Vertical

So we jumped our first vertical today, but don't get too excited. It was only 1'3". When I set it up, it looked so tiny, but I'm glad that I picked that low because he kept nicking the pole every time over! I get the impression that he is just so lazy that he never lifts his legs higher than he needs to, but it is a good start.

We also did some crossrail work and I found it interesting to notice that he almost always canters out of the crossrail (even though I never make a point of asking for it specifically), but he trotted out of the vertical. I have to say that I'm much more partial to cantering out. It feels more smooth and less choppy.

I was going to canter him into the crossrail, but I was having issues with his lead (shocker). The angle that I had the crossrail set up required him to canter into it on his good lead because it was a tight turn coming out. However, every time he cantered out of the crossrail, even when I trotted in, he picked up the wrong lead. I didn't also want to canter into the jump on the wrong lead as well and risk hurting him. I tried to canter him into the jump in the other direction, but the turn was too tight and there wasn't enough space to do it properly so I failed each time. I didn't really put too much thought into stride length or anything when I was setting up the jump so ill keep that in mind for next time.

Interestingly enough, I decided to free lunge him when I was done riding and try to get him to join up with me. I only lunged him for about 5 minutes and I was happy that he joined up after a couple seconds. I will have to do that more often. The part that was particularly interesting though was that the little bugger loped on both leads with no problems, which reinforces my theory that he is just being a brat. The other thing I've changed in the past few weeks is that I've been riding English, and in particular, I've been riding him in my English spurs. Although I had better control of him in his old bit today, he still tried to ram me into the fence, which suggests disrespect of my leg as well. Half the reason I moved up to Western spurs when I got him was because the English spurs weren't strong enough. Maybe if I throw the western saddle back on this weekend and ride him in my Western spurs, I'll be able to get him loping on both sides again. We will see. I feel like having horses is simply a matter of experimenting with different ideas until you find what works. Even if the Western spurs are the answer, I'm still going to ride in the English ones. I want him to respect me no matter what I use. Plus, it'll simply make me stronger.

Other than that, it was a pretty good ride. I tend to stay pretty happy after I jump him, even when he won't canter on a lead or he misbehaves in other ways. He's a trooper over the jumps, considering his obviously limited capabilities, and I know that those days will be done in a couple weeks, other than the off little jump in the indoor arena.

On a final note, I was talking to a girl at the barn whose horse was also trained Western Pleasure and is related to Walker. They told her that her horse would never jump over 2 feet as well, but she has jumped her horse as high as 3'3"! Maybe there's hope for Walker yet!