Hot to Trot

It was dark and gloomy but the rain held off enough that they agreed to proceed with the planned cross country school.

As they headed out the farm manager announced he was upping the skinny thoroughbred's grain. He was so hard to keep weight on! Jill wished for fattening that would not make him any more hyper.

Off the trailer and warming up in the stadium ring the horse was strong. Jill looked forward to the future planned outings where they would unload and only do CALMING flat work but that was not the plan for this time. First the coach popped them over the small white picket, then the small planks to a 1 stride combination. And then they were off to the big fields! Yikes.

She knew the pre-training course and went to between 3&4 to make the turn that Jill had not even planned to make on showday. Busted! They did it first the easier fence around the corner and then repeated the exercize with the tighter turn to the pre-training fence. d o n e. The tip of angling it right to left for a bit more time to turn was very useful. The teacher could totally relate to Jill's need for tricks for such a fast beast... her only horse not listed for the Equestrian Team was much like Jill's mount.

Then they were sent on a gallop all the way around the biggest field. The coach, groom and owner watched as he really tried to take off, including little rears, hops and his rooting down hard on the reins trick. Jill thought she did an okay job of riding the rhythm instead of fighting him, and not collapsing when he sucked back and then forward to try to yank her out of the saddle. ha.

Her teacher had once called this game "survival of the fittest." and suggested Jill take up skipping as a way to cross train between rides. Jill was motivated enough to actually do it, for her own protection. "The healthier you are, the less hurt when you fall. Right?"

**

Then they did a tiny log-drop and turned a sharp left for a gallop stretch.
Then they came back and did a bigger log-drop with the same sharp left up a bank.

He was good.
But the teacher asked afterwards "was he in control?" Jill answered YES, thinking they must have been fast.

how about letting the teacher get him down the step? he begins to freak out, even though he'd done it fine on showday, which freaks Jill out because she's terrible at drops in the first place and so the teacher hops on and really has to ride to get him to do it...