Change of plans!

It was much too hot to trailer over to G's for a stadium school (and it was really late!) so we stayed at home, did some flat work and went over our cross country again.  Our flat needs some work, but after watching some of the video SO shot, I now know that I need to push Koda FORWARD in all of his gaits (except the walk... strange) so that he will really step under himself.  What I think of as too quick of a tempo actually works for him.  Also, I'm developing warm-up strategy, and even though our canter is in need of work, he works better after getting a quick canter out of the way. 

I'm still worried about our stadium, but really the fences are going to be a MAX of 2', which he can pop over easily, just don't want to have a bad run and turn him off of the entire thing.  He seems to really enjoy our little cross country course, always ears pricked looking for the next obstacle.  When he's put in a ring, he almost immediately loses his forward.  I ride with small spurs and a jumping bat so hopefully we'll have the tools we need to get our stadium done.  If all else fails, it's only a schooling run for us, so whatever we do we'll get something out of it!

For your viewing pleasure, a flat video and two cross country.  Notice in the second video he doesn't "jump" nearly as often as the first, the smart lil pony.  He's all about efficiency.  We actually increased the height of one of the jumps and he still just trotted over it (about 20" height, 24" width at base).