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Apr. 27th, 2010 08:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickToday I went out with Goof to work on boldness and confidence over fences. No, we are not doing Jumpers. No, we do not ever want to do Jumpers. It's just something to do, is all.
I said last time that working over some smaller jumps as a warm up might help Goof with the idea of jumping what she is aimed at. So, I figured I would set that up this week. I didn't on Monday because I was deworming/delousing horses in the rain with Trysta. However, today it wasn't raining and I didn't have to be doing anything else, so I had time.
Now, Goof feels that the 18" (or thereabouts) jumps are not particularly challenging. She's OK with them and jumps them and you can do them singly or in groups, they are not an issue. She is comfortable with them. In order to increase the difficulty level with the 18" jumps, I figured we could use them to improve boldness and confidence over fences.
I was planning on doing this by making 'em look scary, using ribbons of survey tape tied to the top rail, with tails left long to flutter in the breeze. For most horses, this would be a sufficiently interesting obstacle, even at the boring old 18" height. For some horses, it would be mind-blowing. I was hoping for something between "sufficiently interesting" and "mind-blowing"... so that we could work through her issues with the jump and she'd figure out that it was no big deal after all.
So, I made with the survey tape. I got on my horse. I rode her at the newly-decorated jump with a brisk breeze going, making the tape ends flutter and snap in the wind. She jumped the jump. It was a little higher than normal. Again, and she jumped it like normal. And that was all there was -- just the "normal". Either direction, alone or in combination, approached at a trot or a canter, just "normal".
So much for that plan. *sigh* I need more little jumps, too, so that I can build a longer gymnastic line. I've made a mental note.
I said last time that working over some smaller jumps as a warm up might help Goof with the idea of jumping what she is aimed at. So, I figured I would set that up this week. I didn't on Monday because I was deworming/delousing horses in the rain with Trysta. However, today it wasn't raining and I didn't have to be doing anything else, so I had time.
Now, Goof feels that the 18" (or thereabouts) jumps are not particularly challenging. She's OK with them and jumps them and you can do them singly or in groups, they are not an issue. She is comfortable with them. In order to increase the difficulty level with the 18" jumps, I figured we could use them to improve boldness and confidence over fences.
I was planning on doing this by making 'em look scary, using ribbons of survey tape tied to the top rail, with tails left long to flutter in the breeze. For most horses, this would be a sufficiently interesting obstacle, even at the boring old 18" height. For some horses, it would be mind-blowing. I was hoping for something between "sufficiently interesting" and "mind-blowing"... so that we could work through her issues with the jump and she'd figure out that it was no big deal after all.
So, I made with the survey tape. I got on my horse. I rode her at the newly-decorated jump with a brisk breeze going, making the tape ends flutter and snap in the wind. She jumped the jump. It was a little higher than normal. Again, and she jumped it like normal. And that was all there was -- just the "normal". Either direction, alone or in combination, approached at a trot or a canter, just "normal".
So much for that plan. *sigh* I need more little jumps, too, so that I can build a longer gymnastic line. I've made a mental note.
