Ponies' Got Hops

I had so much fun free jumping the beasts yesterday evening! I decided that I would free jump Misty because we'd never done it before, then I'd ride Jetta.

Note: There are pictures, but they are pictures of a still on my camera. I was too lazy to actually upload them to Youtube and/or put them on my computer and screenshot them. So very poor quality. But cool! Also, I couldn't take pics because somehow I forgot the batteries for my remote. Oops. So I had to do vids. 

I set up a 2' vertical, 2 strides, then a 2'6" X for her to jump. First challenge: getting her to go in the chute. She showed off her most fancy cowhorse/reining moves - sliding stops, spins and fast turns, all to avoid going in the chute. Finally I got her to jump over the first fence, then she hopped over the side which was taller (3') but apparently less scary than the X. After getting her to awkwardly go through a couple times and stuffing her with treats each time afterwards, she finally decided that it wasn't THAT awful, and she could potentially forgive my meanness for making her jump if I provided her with enough treats.

Cuteness!!

Once she felt more comfortable I upped it to 3'3" (I thought it was only 3' but afterwards I measured and found all of my estimations were way off!). She cleared it but it was a definite stretch for her. I think as a jumper pony 3'3" would probably be her max schooling height with 3' her comfortable show height, but hey, maybe once she builds more strength she could do more. I was super proud of her anyhow!

With all the time it took convincing her to jump, I didn't have as much time as I'd like to ride Jetta but she was looking so eager at the jumps so I stuck her in the arena, where she immediately started trotting around. I love how excited she is to jump :)

No bigs

I popped her over the 3'3" jump with no problem. She barely put in any effort. Easy peasy for her. So I bumped it up to what I thought was 3'6" (but it turns out was actually 4'3") and that was definitely more work, but still fairly easy for her. So I ran her over that a few times. That's the highest I'd ever free jumped her.

A little bit better effort

But on a whim, I decided to bump it up one more notch since she seemed game. It looked HUGE. I thought it was 4'6", maybe 4'9" but after measuring it after I put Jetta away, it turns out that it was ALMOST FIVE FOOT ONE INCH. Dang. I could never imagine jumping anything that big.

HOLY COW. I can't stop staring at this picture on my Instagram...

Jetta trotted in all lazily despite my insistence that she might want to have a bit more impulsion, but after sitting back and looking at it she launched and cleared it!!! Crazy. I was super excited. I gave her some pats and treats then put her away, thrilled. I just love this horse.

That hind end...