Back to Full Work

Peebs is back in full work and feeling good. When we first started increasing his work he was definitely a little stiff and lazy. We had one CTJ ride where I broke out my spurs and reinforced the idea that when I ask, he needs to go. He was very insulted but got his rear in gear and has been more forward in our subsequent rides. 

Unimpressed ears

We had our first lesson and jump school two weeks ago. I wanted my trainer’s eyes on him to confirm my thoughts that his stiffness was more of a coming back into work fitness issue and not a lameness one (she agreed with me) and to help us through his first jumps in almost two months. Peebs was much, much more forward when he realized we were jumping and suddenly I was having to hold him back and calm the beast instead of firing him up. I swear at one point his legs were spinning like a cartoon animal about to take off.

 

Having fun on the barn's new derby field

In our lesson last week we were able to advance from trotting single cross rails to trotting in and cantering through a line of cross rails, then putting together a course of cross rails including a rollback and bending line. Super exciting stuff! Peebs got tired quicker than he normally would have but we managed to fix (most of) our mistakes and end on a good note. Our last time through, we counter cantered the bending line but it was a very well balanced canter with the appropriate number of strides and my trainer said it would have been great if we were in an equation class and they called for it. We debated about going back to fix the line, but honestly I was so happy with everything else and for how I rode the counter canter, we decided to not pick that fight and end on a good note. 

Plus we had an exciting adventure two days later and I didn’t want to tire him out or make him sore. But that’s for another post!