Flying Again!

Tonight was the reintroduction to jumping for Koda and I.  The ride started out just as usual, but I had a couple goals:

1) Don't get into a bickering fight
2) Jump the single big X from a steady pace
3) HAVE FUN!!!!

I'm happy to report we did all three tonight!

Started off with a nice long trot to settle down and get into work mode.  I wanted to keep the ride short and sweet, so after doing some trot and dashes of canter, brought him back and worked on transitions to help develop the gaits I wanted before we tackled the big X.  After a while, he started to really dig in and push off again from the hind, good pony!

Do you possibly have cookies?

Once I felt we were both settled into a groove, we tackled the X.  Essentially what I wanted was to just ride the rhythm of the trot or canter and the x be a bump in the road.  First few times over, Koda took some flyers.  Of course, didn't help that I wasn't really riding to a 'distance', more just letting him pick what he wanted to do.  After a bit, I started to ride and ask for the shortened stride to get a proper jump.  Koda complied willingly and it was wonderful!  We went over it a few more times, tossing in canter circles or halts after the fence.  Again, Koda was wonderful!  After getting a couple really nice soft transitions after the fence, we called it a night.  After untacking, Koda got his legs and pasterns all trimmed up to not look so much like a woolly mammoth.  We're still shedding up here, but it's almost all out, thank goodness!

The days are getting longer and longer!