Jumping Horses

We practiced jumping horses a couple of times this week. On Wednesday I set up three different sized jumps and had everyone see how far they could get with their horses. We have new riders now, so they had their first introduction to jumping. I did not ride that night as I had been given a steroid shot in my thumb that day and couldn't use my left hand for much. A few people jumped very well, but several were having issues with their horses. I noticed these horses were not jumping smoothly, but were sticking their noses way down to look at the pole before they'd leap over it.

On Friday my hand was feeling well enough for me to ride again, so I gave the Wonder Horse a whirl over the jumps. He'd given me a lot of trouble the previous weekend during the Military Child event, so I wasn't expecting much. However, he was having one of his good days, so I had a great ride with him. He did not get over excited and he did not hesitate at the jumps at all. I started out with a low cross-bar jump and then changed to verticals and gradually increased the height.

Martina and Lisa S were with me and did some jumping also. Lisa was riding Kidd and did fairly well but was consistently behind the saddle and rocking after each jump. I couldn't figure it out until I later noticed that her saddle was too far forward and I believe that was causing her legs to slip forward and thus putting her weight behind the saddle. Martina was having a hell of a time with Chili and Cochise. She could get them over the obstacles, but it was a major battle each time. I had ridden Cochise the previous weekend and had several really good runs through the jump course and we were all surprised at his inability to function normally a week later. Chili has always had problems but Martina can usually get him to jump. He does fine in the training area next to the stables but, for some reason, couldn't jump poles in the arena. On our way back from the arena, Martina took Chili over the jumps in the training area with now problems.

Yet another horse training mystery.