Itty-Bitty Real Jump

I've managed only a few rides over the last 3 weeks or so, all on Cisco. Because they have been so inconsistent, they really haven't been all that exciting. They have mostly been the same - I lead him to the mounting block, he circles it a couple times before I manage to get on, we warm-up in a very forward walk, spook in the scary end, trot way too fast, forget how to go into corners, and he bulges through his right shoulder.

Depending on how long it took to get him to settle, I may or may not canter him. Also depending on how many people I have to dodge or if no one is around. So yeah, our canter has a long ways to go still.

I usually manage to get some nice moments at a trot, but it takes most of the ride at this point. Once he gets the initial whoo-hoo's out of his system he generally tries really hard to figure out what I'm asking of him.

On our last ride, I rode during a beginner kids jump lesson. So the jumps were all itty-bitty crosspoles. We had done a short canter each way (hard to steer around the kids bombing around on ponies) and I wanted to do something else with him. So I figured, hey, let's try an itty-bitty jump.

The itty-bitty crosspole.

Last time we went over an itty-bitty crosspole, which was the first time, he went over it each time, but didn't really jump. So I kind of expected the same this time.

Good thing I grabbed a chunk of mane before the jump though, because he actually put effort into it and did a proper jump over it! And then landed and immediately turned right. Lol.

So we came around again, and this time he jumped and went straight. So we changed direction and approached from the other direction, he jumped, and cantered softly away. Super pony!

Sadly, no riding media. But trust me, he was super cute.

Three jumps and we were done. It was only his second time jumping, and he was super straight into it and quiet on the landing side. Can't hope for much more than that!

The canter after the jump was a much more relaxed canter than what our normal canter is, so I might play with some small jumps a bit more and see if that helps the canter. I have a Wow jump saddle on its way to me. If the demo works out I'll have to start the search for used pieces so that I can actually start proper jumping with him. Well, as proper as I'm probably going to ever do again.