Jumping Weird Things.

When we first got Pippi she was afraid of her shadow, as well as not being able to see the ground on the other side of the jumps. This becomes an issue when you have to jump flowers, bales of hay, ect. for a show. To get Pippi over her fear not only did we jump flowers and hay, we also jumped water buckets turned upside down, and put feed bags thru jumps and put rocks in the bottom so they didnt blow to much in the wind, traffic cones, logs, and coolers. Pippi soon over came her fear and learned that flowers were the lease of her worries under a jump.


When I started working with Chance, he was also a little spooky. When we started jumping I did a lot of the same things with him as I did with Pippi including bounce strides, gymnastic lines, and jumping weird things. Chance has jumped the exercise ball the horses have to play with, water buckets, feed bags, and tarps. Even tho at most shows we go to they use our jumps , if we ever went to a different show I wanted Chance to be prepared. Yesterday was our big show of the year. Side Note- Congrats for Donna for kicking butt and getting Supreme in her height division over the WHOLE show. In the jumping class they put flowers under 2 of the jumps, along with one jump having a gate. I wasnt super nervous about Chance, sure I thought even tho we jump weird things these flowers are a lot bigger then our flowers were but maybe he wouldnt care. A lot of people were afraid tho. Only a few horses jumped it with no issue, Chance being one of them. Unlike those horses tho Chance didnt even think about it, treated it like any other jump at home. 2 other horses from my barn jump as well. Sky who is jumped by Donna and Sunset who is jumped by TN. TN is a 15 year old girl who also does volleyball and has been showing minis a year or two longer then me. Sky also doesnt like blue, like Pippi not liking yellow so I understand. She ended up jumping it tho after some persuading. Sunset on the other hand jumped the first jump after a few NO moments and refused the second jump. Now TN doesnt work with her horses like I do mine. She never has Sunset jump weird things and often gives up even at home when Sunset refuses enough. I am not going to get into it with to much detail tho since she isnt here to defend herself but the point is that jumping weird things helps. Chance ended up winning out jumping class. I was so happy, he has quit the reputation as a jumper and I was afraid that some flowers was going to take that away from him.

Tonight I free jumped Pippi. I hadnt worked with her and weird things in awhile and after yesterday I thought it was a good of time as any. First we started up just warming up.

And Chance was in the other field eating grass, so lets be a bitch and charge him with ears pinned. 

Started off with a one stride gymnastic line but she got bored fast so we went to this jump.

And at first went to barely a trot and cleared it. Then started cantering and really trying.

Some of her distances were off (not like I was on her to help at all) but pretty good for a girl who hasnt been worked a whole lot over jumps in awhile. We measured it and it topped off at 3'1. Didnt phase her at all. She only knocked it down 3 times and really she barely touched it, but it wasnt that stable. She is so funny and really seemed to enjoy herself. Everyone was proud but Kevin is always the most proud of her.

As for me I havent been on her since last Sunday. I want to ride so bad but my foot is so big and walking is a pain in the butt. I really dont want to do any damage but......  Dr on Friday so hopefully they can give me some more guidance.