Free Jumping Chute

Today we set up a free jumping chute in the arena.  Normally I do the free jumping with the horses at liberty in the round pen.  Unfortunately, in the last snow storm we had 70+ mph winds, and a quarter of my round pen blew down in the storm.  I purchased supplies today for repairs, but I haven't actually put the walls back together again yet.  So jumping chute in the arena it is!

To set up the arena for this adventure, we organized three jumps.  The first one was to be a cross rail, then 24' to a small vertical, then 36' to a small oxer.  Next we set up the "wall" using the barrels and the rest of the standards and poles to keep the horses jumping straight down the long side of the arena.

Highboy and Raven have done enough jumping at liberty with me in the past that they had the idea already as to what they were supposed to do.  All the same, since they hadn't been in a chute, I introduced it as though they never had done it before.  I began by leading the horse down the chute over ground poles, giving a small cookie after each set of poles with a generous handful from the bucket at the end of the line.  Next time we walked through over small cross rails, with treats at the very end.  By the third time they were totally clear on what they were to do, and ready to do it without me.

This video is of me leading Highboy through the chute to give him the idea.

This video is of Highboy doing the chute on his own.

Raven  and Highboy are so acclimated to how we do things here, they were very easy to direct down the line.  They happily hopped over everything then came straight to either me or Jasi, whoever was set up to catch them and send them through again.

These next four photos are of Raven in the chute, and the video at the end is her jumping her way to me.  After the oxer she calmly stopped and politely asked for her cookie from me.

Lacey also had a chance to go through the chute.  She hasn't been here working with me for very long, and is still learning how the liberty game works.  She also isn't quite as confident in her own jumping abilities, which you can see from her video in how wiggly she is down the line.

She did thoroughly enjoy herself, though!  Lacey did some running and bucking and playing between trips through the chute, and by the end she had the idea.  I was careful to keep the jumps a very manageable size for her, and we quit while she was still having a great time.  This is so she leaves the exercise thinking it was super fun and she's eager to try it again next time.  Here are her photos and video.

The other horses all watched the fun from their paddocks, and the jumping horses all looked eager to try it next.  Should be a fun couple of days as Lacey thinks her way through the jumping and learns to trust herself and her athleticism.