Now I am at a non jumping barn. I have no jumps. So how do I get past this? Actually it was Martha & Willig over at (Re)Training as an Adult Eventing Rider (sorry don't know how to make that a link) that gave me the idea. She was talking about jumping cones. Mainly because they were scary. So I start thinking, what a good idea for a great way to jump Lola. Really low stuff, but still challenging if its scary! Plus I really don't have much to work with, so it sort of adds to the creativity. I'm envisioning feed buckets, her blanket, tarps, what ever I can find!
What the barn does have is two pairs of those plastic blocks, and at least four poles. I didn't know where these poles lived, and quite luckily they were out in the arena last night when I showed up. Being a western barn there were set up, I can only guess, as "jog" poles. They were walk poles or "trot every other" poles for Lola! It was funny.
So I used them as trot poles, then let her off the line to free lunge. I little challenging in that size arena, but I made it work. I actually have asked her to change lead through the middle a few times while free lunging which has resulted in some surprisingly successful flying changes! So she was ignoring the little cone jumps that I set up, so I set up a canter line against one wall instead. I spaced out my four poles to canter through, and after letting her canter through the poles themselves a few times, I set the 2nd and 4th on the blocks and set the cones up right behind the 3rd pole. It made for a good line! The blocks also gave me the ability to let her canter over them as raised poles, then gradually bump them up, first raising the inside to give a half cross bar effect then get them upright on both sides.
It was a good workout both metally and physically for Lola. I didn't have much time last night because as soon as I got to the barn I went to grab my phone from my purse to carry with me only to realize I had left it at the office. Not the first office, you know the 50 hr a week job, but the SECOND office, the 10 hours a month job where really I can't say no, but I never have time to go to. I had stopped by on my way to the barn. Office two is on the way from office one to barn. It is NOT on the way from barn to home or from home to office one. So as soon as I got to the barn I knew I was going to have to leave early to go back and get my phone before the fiancé started calling the cops thinking I was dead in the arena. That's the trade off for riding alone late at night. You can NEVER forget your phone. When you do, you're assumed dead.
Anyway, it was a good use of our time together. I hadn't free jumped her through gymnastics for a while, and I just get a kick doing it. I love seeing her figure out where to put her feet. Seeing her come in being silly and rushing and then realizing that didn't feel right and being careful the next time. Seeing her come in a half stride off and seeing how she corrects with the ground pole so she doesn't blow through the three jumps. I love it because she can learn without me hindering her! Jumping will be a process of her learning to save my butt, just as dressage has been a process of her putting up with me riding well about 25% of the time (and still marveling at this great horse underneath me when I do).
When I cleaned up the jumps I was sad that I left my phone at second office... I am so sad to not take pictures of these things now that I have a phone that will do that!
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