Ben is back!

Ms.GY and I made it out to the super casual jumper show at Majestic Oaks yesterday. The weather was incredibly lovely with overcast skies most of the time, so we didn't bake. JT came and warmed us up. He felt great so we went in after 5 jumps. He skipped merrily around the 2'9" with just a glance at the liverpool and one box that spooked quite a few other horses. We earned a pretty red ribbon for that in a fairly large class in spite of taking an outside turn. He felt just delighted to be back out there, so we went ahead and did the 3' as well. I focused on the feeling we've been working on of him alllmooost running away with me. He has to really feel like he is taking me to the jump WITH his withers up and not barreling down into my hand. The few times he got a bit down I used the hand floating up and down a bit to correct. JT is right, it doesn't look goofy like it feels and I can barely see it in the video. Again he skipped merrily around. We knocked one rail when I made the decision to lean at the oxer when I didn't see a distance to it. He protested my screw up a bit after. Fair enough, completely my fault. Overall though we all were just delighted. It felt easy and smooth. Good boy, Ben! 

Next up is a training CT with JT at a schooling show and then a few outings at novice. Given the calendar, there is no good training (re) move up until November. So we'll enjoy novice for a while this fall. I may try to get to a few more schooling jumper shows in the meantime though.