Friday, July 8, 2011

Boomer the wonder jumper!

Boomer, being the brave soul that he is, is learning to jump!  I went out to ride him on Wednesday and ended up going out around the pond and to the jump field with Julie and the barn owner, Dennis.  I trotted and cantered Boomer around and he was very good.  I had lowered the bit by one hole and it took him a little bit to get used to it and stop resisting.  I got to bragging on Boomer and how brave he was to have trotted and cantered over the flowerbox.  I then realized that he was sure to make a fool of me by acting terrified of it.  Surprisingly, he headed right towards it and hopped right over!  Julie moved the flowerbox to a new location and he was STILL fine with it!  She then set up a few cross rails for us and we went over two in a row!  I was so proud!  The most complicated and difficult thing we did (can you sense the sarcasm yet?) was canter down hill and make a U-turn to the cross rail.  I actually missed it a few times until Julie pointed out that I wasn't looking at the jump.  Once I looked around the turn for the jump, Boomer sat down and turned hard.  It was actually pretty cool to feel him sit and turn like that.  

I am so happy that Boomer seems to be enjoying himself!  He goes around the whole time with his ears perked forward like he is really having a blast!  It is a really fun change of pace from the flat work we have been focusing on.  I am actually pretty excited about it and hope that we can actually jump something someday instead of just taking bigger steps to clear the obstacles.   

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