I've been missing in action for a little while - I work in a school, so this is our extra crazy time of year. But, the year is winding down, so I'm back:)
In addition to showing, another goal that seemed eons away was jumping. My trainer and I had decided to wait until Maggie chronologically turned 4 in April to start jumping her. Maggie cooperated with this plan by giving us more than enough to work on before we could even consider jumping!
Before April, we started incorporating trot poles into our lessons. Maggie learned this very quickly - she may slow herself down approaching the poles to "assess the situation", but she has never stopped, and she always gets herself through beautifully. (This from a horse who spooked the first time she saw a pole roll!)
For one lesson early in April, my trainer lunged Maggie over jumps. She was a little fiesty on the lungeline that night. Annie set up a grid of trot poles with a little cross rail in the middle. Maggie just took a big step over it. We turned it into a little vertical. Maggie just took a big step over it. We made it a bigger vertical (2 feet or so). Maggie finally jumped it. Like with the trot poles, she stood back a little to figure it all out, but never put on the brakes. It made me feel good that she wouldn't be the type of horse to throw herself willy-nilly at a jump. The second time through, she hit the jump, and then the last time through she jumped big to clear it (also making me feel good that she figured that out).
In the saddle, we started with a grid of trot poles with a little pile of poles at the end. The first couple of times, she just took a big step over them, but when I gave her a little kick right before the pile, she "jumped" (it was a grey area as to whether it could really be considered a jump, but from where I was sitting, it felt jump-like)
The next lesson we started the same, and then made the pile of poles into an itty-bitty vertical, which Maggie jumped just fine (no grey area that time!) We also tried a cross rail and a slightly bigger vertical, both of which she jumped perfectly. All in all, it was a non-event - Maggie jumped as if she'd been doing it forever.
In the next lesson, we continued building up, by turning the jump into a little oxer. No problem. We also changed things up by having Maggie jump in the other direction (up to this point, the little grid had been in the same spot in the ring, so that she was jumping away from the barn and turning right afterwards) Annie built a little oxer going towards the barn, and also took away the trot grid (just leaving a placing pole) Maggie didn't get herself to the jump quite right, but didn't panic and just jumped big/round to get over it. The next time through she figured it out.
Since Maggie has taken it all in stride (pun intended), we are going to just keep building up her skills. The plan is to work towards having just a placing pole in front of a single jump. Also, adding another jump to the grid (a 2-stride first and then a 1-stride) I'm also hoping to get her out to a XC schooling and see if she'll jump over the little Green as Grass jumps.
I'm excited about how well Maggie is doing so far, and she seems to enjoy jumping. Our development of a future eventing superstar is right on track!
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