More jumping

Last night we had another lesson where Cash and I weren't communicating very successfully about the speed at which we should approach jumps. He was always such a good boy though - even when we did reach a gallop at the last stride, I never felt like he was about to leave me behind or play up after the jump. However, he deserved a chance to get some good jumping in, and so Meg did a training ride on him today. Of course, I had to record it for my blog :)

First show!

So after 4 days of riding him, I figured it was time that we do our first show! Well, not an official one, but Meg was doing a faux show/clinic at the barn, so I figured we could do a flat and a cross-rails class. I had so much fun!



We did OK in the flat class, coming in 2nd of 4, but our sitting trot wasn't elegant or collected enough, and as you can see in the picture my leg position isn't great. It's a good thing we have plenty of time to practice!



We had done some ground poles and cavalettis (small jumps of about 10") earlier in the week, finishing with a small vertical, but this was the first time I got to jump a whole course on Cash. We started out with a single cross rail, then worked up to doing sections of the course, 3 or 4 jumps at a time.



I think Cash was excited to be jumping again! We would take each corner in a good forward but collected canter, but about 2 strides out from each jump he would leap forward and hurl himself over the jumps. Well, that was how it felt from my end of the reins! (I think my awful position in the photos tells much of the story - sorry Cash, it will get better!) He was such a good boy though, and took care of me, and I am happy to take most of the responsibility for the gallop approaches, as I know I have a habit of forgetting to breathe when we go over fences. However, I decided I needed a little more time to practice breathing and get used to him, so in the end we trotted most of the full course so that I could feel a little more in control of the whole experience. He was an absolute star, and we nailed the 2-stride triple!



I had so much fun, and can't wait to work on breathing, staying calm and just going with him over fences. I can tell he is going to be so much fun when we get out onto the cross-country courses! However, I have to work on jumping some bigger fences first, as the lowest level of eventing, beginner novice, needs a 2'7" stadium round.
Still, I know I have the horse that can take me there!

Thanks to Julie for taking these fabulous photos!

Getting used to Stanford

On Tuesday my trainer Meg took Cash out for his first ride at Stanford. Meg is my crash test dummy and when we were looking at horses up in Seattle/Canada, she rode every horse we tried before I did. That way she could tell me which ones I really shouldn't get on - I have a habit of grabbing on tightly with my legs when I'm nervous, which has the not surprising side effect of making most horses go faster, and this is a bit of a vicious circle. I like my horses quiet and a little behind the leg - stopping is important to me and I would much rather work on getting horses forward. I put this down to being on my side of 30 and knowing how hard it can hurt when you hit the ground!

Cash was, of course, wonderful. He wasn't spooky, and acted as if he had been at Stanford for years. Just to show how obsessed I am with this horse, here are two short videos of him trotting and cantering :)



The only think that surprised him was the mirror at the dressage arena. But after a few minutes of admiring himself he was happy to move on and since then he doesn't even seem to notice it anymore.

Arriving at Stanford

Cash arrived this morning! My first horse - and what a gorgeous one! He was as cool and relaxed as any horse I've known who's just spent 15 hours in a trailer. We got him some water then wandered around in the 85F sunshine (I love CA in March) to stretch out his legs. He was a little worried by the golf balls hurtling through the leaves not far from us (aren't we all - the Stanford golf players aren't always very accurate). But he was a perfect gentleman and didn't pull me around, unlike a certain big Friesian-Percheron cross I know...

I tried to take some "action shots" of him, but apart from his long roll in the dirt:

all he did was eat his hay.

We'll try for more later in the week. In the meantime, he gets today and tomorrow to get used to Stanford before he gets tacked up and taken out.