Liberty, Free Jumping and Bareback

I have been without a voice the past few days and finally felt up to doing something other than being a sloth. Initially I was only doing some playful lunging with Boss, starting out with the short line then progressing to liberty work. Sadly, I don't have a round yard so I made a template with my jumps across the arena.

Bareback with the Boss

I haven't concentrated enough of my time to doing my natural horsemanship bonding with Boss as I had with Rion. He is a quick learner though and has taken to his education well and enjoys his jumping. So much so that he jumped out of my makeshift round yard whilst doing liberty.

I didn't even expect to ride yesterday but ended up having a bareback jump out. Here is the best photo I got and a video.

Enjoy!

Jess|x

Back Atcha!

As my last post date will reveal I have been rather slack on tending to my blog. Since last I wrote much has changed at Conran park. Journey’s have ended and others continued full steam ahead.

Rion's last ride with me

After seven years Rion has returned  to his owner’s to semi-retirement. Although it is sad to lose his presence and a horse I had such a strong bond with I have my other boys to distract me.

Boss Jumping at Home

Boss has improved in leaps and bounds and has impressed me from the start. The largest difference has been in his mentality, for an ex-racer it is expected that there behaviour is going to be a little, if not outright mental. It is all about the ride, if you will. He has progressed in his jumping from doing his first courses with me to jumping 1.05m and looking at going to 1.10m courses in the next few jump days. 

Dressage wise I am brushing up on my skill as well as schooling him in new movements which he is gradually picking up on. My biggest challenge with him to date has been balance. As all racers have an overwhelming tendency to obtain a shoulder loading way of going. In my upcoming posts I’ll talk more about this in detail.

The baby of the herd, Dartanion, or baby as he is more commonly referred as, is well recovered from his injury. It has been over 6 months now since he sustained his injury and he is better than ever. Besides his rather unappealing scar he has been cleared to resume training by the end of November. Much sooner than we could have hoped. I am ending my semester at uni  in the next month so the plan is to continue Dart’s work with Mark after my exams. Instead of receiving his training in semi-sporadic bursts it will be working daily with Mark at his place. A much stronger option in terms of his mental and emotional development. 

Reebok is the same old nanny of the pack but will soon be a schoolmaster for me to teach with. Better hope he behaves and does the Arabs of the world proud. Stranger things have happened..

 

That's all for now, I plan to be back soon with more posts! 

Jess|x