Free Jumping Sunday

I needed to do some work in the jumping chute with Sam, Joan's new gelding, to help him slow down and just jump whatever fence is presented to him, instead of going faster and faster and jumping larger and larger when going through a line of ground poles.  To get him to slow down and think  instead of rushing through, I put him in the jumping chute with a long series of bounce distance cavalletti.  The small fences encourage him to jump conservatively, and the 10' distances between them encouraged him to slow down.

After Sam had figured out he was working way too hard and finished for the day we sent a few of the other horses through.  Rain thought it was great!

Beauty also enjoyed her trips through the chute!

Dewey started out slow as molasses, as usual, but eventually figured out that he needed at least a LITTLE impulsion to clear the jumps rather than just walk through them.  In this first photo Sara is asking him why he won't just jump it?

Then Dewey stepped it up a notch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-meIlGIMxc

Which earned him lots of praise and cookies.

Lastly I brought Ferriana down to the arena and let her warm up over the fences on which the other horses had finished.

It didn't take her long to get her head in the game, so I raised the last oxer to about 4' high, with a 4' wide spread.

No problem - she cleared it with minimal effort.

This was a fun morning, everyone enjoyed watching their horses' form over fences without riders!  Thank you to Jasi for the photography and Sara for taking the videos.