Finally Some Consistency and Jump School Hopes for Next Weekend

I was not able to ride on Saturday and had a friend, who is a very good rider, ride Liam for me to keep him going.  It was a gorgeous day, 50+ degrees, and sunny.  The report I got on Liam’s behavior on Saturday wasn’t good.  My Friend told me he was really fresh and wanted to canter, canter, canter.  When she tried to make him trot he kept flipping his head and spooked hard a couple of times at random things, like a girl sweeping, so scary.  So my high hopes for a good Sunday ride went out the window. 

Liam is funny when going back to work after having a while off.  The first few rides he will be really fresh, to the point where if you don’t lunge before you get on you better get ready to hit the dirt.  After the first couple of rides he will settle down for a few rides.   Next, it is almost like he gets his fitness back and is fresh again.  After that we will become normal Liam.  I was assuming that he hit the second fresh phase and the next couple rides were not going to be pleasant.

I arrived Sunday, tacked up, and put rails on the ground in the ring.  I have learned to keep Liam’s attention with rails on the ground to trot and canter over.  This gets him paying attention and not looking for something to spook at, he spooks when he is fresh.  I got on ready for fresh Liam and to my surprise he was great.  Not perfect by any means, but not as bad as I thought he was going to be.  I started trotting and was pleasantly happy that he was listening and just happily trotting along.  Did some walk/trot transitions, and thought to myself, wow he is listening.  Cantered both directions and started to incorporate the poles.

I set up 2 poles 9 feet apart. 

 

Trotted them both directions, and then cantered both directions over them.  I finished with cantering over the pole landing and asking for a change of direction and cantered right back over them. 

 

He was really being good.  Might have been a little rough a couple of times, but he was listening and trying hard.  At this point, that is all I want.  Liam was getting really tired and I quit on that.

Scheduled jump school for next weekend.  Hope the weather stays good all week!