Outreach day 2
Well I got myself a 3rd ride because a C-2 canceled and Sedate said I could take her place in one of the C-1/C-2 groups! YAY! So I finally went XC on Hattan for the first time this year. It was great! We first practiced our positions again, and then we built up a coffin outside - first with the ditch, and then a fence after the ditch, and then a fence before and after the ditch to make it a true coffin. Hattan handled it like a pro - it was great! And our recovery time (we had to halt after the last fence) wasn't awful. Then we worked on banks - up and down. Up Hattan was okay, but down he wanted to rush (we were only supposed to walk) and wasn't so cool with it - not good since I'd never done a down bank before. So Sarah held him and walked down with us, telling me to ride on the buckle and focus on my position. After a few tries, we did it alone and he was great! We finished with a 'course' which involved cruising up a hill at the canter, halting at the top, then cantering or trotting over a hanging long (it was like 2', we opted for trotting), walking down the bank and then up another one, and then going through the coffin. Hattan was a star.
Later - Linda asked Evelyn to take Sirus out and school him XC during the lunch break, and she asked me to take Hattan out with just in case she needed a pony. So we did! Since Hattan really hadn't worked very hard in our lesson, we had tons of fun and jumped just about everything out there. We avoided the banks, and I didn't jump him over a couple of things because he was getting tired, but still. We did barrels, a tire jump, the hanging log from our lesson earlier, a larger hanging log, a staircase type fence.. It was fun! And then I had my first true gallop on Hattan. It started as cruising up the hill at a canter, but then he wanted to go faster, and I said 'what the hell' so we did a full true gallop. Holy crap that was fun. Took me a bit to get him to halt, but really it wasn't much more than it took me to halt him from the canter in our lesson.
I have never felt so damn confident cross country. It was so much fun.
Later - Linda asked Evelyn to take Sirus out and school him XC during the lunch break, and she asked me to take Hattan out with just in case she needed a pony. So we did! Since Hattan really hadn't worked very hard in our lesson, we had tons of fun and jumped just about everything out there. We avoided the banks, and I didn't jump him over a couple of things because he was getting tired, but still. We did barrels, a tire jump, the hanging log from our lesson earlier, a larger hanging log, a staircase type fence.. It was fun! And then I had my first true gallop on Hattan. It started as cruising up the hill at a canter, but then he wanted to go faster, and I said 'what the hell' so we did a full true gallop. Holy crap that was fun. Took me a bit to get him to halt, but really it wasn't much more than it took me to halt him from the canter in our lesson.
I have never felt so damn confident cross country. It was so much fun.