Icebreaker H/J schooling show

Roxie giving Serena the eye, Jasper standing still for a few seconds.

Jasper got a blue ribbon in a HUNTER class! It was fantastic, he just... flowed. To be honest, just getting around the course was an achievement in itself. The arena is large and industrial and scary, the jumps were decorated and horse-eating. The first two riders fell off in our blue ribbon winning class (at the same fence) and there were quite a few refusals after that.

Jasper jumped every single jump every time I asked. The first jumper round was not pretty. We swerved here and there and ended up trotting into most of them. The second round we knocked over a standard. He was acting green, not naughty. I had absolutely no doubt he would be cantering the courses by the end of the day. And once he settled in and figured out what was going on, and after I quit holding him back and just let him go his own pace, things started to click. We had 3 fantastic classes. The Gambler's Choice class (I think we got 3rd), the 2'6 eq class (2nd), and a hunter class (1st!).

I quit trying to do simple changes each time he landed on the wrong lead. It was chopping everything up and throwing off the rhythm. I decided to just let him canter on and address the changes at another time.



I forgot where I was going and started circling the wrong way. I mean, I meant to.

It was really fun to have Serena and Roxie there, they rocked it. Serena's boyfriend Matt did the video-ing, thanks Matt!

Serena and I are getting ready to take Jasper and Roxie to Tulip Springs Eventing facility down in Kennewick this weekend for a clinic with Yves Sauvignon (sp?). Stadium on Sat. and cross country on Sun.