Unfortunately, we have not done half as much jumping this year as I would have liked. This is largely down to Scottie having sore shoulders and losing confidence, making it much harder to do any jumping without someone on the ground to move poles up and down etc. This is because we are tending to stop first time at every new jump, so then scramble over it and need it picked up, or need to have someone put one side down so he still goes over it.
However, yesterday was a nice day and I decided to put 2 tiny cross poles in the school and see how it went, bearing in mind we probably haven’t jumped since June/July. I am pleased to say that it went very well! Although we came back to walk when approaching both the jumps the first time, we didn’t come to a stop and got over them without any drama. Which compared to how it went last time we jumped, is a massive improvement! (Read about our last jumping experience here.)
After going over each jump once, Scottie was happy to trot and canter around and over both the jumps, although he seems to be second guessing his striding a little, leading to some last minute scrambles and odd knocked pole. But on a whole he was so much more confident jumping and the striding will come with more practice. I am going to start trying to have a jump lesson every 1-2 months.
Last Updated on 14/01/2022
