Weekend Update

Some fun photos from the action over the weekend here at Bit of Honey Training.  We had Cole and Jasi tearing up the arena and flying over fences together.

Check out Cole's knees!!  The tight knees and the expression on his face perfectly illustrate his love of jumping and teaching.

Notice as well that Cole rides and jumps exactly the same whether he has a bit in his mouth or not.  Jasi even mentioned that she forgot she had no bit for a while because Cole was exactly the same without it.  I like to get riders started jumping without a bit in the horse's mouth, that way if there is a goof up or the rider accidentally pulls back on the reins they don't have to worry that they were rough on the horse's mouth.  Especially as she progresses to jumping larger fences it's nice to not have to worry about it while she's learning.  The bridle I use on Cole for this is a leather noseband that has rings attached to it for reins.  If you're looking to purchase one you would search for "jumping hackamore," although I don't know anyone else who uses a hackamore like this for jumping.  Here is a closer look at it:

Cosmo got to come out for some liberty work in the round pen, too.  Jasi wanted to learn how to do liberty training (no lead rope or equipment) with a horse, and Cosmo is a fun one to play with.  Here is a cute video of him turning, walking, trotting, and jumping with Jasi at liberty.

Highboy enjoyed some jumping this weekend, too.  He likes to watch Cole, I swear Highboy is a sponge absorbing everything he sees and learning from it.

Highboy and I also upped the height of some of the fences to push him a little. Joan helped us out by being jump crew while Kim H. took photos.  Miles and Highboy of course wanted to help.

I first introduced the higher height to him as a cross-rail.  The center of the fence was quite low, but visually it looks large because we had the sides of the poles in the highest jump cups.  Highboy eats up the fences, he is always eager to give it a go.  This large cross rail was no sweat for him.

Once he had happily cleared it a few times each direction we raised it to a vertical.  This fence was about 4'3".  Highboy make quick work of it, rocking back on his haunches and propelling us into the air. 

In later examination of the photos I discovered that I caused him to knock down the pole at this height.  I hesitate to give him a large release with my hands because he so often performs his touch-down dance on the landing side of the jumps with bucking and twisting.  If I let him have his head entirely, the odds of me coming off on the other side are pretty good.  We'll continue to work at the slightly lower heights until he isn't bucking as much, then I'll give him his head over the larger fences when he's proven he's trustworthy.

I love this photo for illustrating the release of hands over fences.  In this picture we were warming up, meaning Highboy was cavorting around after landing.  Because of that I'm doing a smaller crest release, my hands are on his mane and not too far up his neck so I can maintain control of him as soon as we land.  If you look at the lines drawn in the photo, you can see the ideal of a straight line from Highboy's bit to my elbow.  If I were doing an automatic release over the jump my hands would be following his head down into the stretch in order to allow him head room and consequently the ability to lift his back more over the fence.  The shorter arrow shows where my hand should be in order to give him the maximum rein.  A great educational photo!

Highboy's warmups are getting progressively more civilized, though, as evidenced by this nice trotting picture.

He still enjoys a flair for the dramatic, though.  Warm up fences that are too small are (in his mind) just cause for catapulting over as though they were huge.

There is always time to snack in between rounds, though.  He likes to munch on the tumbleweeds that meander into the arena while he watches his friends take turns jumping.

Walsh watched us ride from his paddock, then he got a turn to come out and play.  He still gets remarkably tense when I do even very minimal jumping with him, so the plan for him for the next week or so is to do liberty work in the round pen over fences.  When jumping purely for the fun of it and to earn cookies, it's hard to get tense and worried.  Hopefully this new perspective on jumping will translate to saddle work for Walsh.

Highboy and Joan are in love.  They spent some time at the end of his ride smooching.  Kim H. took the photo of them and Jasi said they looked like engagement photos and I should photoshop a diamond ring onto Joan's finger.

At the end of it all, you know it was a full day when even the border collies are tired.