Oliver goes XC schooling!

We went xc schooling at Mari Secrist's (here in Southern Pines) this afternoon, and we had a BALL! I’ve never been to her place before (apparently, you have to be a friend of hers, or be with your trainer who is a friend) but I’m impressed - it's a little gem. Nothing too fancy, but there are all sorts of questions, from BN on up, and a lovely, LOVELY water complex and several different sized ditches and banks, with a great big hill for those balance/terrain questions. And everything is immaculately groomed. You should see her barn – it’s nicer than a lot of people’s houses. TONS of land, all beautifully fenced with split rail, and all rolling hills.

I think all the flatwork with draw reins has paid off. We started by walking through the lovely water jump, back and forth, and Oliver apparently doesn't have an issue with water as he was threatening to paw and roll on me, so I had to keep him moving. Warmup in a slightly undulating field went well - he was listening to my half-halts, staying in front of my leg, and really listening. We started by trotting back and forth over a small log pile, then cantered it, staying uphill and balanced and really concentrating on getting and keeping a good canter up to and away from the jump. From there, we did the little ditch between the two feeder trees, which Oliver barely looked at, and then came down to the bigger ditch. Not sure why he planted the brakes on this one, but I guess it was wider than he's used to and deeper, but after a bit of coaxing he went over, and we trotted and then cantered over it several times. I think if I had been more insistent, he would have gone over sooner, but I'm trying not to make a big deal about things. We started to string some jumps together - pick up a right lead canter, over the ditch, right turn over the big log in the field, gallop out and then rollback to the little log pile, and then canter on into the water. He was lovely, just like a hunter, loping along and nailing his spots. After we got bored with the water jump and ditch, we walked up the steep hill to the top, where there was a picture frame (very small, but Ollie's first!). We trotted the picture frame, but I forgot to keep my leg on and we wobbled on landing, which brought us in a bit unbalanced to the bending line over the shale wall, which he's never seen before. He gawked, but I booted him over it, and then he did a lovely "out" over the hanging log. We cantered into this little combination, which is bending line question, a light-to-dark-question (from a sunny field into a copse of trees), and a slight downhill question - whew! Oliver had a beautiful jump over the hanging log in, saw the "out" (the shale wall), and then grabbed the bit and barreled down over it, which resulted in a chip. Argh. Christan had me do it in reverse, which rode very well, and then reversed it. We cantered in - again, lovely spot - I sat up, put my leg on, half-halted and got his butt underneath him, and although it wasn't pretty, we stayed balanced and then next time, I was able to give a slight half-halt with my shoulders and leg, and he rebalanced himself and jumped it like a pro. Yay! We finished with a bank question. Oliver cantered up and down a little bank, and then Christan had me canter up the bank, one stride over a hanging log, and then down the hill and left turn and drop into the water. Oliver has never done a one-stride like this, but I kept my leg on, sat back and the one stride rode beautifully, then gathered him back up and we trotted into the water. I love how he just locks on to the jump in front of him – he did the same thing at the Horse Park over the Novice bank complex. It felt like he sort of scrambled in, but he did go in without hesitating - such a brave boy - and the next time (just trotting into the water), he was brilliant. He trotted down, saw the water, and picked up a bouncy canter of his own accord and just popped in. I was pretty happy with that! So, two little bobbles (ditch and shale wall), but totally greenie moments. The best thing was that he was so rideable throughout the whole thing, so I guess all that flatwork is paying off!