FestiveFuzz
Well-Known Member
Hopefully i'm not boring everyone too much with these yet. So I was out today with my usual hacking buddies when it was suggested that we pop into the xc field for a bit when we got back to the yard.
Knowing how green H is with jumping I'm always worried my nerves will ruin what little confidence he has so I've avoided jumping him except for popping the odd log whilst hacking. So reluctantly I agreed to join the others with the caveat that we'd have a walk around and see how brave we were feeling but made it clear I didn't want to hold anyone else back either.
It's not the first time I've taken H into an open field but it's definitely the first time we've been in an open field with others but I was so busy getting worked up about jumping that I hadn't even thought about how he'd react when his buddies cantered off over the jumps.
Thankfully he was an absolute superstar, only breaking into a little jog before coming right back to me. He even happily walked along whilst the others cantered on ahead, only cantering when I asked him to. Which has made me feel so much braver about the sponsored ride we're planning to do in March.
Given all my confidence issues stem from the time I viewed the jumping schoolmaster who promptly bolted with me in a xc field and narrowly missed us both being flattened on a road it feels incredible to be able to canter across an open field again without fearing I'm going to end up out of control and I couldn't stop grinning when H slowed back to a trot with just a slight deepening of my seat.
We only jumped a couple of jumps (badly!) which has reinforced my feeling that we need to have some jumping lessons both together and with me on a schoolmaster to ensure that we don't pick up any bad habits, but I'm still hoping we'll be ready to do our first hunter trial in March.
So even though we didn't fly over all the jumps I really feel today has helped me trust H so much more. Every day he just keeps proving how genuine he is and I couldn't ask for a better horse to call my own.
Knowing how green H is with jumping I'm always worried my nerves will ruin what little confidence he has so I've avoided jumping him except for popping the odd log whilst hacking. So reluctantly I agreed to join the others with the caveat that we'd have a walk around and see how brave we were feeling but made it clear I didn't want to hold anyone else back either.
It's not the first time I've taken H into an open field but it's definitely the first time we've been in an open field with others but I was so busy getting worked up about jumping that I hadn't even thought about how he'd react when his buddies cantered off over the jumps.
Thankfully he was an absolute superstar, only breaking into a little jog before coming right back to me. He even happily walked along whilst the others cantered on ahead, only cantering when I asked him to. Which has made me feel so much braver about the sponsored ride we're planning to do in March.
Given all my confidence issues stem from the time I viewed the jumping schoolmaster who promptly bolted with me in a xc field and narrowly missed us both being flattened on a road it feels incredible to be able to canter across an open field again without fearing I'm going to end up out of control and I couldn't stop grinning when H slowed back to a trot with just a slight deepening of my seat.
We only jumped a couple of jumps (badly!) which has reinforced my feeling that we need to have some jumping lessons both together and with me on a schoolmaster to ensure that we don't pick up any bad habits, but I'm still hoping we'll be ready to do our first hunter trial in March.
So even though we didn't fly over all the jumps I really feel today has helped me trust H so much more. Every day he just keeps proving how genuine he is and I couldn't ask for a better horse to call my own.
