In a severe storm last night, my place was dumped on with rain. The thunder felt like it was sitting on top of my house, and a couple times I thought I should check to make sure none of the nearby outbuildings was hit by lightning!
Everything was fine, and my horses were nonplussed. They just enjoyed the cool rain after a hot day, my three grazing in the storm, with Son of a Lynx hunkered down in the shelter of a tree. I reminded myself that they were in thunderstorms like this all the time in Colorado, so no big deal to them being outside. We got several inches of rain in a short period of time, and my place still had standing water the next morning. Good for the pasture, not as good for footing to ride in!
Thankfully my photographer friend Lena O'Brian invited us to ride at her place again, and while she'd had the lightning and thunder, no rain had fallen to make the fields slick. She was kind enough to not only set up some jumps for us, but also be ground crew while we rode, fixing poles we knocked down., AND she took photos and video of us! We're so grateful to have her nearby!
Son of a Lynx has seen jumps and poles many times now, but because of the footing situation at my place, today was the first we really could really have a proper jump school. I introduced him to distances, bigger crossrails, small verticals, even walking over tires. It's a lot to learn how to balance while carrying a rider, trotting around turns, and then adding obstacles to hop over! This made for a complicated enough ride that Lynx was definitely interested in the questions I was asking him.
Once he had a good look at everything I got him warmed up with some trotting, which he pretty much picks up right away now without pacing first. We then trotted over the small verticals and crossrails so he had a chance to jump each thing individually. You can see in the approach photos that he's really starting to "hunt" the fences, which means he's begun looking for which jump is next, and focusing in on that one.
Because we've done the ground pole work and so much incorporating cross rails into our regular rides around the fields, Lynx is very adept at lifting each foot high enough to get over the obstacle. He can trot over most of these like they are cavalletti, taking them in stride. I don't mind this at all in the beginning. When we're just starting like this I'm only asking for forward and straight, and to go over each thing. It doesn't have to be pretty, he just has to get over it calmly and learn how best to maneuver his body, including each of his four legs. It's always a little humorous to watch them at these very beginning stages, because you can almost see the horse counting in his head, "one, two, three.... now wait, there's a fourth leg to get over this pole?!" Eventually as I raise the jumps higher and he physically MUST jump to clear it, he'll actually do more "jumping" and less "stepping", but for now the goal is to go over them calmly and straight. The jump will come later once they are bigger.
As with every horse new to jumping (and in his case, even still very new to riding itself!), there are always a few bloopers. This cross rail he did fine a couple times, and then he got distracted on an approach and forgot about steering for a second. I don't let them go around it in these situations, I kept him aimed at it even though he was too crooked. He ended up hitting the poles and the standard with the side of his body, knocking the whole thing to the ground. Then he calmly walked over what was now oddly spaced ground poles.
No big deal, it's all learning how to play the game. In general horses don't like to knock things over or hit things with their feet and legs, so there's no need for me to discipline him or make a scene. I just had him try again, and look how he focused in on the jump this time on the approach!
He zoned in on the jump, found the middle, and hopped right over. This horse is a problem solver, and as long as I, the rider, don't stress him out about mistakes, he figures it out and does it right on the second try.
He's figuring out how to lift feet together, first the fronts, then the backs.
I'm happily starting to get a few nice canter strides after we land from some of these jumps. I think this is how he'll start cantering under saddle. When he figures out jumping and gymnastics are more easily done from a canter I'll encourage it when he makes that realization. When he was harness racing he was pulling a cart, and the horses aren't allowed to canter in that situation. He doesn't yet realize that he is allowed to do it in this new riding job, but when he does he'll have it. He's given me a few good canter strides so far, and I'll continue to encourage it. He's very naturally picking up the correct leads for which direction we're going, which tells me his balance is coming along well too.
Here's the video from his last "course" today. He was getting a little tired, which is why he knocked down the fences he did, but ended well with a good effort over the last one.
After we were done, Lena had us line up like at a horse show at the end of the class for ribbons and placings to be announced. We all had a little giggle at the size of Lynx's personal space bubble. He didn't want to walk up too close to Dylan, even though they know each other. When Kathy rode Dylan a little closer to us, Lynx would carefully and politely sidepass away until he had the space he wanted between them. This little scenario played out several times just like that, and then Lena just took the photo while we all laughed.
We cooled out with a ride around Lena's farm, Lynx was in the back this time. I want him to learn to be in any position in the line, front, middle, or behind, so if his future owner wants to trail ride with him he's good in any spot.
Once we got home I let him loose in his stall and run area, and he had himself a long drink. He's been good about drinking when we travel, but there's nothing like your water in your tank at home.
