Moqui Meadows June Cross Country Day

Today we went back to Moqui Meadows in Johnstown for another day of cross country schooling rounds.  I took Raven and we did the Novice level course twice.  I had a completely different horse than last time I took her to an event.  Mostly because it was just Raven and me, no other horses from our barn came.  Since Raven could only look to me for support, she focused on me and there were no temper tantrums because of wanting to return to her barn friends.  Raven of course made faces at the other horses in the warmup because she has such a large personal space bubble, but otherwise had an uneventful warmup.

The first time through the course she was very looky and had to slow down to get a good view of each fence before she jumped it.  It made sense to me, she hadn't ever done these jumps before.  We'd only done the level below this in the past.

At the last fence in the first round she hit her front legs hard on the top of the jump.  She hit hard enough that she knocked her left front boot down her leg a bit.  This made her mad and after scrambling on the landing she did some bucking and striking with the mis-booted leg.  I got her stopped, and then made her walk civilly through the finish flags.  I was grateful I had her boots on!  Since these fences don't fall down it's important to have leg protection on the horses in case they hit them as Raven did.

The second round went better.  Since Raven had already taken a good look at everything she was much more forward and brave, and overall it was much smoother.

This bank was pretty entertaining to watch. We jumped the log, and ideally it would have been two canter strides to hopping down a small bank.  I haven't schooled banks much with Raven yet, so this was a new question for her.  The result was a nice hop over the log, then lurching to a trot then halt.  She stood at the top of the bank and stared down skeptically out of her right eye.  I managed to convince her to try it.  She decided to squat down, then launch forwards with a poof of dust behind her.  I somehow managed to stay aboard and we were on to the next fence. 

It was a great day, and for once Feisty McSassypants left some of the sass at home.

Here is a short video of how her second round went:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13ldcSSL97M&index=18&t=0s&list=PLSz03UJfRRFSi72-rjWPQIAm8UElpu-st