over it.

Bend left and... huge barrels. The worst part was that it looked like you were jumping out into space as it was at the top of a hill. You couldn't even see the landing until about 2 or 3 strides out, so I chose to trot to this one as well. Jasper, however, was having none of the trotting stuff and about here picked up the canter and popped over it out of stride.

After the barrels was a pretty steep downhill gallop, then back up...

The approach to the next fence. This one was big and intimidating and at the top of a pretty good hill. Right before you got there the water complex appeared on the right, white land marking tape in front, and a big downhill on the left.

I didn't want to trot because I was worried about losing power on the hill and felt we needed a pretty strong canter to get over it. This was one of my biggest concerns. Jasper didn't even hesitate.

Left bend down a long hill to this jump hidden in the hillside. Cantered part way down, lost balance, and trotted. Picked up the canter, steered off the main thoroughfare and he pulled me to this one.

180 degree turn and back up the hill. Left bend to the up bank. I wasn't worried about this and he sailed up it. Maybe a bit fast...

Closely followed by this one on a downhill slope. We schooled this one at the clinic, whew!

Little log rails headed toward the water complex. Isn't the ship cool?

Cantered toward the water complex. Cantered through the water complex. Nuff said.

180 degree left hand turn and over the kayak. He took a good look at this one but didn't hesitate.

Last fence on course- giant black jump of doom. At 1:08 in the afternoon it was in the shade. It was a giant dark imposing shadow. It was huge, no one could believe it was on a BN course. This was a big concern as well due to it's size... needed a big canter/gallop. I started preparing for this one a long ways back, pulling his head up, leg on, clucking... he didn't seem to see what the big deal was.

OK, more later, finished up my working student experience and the pony and I got home this evening. Woot!