Jump Baby Jump

Quest and I tried something new this weekend. It's not big or fancy at all but it was exciting for us!

Before the little impromptu jump session, Quest and I took advantage of the dreary, rainy weather clearing up that morning to hit the trails for a quick workout. We did a nice w/t/c warmup in the indoor arena first and set off on the trails. The days of non-stop torrential rain swept away the largest chunks of gravel on the dirt roads and we were left some fantastic footing for decent trotting sections.

We managed to get a solid 4 miles in less than an hour and also visited the mini XC course for three hill sprints. On the last sprint,  I let Quest open up and she immediately obliged, surging up the incline in powerful strides with her tail flagged in the air. When we came to a gradual stop at the top of the hill, Quest looked so pleased with herself haha I have to remember to bring my GoPro out next time so I can get video.

Quest and I had gotten a lot done on the trail by then so we headed back into the arena where we had left A and Mel. While we waited for them to finish, mareface and I played with baby jumps!

The standards were already set up so I just reconfigured the poles for our newbie use. We did a quick ground pole trot review first and then moved up to baby cross rails. Quest wasn't very impressed and trotted over them evenly and neatly each time....Well, at least she didn't rush though or start cantering.

I changed it back to the original set up and added some trot poles for the approach. Our first few attempts were more trotting with much gusto but eventually Quest figured out that she needed to pick up her legs.

Slowly figuring it out together

It was really neat to see how Quest used the steady repetition of a basic pattern to figure out where to put her feet. She never rushed or worried though, just took it like "Oh okay, we're doing this now."

I admit that I've never taken actual jumping lessons so this is me messing around and having fun with my horse. So there are lots to improve on, for starters I need shorten my stirrups from trail length to something more jump appropriate and move my hands higher on her neck. I do believe knowing how to jump properly is an essential, all-round equestrian skill to have though so it'd be well worth the time and effort to learn in the long run.

While I don't think we'll ever go huge or fancy since I'd rather save Quest's legs for endurance, this really was SO fun to see if we could actually do it. We both get super bored in the indoor so I think it'd be good for our mental sanity to throw in a baby jump from time to time during our arena work session days just to get the energy up and going again. Best of all mareface seemed to really enjoy herself with her ears pricked up and brain totally engaged. And I didn't eat dirt either- I say that was a win in it of itself haha