Derby report... Part 2

So moving right along... (I am finally done with tax season, and now I CAN move right along) to the jumping.


Lola and I had a bit more time to warm up over fences. She was feeling good, but same as she was when schooling at home, taking very long distances over the fences. We had a reasonably good warm up though, trotted in, cantered away, continued cantering half the arena, and trotted to the fence again. I was pleased with her canter, and her willingness to come back to the trot.

So out we went! Now the jumps were TINY! I mean a horse with NO jumping training could have gone out to do this course. But that meant there was nothing, absolutely NOTHING to get nervous about. That was sort of what we needed. So we enjoyed a nice trot out in an open field and every so often found a tiny jump in our way! That was it. Easy peasy.

The most of the jumps were just cross rails with jump standards that had been dragged out there. Just after the first fence we had to turn right around a little log cabin jump, probably about BN size, and nothing scary, but she seemed quite surprised to see it out there! We still made it to fence two fine, but she was a little wiggly. Fence three would have been a mini brick wall, but even mini was deemed toe high, so we had a cross rail again with the mini walls acting like wings off the sides of the standards! Fence four was a rail road tie. Tiny. BUT it at least was a natural obstacle and had barrels on either side. It felt a little more like cross country! Another cross rail later we can to the large white plastic tub jump. I thought Lola might get a little funny about this one, but it wasn't a big deal at all. Between the sixth and final jump we had to pass the tire jump that I was afraid she's spook at, but she listened to my half halt and with a little counter flexing to keep her from looking she went by with no reaction. Fence seven, and we were all clear!

This was the approach to fence two, you can see the log cabin that surprised her!

I was really hoping to canter her between fences more, but she was so quick to step back into the trot each time. She really didn't seem eager to canter away more than a few strides. Since we've not done much cantering on grass I let her stick with what was comfortable. The point was to build confidence. So if she felt more balanced trotting, I was fine with that.

Basically I got no time or jumping faults, so the final placings were pretty much based on the dressage score. I got second place! I was super pleased! Looked like there were at least six in the division that were adult (the juniors were placed separately), so it was an honest second place too! Not like getting fourth, out of four...

One more good experience, one more fun day, one more big step towards really getting her to her first horse trials!