Taking the HITS

Butterball and I had an educational time at HITS. We took FULL advantage of the ability to swap out riders and PW took him around both meter classes. We schooled Tuesday and after I managed to pop around a few of the fences in relatively good style and NOT collide with one of the FIVE other people in the ring, I begged PW to let us call it good. 

Jumper land pony complete with open fronts and Pinsnickety number pins

So Wednesday, I wasn't expecting Butterball to be LOOKY when we got in the ring for the 0.90m. But he was. And I wasn't effectively half-halting. I was giving him the same light touch I had in warm up and it wasn't enough. Which meant we had that gross combination of too quick yet no power. We had THREE rails, definitely not the norm for him. We also did two strides in BOTH one strides. Ugh. But three months ago he would've stopped and he didn't even think about it, so there is that. 

This meant that PW popped on to take him around the meter. He had him MOVING his feet and they jumped a clear round so went on to the jump off and ended up taking SECOND in the large class. 

Friday was MUCH better in the 0.90m. In warm up he was having me ride him fairly forward. I told him it felt aggressively forward compared to the pace we've been doing at home. The video tells you it looks pretty appropriate. I tried an inside turn at the end of the course and didn't keep him straight over the last vertical, so we had that down. 

We wandered around for a bit after the class and then started warming up for the meter. The first large oxer that PW set we found ourselves sliding in to the base of. And unlike our lesson, I had zero idea what happened. I told PW I wasn't sure I could do this, which should've been my cue to let him get on right then. But I fumbled around and tried chasing him to the base of a few, one of which we jumped, and two more where he stopped. At which point PW called it and asked to get on. He warmed up fine, but then had a stop in the ring. PW reapproached and they jumped the rest clear. 

Afterwards, he analyzed the video and noted that the stop in the ring was the same as in warm up - a slightly long spot to a bigger oxer. He said we could fix this, we would move a one stride out to a long spot and teach him that he can confidently leave the ground from a longer distance. Which is what he set to work doing yesterday. 

Overall, a great learning experience for both of us. Not the show that I was hoping for, but y'know such is life with humans and horses. We're entered at WEC Jan 6-11, so we'll see what that brings us. 

Dolce is getting more environmental enrichment these days, including trips to the trailer tack room to hang out while I clean tack. She was pleased.