A Week In Paradise

Pardon the absence. There's . . . a lot going on.

In short, Fuego is for sale, and for real this time. Trainer T is open to a lease, but I think it's more likely that someone will buy him outright. He had a trial, and because I didn't know what would happen, I opted to keep our progress to myself for the time being. We're past that now, and his future is a little more certain. I'm not sure how much longer our partnership will last, but I am making the most of it.

As of late, Fuego has had a step up and step down: we stepped down in bit and stepped up in height. We've been hacking happily in the D-ring. I need to be a bit more disciplined, but our rides have heavily focused on moving forward, transitions, and no-stirrup work. I'm also trying to canter more. Maybe two-ish weeks ago, I tried cantering a course of poles during our hack ride. It was messy, to say the least, but I've made the decision in my head that this horse is capable of being a solid hunter, and that I need to get it together.

After this ride though, I started thinking that maybe we should try jumping him in the D-ring. He went through the course of poles pretty much identical to how we'd ridden the course in my jump lesson a few days prior: forward and frustrated with me. In the following lesson, as I was hacking, Trainer T out of the blue says, "I wonder how he would jump in the dee."

The world works in mysterious ways.

We attempted a new saddle. If you can't tell by the literal miles between my knee and the knee roll, it didn't work.

Kiddo got the bit swapped, and it was like nothing changed. Sure, we had several disagreements about the triple line, but when he has one element that's difficult while everything else rides fine, I know it's a mental thing. We fought but got through it, and I gave him one good effort over an easier fence before calling it a day.

By the time this past Wednesday rolled around, I had more dumb ideas, as usual. I wanted to ride bridleless. My big, dumb self was just going to try it in the arena straight up, but a more reasonable border suggested we go in the round pen first. Good call.

Initially, he was very confused and didn't understand why he wasn't allowed to eat. It's kind of funny that once he understood things, he was happy to stand in the center of the round pen where all the good grass is and didn't try to eat it at all. We then walked back to the barn from the round pen without incident. Even went past the moving golfcart and poop pile.

I had a slight schedule change this past weekend, so my lesson got moved to a Friday evening. He seems to always go better in the evenings. It poured buckets before my lesson and was just muggy and gross by the time we got out there. He did not want to go forward, and even the whip didn't elicit a consistent forward pace. Oh well, we all have off days.

We warmed up great. My biggest thing while jumping him now is getting decent distances. 

Exhibit A

For some reason, my eye has been off for the past month, and we've ended up in some nasty spots. Our first course was great with only one shoddy distance. We've been using 12"-18" fences to warm up and build up from there. Typically, in my private lessons, we end around 2'-6" and do that height a couple times through. Because this was not my usual lesson, I was paired with a more experienced rider on a more experienced horse. Things didn't stay around 2'-6" for very long.

In my absence, there was a lesson where I jumped Fuego over a 3'-0" fence, and that was a big deal for me. It's something I had in mind to do with him this year. A single fence, however, is not the same as a full course. And Trainer T likes wide oxers. My pride is not big enough that I can't acknowledge the pit in my stomach seeing fences that high. Prior to that single lesson, my last attempt jumping 3'-0" didn't go well. I let my lesson mate go first so Fuego and I could have a little pep talk.

We had some shaky distances, but holy shit, I've never felt this horse jump so well. I did mentally look forward to schooling comfortably around 3'-0" in 2022, but I expected that to happen towards the end of the year. And now I know that Trainer T is probably going to push for some 3'-6" singles by the end of the year, if Fuego stays that long.

Like I said, I don't know where he will end up, but I hope whoever gets him will also feel as lucky as I do.