...and gets cocky! Which is a good thing, as he's very mild-mannered normally and very, very polite. After our jump school, he nudged me over as I was crouching by his grooming kit, which of course is very naughty but it was nice to see some spunk. He's not allowed to do that anymore, and he caught me off-guard, but he was forgiven seeing as he was a superstar today.
I hadn't ridden him about a week, so I wasn't expecting a whole lot. Optimistically, I had set up crossrail and then a little piles of poles that would eventually become a vertical four strides away, set just a tad on the short side since he would ideally be trotting in. We warmed up on the flat - it was a windy day and he was a little more forward than usual, but as explained above, he had practically a whole week off. I really concentrated on sitting UP, and keeping my lower leg very still on him but on the entire time, and pushing him out to my outside rein. Of course, he took that as a cue to trot, but I quietly brought him back and leg yielded him out to the outside rein and he stopped jigging. We cantered, first on the right lead (his preferred lead) and as usual (lately), he humped up his back a little bit and crowhopped a few strides, so I got off his back and just let him play. I think it's a balance issue with him. I don't think he's being naughty - the one time he bucked out of fun was from a pretty big jump over a 2'3ish plank. I think what's happening is that he gets so far underneath himself that he sort of kicks out his hind legs to get them sorted back out again. He never (touch wood) gets bad about it, and if I just keep my shoulders back and let him work out the kinks, he soon settles down into a nice, quiet rhythm and I can eventually sit down and start to rebalance him a little. He's got such a nice natural canter - I know I keep saying that time and time again, but it's one of the nicest I've ridden and he's not even broke yet!
Since things were going well on the flat, I trotted him up to the crossrail and predictably, he grabbed the bit and launched himself over it. I don't know, at this point, if he's doing it out of fun or out of nerves, but he landed in a canter and then cantered quietly over the little pile of poles on the ground, which is a huge improvement to a month ago where he was still gawking at anything new. I brought him back over the "x", and this time he jumped it quietly and made a very easy four strides over the pile, so I hopped off and raised it to a tiny vertical. He jumped the "x", landed very crookedly and then sort of wobbled over to the vertical, but he did jump it and I was so pleased that he didn't look for a way out. So, we came over it again and this time, he nailed it - quiet jump over the "x", four easy strides and a beautiful little jump over the vertical. Lots of praise, jumped off, and set the vertical a couple of holes higher so that it was 2'6ish. We trotted over the "x", cantered a lovely, uphill four strides over the vertical, which he "sproinged" over and landed in a gorgeous, uphill canter and came back down easily to trot.
I LOVE this horse. I have never had that uphill, bouncy feeling over a jump before! As green as he is, his balance is wonderful, and I love that on landing it feels like he's got his hocks underneath him. If he turns out to be as brave (or obedient - I'll take either) as he promises to be, he's going to be quite a nice little lower eventer for me
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