Thanks to the hospitality of one Bitch Pack member, and the nagging of another, Crossbo and I did some jump schooling Saturday morning. And, with a little coaching from yet another, we had a very good morning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When the idea of schooling this weekend was first suggested on Wednesday, and Jethrine volunteered her farm, with lots of jumping opportunities, I was a little ambivalent. The weather is still sticky enough that it’s tempting to find excuses not to ride. And I had an excuse. Crossbo was missing a shoe, Arthur’s shoes were loose, and my farrier hadn’t returned my phone call. I said I might make it if I got my horses shod, but it wasn’t likely.<\/p>\n
\nWith the same kind of persuasion that led to my purchase of Crossbo, I was told that it was time to start getting my horses fit and maybe I needed a new farrier. I thought that was just a little harsh, but I started wondering whether maybe it was worth trying to accelerate the farrier a little.<\/p>\n
\nAfter some more consideration, I decided it wasn’t fair to Brian to let him take the blame for me not riding this weekend. When the email came Thursday afternoon confirming time and place, I left another message saying I needed to ride Saturday. Friday about noon, he called to say he had just left my barn and my horses were ready to go. No stinkin way I need a new farrier!!<\/p>\n
\nSo I dragged myself out of bed Saturday morning, and got Crossbo loaded (with a little effort and some grain), and headed to Jethrine’s. Along with a few more of the Pack, we had a very pleasant morning.<\/p>\n
\nCrossbo and I had a little trouble at the start, mainly due to pilot error. With some coaching to correct my errors, we were soon looking like a couple of pros. I was very pleased with Crossbo’s performance, although not really surprised. I’d already gotten a pretty good assessment of his jumping ability before I bought him. What’s still unknown, and will be until our first hunt, is how he reacts under the pressure of a hunt, when everything is far more intense. His behavior today was a cause for optimism; he remained cool in a group of horses, didn’t seem to feel a need to be in front, settled nicely between jumps, etc. I’m keeping my fingers crossed hoping he keeps his cool like that when the intensity gets turned up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thanks to the hospitality of one Bitch Pack member, and the nagging of another, Crossbo and I did some jump schooling Saturday morning. And, with a little coaching from yet another, we had a very good morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-horseplay","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9mOtr-27","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}