Wonder Pony

I cannot express how amazing Misty is. She just continually surprises me in how game she is to try new things and how trusting she can be. Case in point, going cross country schooling.

I don't think we've actually jumped since the little hunter/jumper show we did several months ago... I feel kind of bad admitting that, lol. I popped her over a single jump on Thursday. She was a little squirrely at first (meaning she wiggled her way into and over the jump instead of going over straight). But by the end she was much more confident going into the jump straight.

That was it for our preparation. Friday was the first day (or maybe the second, not sure) that the cross country course was open. We got out there and immediately started trotting over a little intro log that was more like a pole on the ground. She did that fine, so we moved up to the larger log which she jumped great, then the even larger log.

The largest log in the set of three

We walked over to another part of the field to jump a little coop. I let Misty sniff it first and had to pull her off of it before she decided to climb over it, lol. I guess this is what happens when you have a trail horse! She jumped it absolutely perfectly the first time from trotting in. Unfortunately PM was trying to figure out the settings a bit on my camera (it's funny how different Canon vs Nikon is in some ways) so the photos came out blurry. Bummer. Especially because next I set my eye on a larger square coop. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to go over it since it looked HUGE (downside of not jumping at all recently is that absolutely everything looks giant). Misty politely refused it the first time. I say politely because she just sort of fizzled out instead of pulling a dirty stop like Jetta would. We tried again and she slowed down and chipped in, bunny hopping over it. Of course I felt super bad because not only did I catch her in the mouth but also hit her with my spurs because it was so unexpected. So we took it one more time and she jumped it perfectly!

I am the best at compensating for hitting her in the mouth the first time. Extra release!

Moved onto jumping the ditch (definitely the scariest obstacle out there! but she quickly got over it). She didn't hesitate for a second doing the bank up or down. Then moved to the next field to jump the little red barn and the baby trakehner. Also, a cool A-frame coop.

Up the bank

Down the bank

Red Barn

Then the water! Of course Misty doesn't mind water at all, the challenge was getting her to canter through it. So much fun! I just couldn't wipe the ridiculous grin off my face.

Overall, I had so much fun and I'm just in love with all the pictures PM got. It has me seriously reconsidering selling her because she's just so dang EASY. I love this horse.

I am going to take her to the one-day horse trial on the first of June. Unfortunately I've come to the conclusion that I just don't have enough money to do the recognized horse trial at the end of June this year. So incredibly disappointed. But maybe by the end of summer I'll have saved enough to go out of state to an event in Washington hopefully.

Getting spunky