I mentioned earlier that I took Daatje to the Wentworth Hunt Hunter Trials despite the fact that history has shown whenever I try to participate in solo activities, Daatje sees to it that we are eliminated in the most humiliating fashion.
Well, I thought it was high time to get over myself and just do it. We've been working on some of her issues and attitude so I thought the WWH Trials was a good a place as any to test out our progress. As you can see by the smile on my face in the above photo, Daatje gave (mostly) all the right answers to my questions. :) She was extremely angry with me in the beginning for taking her down away from the other horses to the start area. I rode her through it, despite her throwing her body around in a total tantrum. When presented to the first jump, she stopped and put a front hoof on it.
Unphased, I re-presented her and she jumped, yay! The second fence was a small stack of telephone poles at the crest of a big hill. She got up to the top of the hill and was focusing on the new scenery beyond the jump, so she stopped once at that as well. Second try, she jumped just fine.
After that, she was great! The third fence was a big log that she sucked back for just a split second, but then jumped it. The rest were smooth and easy. There were 16 obstacles in total, including a gone away, hold hard, gate and lead over.
The last jump was this nicely sized log in the jump ring. She was tired (lots of big hills!) but did a great job getting over it. Go Daatje!
yay progress! She'll figure it out at some point that it is easier to listen and do it correctly then misbehave. it just takes time to get through to the smart ones
ReplyDeleteA lifetime! :P She is much too smart for her own good. :) Makes her very safe to ride, but very hard to train! I love her though....we're having a great season so far!
ReplyDelete