My friend Joanie called me to see if I was interested in going to a hunter pace with her and of course I was. I waffled back and forth on who to take. Good old Marie who I know I'd have a nice relaxing time and even be able to do a good portion of the jumps. Or Louie, the unknown in what would be a new to him setting. Well, I didn't have to think too hard, I just can't resist riding that long eared critter, and he's never let me down yet and.....there is only one way for them to learn it to be exposed the new things. So, Louie it was. Joanie picked me up at 9:15 am and we arrived in Starks at 10:45. Yesterday was the "official" pace with the awards and meal. Today was informal with just a small fee to ride the course.
I did not plan on doing any of the jumps as I have not schooled Louie at all for jumping. And I only have my Western endurance saddle. But, I did shorten my stirrups up to an acceptable jumping height, you know, just in case.......LOL. And my saddle doesn't have a horn........ So, in the end, we did do some jumping. Nothing over 2' but still......LOL. Louie was wonderful. He didn't fuss about the jumps at all or try to take me around them if I pointed him at one. But, at the height of 2' or less, he went over so super smooth that I could not even feel if from the saddle! It was great but not much "whoopie" factor involved. LOL. Frannie, on the other hand, was clearing even the smallest of jumps with PLENTY of room to spare! We came to a series of 5 log jumps along the trail at one poin going up a slight hill all under 2' so we went for it. That last jump was the biggest as it was two logs one behind the other so it was kind of wide. Louie hopped over the first 4 with no fuss and as he was trotting up to the last wider one I could feel him assessing the situation but not in a hesitating sort of way, just giving it a good look as we approached..........he slowed down just a bit as we got to it, then very lightly and nimbly jumped up ON TOP of the jump, :-O balanced on top of it like a goat for a moment while looking over the ground on the other side, then gently hopped down off the jump!!!!! I was laughing so hard I nearly peed my pants! He was clearly very satisfied with how he had handled the situation! LOL. I tried to explain to him that it really wasn't the best idea to jump ON TOP the jumps but I don't think he believed me. We did a couple small bank jumps but that was no issue as we do things like that just in the course of our normal trail riding. though one bank jump was into water and he did that just fine also. Both into and out of the water.
We only had one tense moment when we came out into a big field and Joanie and Gwen went in separate directions. There were a lot of jumps in the field and the others were galloping around, jumping, yeeehaawing, and just cowboying around and Louie had a slight mental overload and didn't know what he should do and l lost my steering for a few moments. But, he didn't bolt off, or do anything bad, he just locked up on me and when I attempted the one rein stop. He eventually just froze up in confusion. I gave him a moment to relax and did a few flexing exercises and he got his head back together and remembered it was ME he was supposed to be listening to.
So, we had a great ride, it was an absolutely lovely day and Louie once again exceeded my expectations of him. And what a lively place to ride.
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