Clear Rounds Recap

(As previously warned, media on this post is from eventing camp last weekend and kind of out of context...still, actually posting photos of the pony jumping has to count for something :)

Poor Midge, I interrupted nap time in a big way Saturday morning.

On the one hand, I LOVE that we can load her in the trailer and take her new places and more often than not she's just super chill. On the other hand, baby pony would it kill you to wake up and have a little more forward momentum? :) She's been super honest of late, but today she reverted back to the old Bridget and felt pretty slow to respond and slightly behind the leg.

We entered the cross rail class as a warmup (also to help me remember the course) and it looked so ridiculously tiny. Is it just me or was it WAY bigger last fall? (You're right, it's just me ;) Bridget motored around without issue, but was less than inspired.

The 2' course went really well, she was still a little quieter than I like, but she went in and did her job like a pro. We don't have lead changes yet, but we're rocking the simple change via a trot stride. She had no problem getting the big horse strides either. Good pony.

2'3" was essentially a repeat of 2'. If I was being nitpicky I'd say we could smooth things out a little and be straighter through one of the turns but for where we're at training wise I truly couldn't ask for more from the pony .

2'6" was a little rougher. The lines rode really well, but she was tired and backed off on a couple of the verticals heading away from home. No refusals, but I could feel her thinking about it!

We ended there, since anything bigger on a midget pony would require a bit more of an engine than I had and EC wasn't there to give us advice and confidence today. 

Pleasant surprise: 2'6" wasn't the move up I thought it would be. I thought it would be a push for us, but no, it actually felt small-ish. EC is quite sneaky about raising fence heights in lessons.  I suspect our lesson courses have been in the 2'6" to 2'9" range for quite some time now, but it's happened so gradually I assumed they were still really tiny.

Besides, the 2 foot whatever stuff set for my lesson always looks positively teeny compared the the 4' oxer set next to it for the girls in the lesson before and after me. Perspective - it's working for me!

In case you can't tell, I'm beyond pleased with Bridget today. Last fall just cantering the crossrails seemed like a big enough challenge for us both. Today, she was happily packing my less than awesome self around like a pro! I'm totally pumped that my drafty looking little pony has room to go higher too. Fingers crossed, we'll never outgrow each other - we're having too much fun together!