Baby Jumping.

Bobby was on his game today. I took him to the outdoor to enjoy the sunshine and still semi-warm weather and tweaked our starting to get boring (in a good way) line.

where we finished up, minus the singing skunk dog.

I had him in his running martingale which he always gets when we jump and the slow twist loose ring. He used to go in this all the time on the flat until I switched him to the full cheek. He goes really well in it, and I don't think it's really all that brutal of a bit. In it, all he needs is a "yoo hoo" instead of a "HELLLL-OOOOO!" to bring him back. Like wearing spurs, I'd much rather have small cues with more hardware than big, constant adjustments with the mildest thing you can use. But that's just me. I'm sure plenty of you disagree!

He warmed up pretty decently. Nothing spectacular, but I was planning on jumping so I didn't want to spend all our time working towards ten minutes of super trotting. His muscles were warm, he picked up both leads right off, and he didn't have his nose stuck straight into the air.

We trotted and cantered through the line with the poles on the ground, then cantered through with the first rail up, then both rails at the tiny height of the first. It might have been because I whacked my head incredibly hard on the trailer door frame yesterday, but each time I came around, I could hear someone I clinic-ed with as a kid saying, "Esponga! Esponga the reins!" All I remember was that it was a grid jumping clinic and I was about eight. I can't for the life of me remember who it was, but I clearly remember the "Esponga!" And it made me laugh. But it was working well. I wasn't getting too fussy with the reins and Bobby was responding like a gem.

We had a few awkward runs mainly due to the canter not being right, but overall, purty darn decent. I finished up with the back jump at 2'3 and a clean run over it with a few big, Grown Up Horsie canter circles at the end. Only two months until our first show and I'm still not totally confident he'll even be ready for BN, but we are making forward progress now. Very slow progress, but at least it's not Baby Dick Head Horsie moments every day.

i snagged this baby pad for $8 when i bought a new pair of
gloves at the tack store today. sweet!

Vet tomorrow. I'm going to have her do a neuro test while she's here for reasons I'll explain then.