The end of a short lived saga
Unfortunately, I will no longer be riding Zoey. As cute and sweet as she is, she scares me, and I told myself, in this case, that I would not continue to ride her if I got scared. It's just not a good idea. However, there is a local Hunter Derby happening over winter that I might be able to do depending on the cost. There's a first place prize of $1300, so hopefully I can try my hand at that.
There was no kicking out this time when I got on. She was a lot more up today, and wasn't too happy about me trying to sit the trot. One of the things I love about her is her smooth trot, but her going giraffe when I try it isn't encouraging. She did kick out when we tried to canter though. Her canter was okay-ish. We had more good strides than last time, but she was just so tense and freaking out the whole time.
Miss S had us trot a circle with one crossbar. Everyone else was trotting in then picking up the canter, but I did not feel comfortable cantering her over anything. She trot around fine to the left minus the speeding up only to trot over the thing on the first go. Then she trot fine to the right, so, on the third lap, I let her cater over it (bad idea). She's not crazy before the fence, and she doesn't have a crazy jump. It's after the fence where shit gets out of control. I cantered over it twice, and it was okay, and it was still only okay going to the left. She actually breaks more than you think, and she's pretty good about coming back down, but rushing after the fences is never a good thing, no matter how quickly she slows down again.
It was getting dark (darn winter and it's early sunsets), so we moved into the indoor to finish up. There were four jumps set up, so Miss S had us each do two courses. She set everything low enough for me to trot over. I didn't go for any tight turns; I just wanted to keep things simple . . . but then idiot me decided that it would be a good idea to try cantering the course. Twice. Again, going up to the jump was fine, and going over the jump was fine, but coming out of the jump is hectic.
What stinks about all this is that she has so much potential. Her talent happens to be paired with some loose screws. On her approaches, she is so in tune to what I ask. She's already good about picking her distances. She's careful with her feet. Her form is flawless, and *knock on wood* she didn't refuse anything. She pooped over one of the fences. There was fecal matter on that jump. I think she'd make a fabulous jumper, or, if someone could tighten those screws, she'd be hard to beat as a large hunter pony, but she's not gonna go much of anywhere with me on her back.
On the plus side, I want to do some liberty work with her. She's already following and trotting with a voice command (and some speed from me). I have to get the "Stay" command a bit more, erm, happening? She doesn't quite understand that I don't need her to chaperone me while I put the saddle on the arena fence. She didn't follow me into the tack room though, so it's a start.
There was no kicking out this time when I got on. She was a lot more up today, and wasn't too happy about me trying to sit the trot. One of the things I love about her is her smooth trot, but her going giraffe when I try it isn't encouraging. She did kick out when we tried to canter though. Her canter was okay-ish. We had more good strides than last time, but she was just so tense and freaking out the whole time.
Miss S had us trot a circle with one crossbar. Everyone else was trotting in then picking up the canter, but I did not feel comfortable cantering her over anything. She trot around fine to the left minus the speeding up only to trot over the thing on the first go. Then she trot fine to the right, so, on the third lap, I let her cater over it (bad idea). She's not crazy before the fence, and she doesn't have a crazy jump. It's after the fence where shit gets out of control. I cantered over it twice, and it was okay, and it was still only okay going to the left. She actually breaks more than you think, and she's pretty good about coming back down, but rushing after the fences is never a good thing, no matter how quickly she slows down again.
It was getting dark (darn winter and it's early sunsets), so we moved into the indoor to finish up. There were four jumps set up, so Miss S had us each do two courses. She set everything low enough for me to trot over. I didn't go for any tight turns; I just wanted to keep things simple . . . but then idiot me decided that it would be a good idea to try cantering the course. Twice. Again, going up to the jump was fine, and going over the jump was fine, but coming out of the jump is hectic.
What stinks about all this is that she has so much potential. Her talent happens to be paired with some loose screws. On her approaches, she is so in tune to what I ask. She's already good about picking her distances. She's careful with her feet. Her form is flawless, and *knock on wood* she didn't refuse anything. She pooped over one of the fences. There was fecal matter on that jump. I think she'd make a fabulous jumper, or, if someone could tighten those screws, she'd be hard to beat as a large hunter pony, but she's not gonna go much of anywhere with me on her back.
On the plus side, I want to do some liberty work with her. She's already following and trotting with a voice command (and some speed from me). I have to get the "Stay" command a bit more, erm, happening? She doesn't quite understand that I don't need her to chaperone me while I put the saddle on the arena fence. She didn't follow me into the tack room though, so it's a start.
 |
| Good pony |
awww she's cute. Doing a Hunter derby would be fun and I'd be oh so jealous!
ReplyDelete