Miss Pea looked a little sleepy as we were getting tacked up, but once dressed in her pink ensemble looked ready for action.
Raven wore her own leather halter, with "Raven, Bit of Honey Training" engraved on one side, and "Feisty McSassypants" engraved on the other. She was a little put out because, as the trainer's horse, she was the last one ready to go. This is always the case since I needed to check everyone's tack and safety equipment before mounting myself.
Once everyone was outfitted in safety vests and helmets, and had equipment checked we headed out to the course.
I like to introduce cross country jumping to a horse for the first time by having them walk around the fences, to get a good look at them from all angles. Of course the horse isn't allowed to do this at an actual competition, but this practice is great preparation for competition. Letting the horse look at the fences before asking her to go over them makes it much less intimidating for a horse just learning the game. She gets to check out the footing, see the jump and all the shadows surrounding it, and generally determine that it isn't scary when she sees all her friends calmly walking around it. Once she's done this I ask her to go over something very small and unassuming, perhaps after watching her friends jump it a time or two. After the horse has looked at enough jumps and realized they are fun to hop over, she's likely to go over anything I ask for because she's now confident and knows I won't ask for something she can't do.
June impressed us all on this trip. She's spent the past several years almost exclusively as a trail horse. She was happy to be out in the open, and began going over the obstacles as the quiet trail horse she's been trained to be.
However, it didn't take long for her to realize we were also JUMPING out in the open. She likes this job in the arena, but she truly loves it out in the fields.
Mostly I loved seeing the gigantic smile on Joan's face as they flew over the jumps in great balance.
Rain also had a blast on the course. Phoenix had never done this before, but Rain was more than happy to show her how it was done. We realized after the fact that Rain had been sneaking some of June's alfalfa pellets at breakfast, which was the reason she was super eager to do some galloping up hills. Fortunately Phoenix thought it was fun and not scary!
Shambhu and Carol went a little lighter on the jumping, but still had some nice fences and enjoyed being out in the foothills with the barn crew.
When editing the photos we couldn't help but notice Shambhu's fabulous mane and comparing it to the white stallion that Donkey becomes in Shrek 2.
Miss Pea and Jasi were pretty much rockstars on this ride. I think it's been a while since Miss Pea had gone cross country schooling, and she was a little jazzed up at the beginning of the ride. Jasi handled her really well and instilled confidence in her. As a result Miss Pea settled down and was jumping quietly and confidently by the end.
There was a little creek bed we had to cross to get to the other side of the course. Most of the time it's dry, but today there was some water running through. The other horses were fine with it, but Miss Pea was skeptical. She ended up being the last horse through the crossing, and because she didn't want to get left behind she squatted down and launched over! Rebecca caught it on camera and we sure enjoyed the spectacle. Jasi (with the superglue she must put in her breeches) rode it just fine.
Raven did extremely well. Initially she was wound up since she could tell this wasn't just a regular trail ride, but she wasn't sure what to expect. As soon as she realized that this was a fun day of jumping out in the wild open, she became all business. There were a couple times she had to stop and inspect the jumps, but then happily and athletically leaped them from a standstill just as she was taught when we did the walk over exercise. This is a perfect example of why I teach horses how to do it.
There were of course some green horse moments when she had to figure out what to do with all her feet and the photos came out looking like she was climbing rather than jumping.
It didn't take her long to figure out the game, though, and before anyone had a chance to laugh too hard she was rocketing over things with a round back and bascule for days.
I love this photo because I can almost her her saying, "Cool! I love my new job!"
As the cherry on the top of our day, we ran into some old friends of mine. They rode with me and got help with their horses back when I first started Bit of Honey as an LLC over ten years ago. We would run into each other periodically at equestrian functions like the Stock Show or Horse Expo in Denver, but we had a happy reunion at Lory State Park this afternoon when all five of the horse trailers were full of people I knew! In this photo of everyone, from left to right we have me, Carol, Carol, Sandy, Erica, their friend, Jasi, Joan, and Phoenix. The Bit of Honey Crew grows all the time, and it was such fun to see old friends while I coached new ones.
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