Finding Happiness – Big Jumps

As we know, I love testing Jimmy and in my once a week school over fences I like to really push him and make him work.

Last night was our school for the week & I set up a simple combination of a one stride / one stride. The long side in our arena is JUST long enough for this combination to have a nice steady, straight approach & a good corner to land in. I started warming him up on a little box I had set in one corner that he loves to test me in, then I moved into a straightness exercise to get him focused on moving forward through the "shoot" of my hands and legs. I've drawn a diagram to show the exercise using jumps in the combination individually to practice slicing & straightness. Click to zoom.

He wanted to rush to the first vertical (set at about 2') and "pat the ground" or canter a step in front. A few times when I found my straight line/slice from the rail I had to ask him to walk or halt and THEN proceed at trotting over the fence. He landed beautifully as directed on his right lead and turned right in a nice roll-back over to the rail, at which point we broke to a trot, found out line, and sliced the big X I had set up. Land straight, left lead, canter away, rollback left, break to the trot, repeat the exercise.

He seemed to tolerate the exercise and once we'd completed it well a few times I let him canter around the arena to get his rhythm and then cantered through the combination. As you can see from the image I set the first one stride close to horse stride length & the second closer to pony. This forces him to jump & REACH & stretch for the first one, and come right back with a "WHOA!" to jump up & out over the last vertical, which was set at 2'9". He adjusted through the combination beautifully and I had a large 3'3" vertical set up (a pole on top of barrels standing up, I'm guessing on the height) that I decided he was ready for. I cantered through the combination a few more times to help him warm up even more & then continued cantering around to jump the big vertical.

Cassie was standing next to the "warm-up box" so she had a perfect view. Coming out of the corner, I knew my only option was a bit long, so I galloped him up and sent up a little prayer to God that he would listen and get there. ONE. TWO. THREE. FOUR. FIVE. LAUNCH. He powered over it harder than I've EVER felt him jump over anything and at the same time Cassie and I said "HOLY $*&T!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I laughed and patted him while we cantered past Cassie & when I looked at her, her jaw was practically on the floor. I said "Does that mean he jumped it like a deer, or he jumped it like he's supposed to and was actually kinda cute??" She stared at me and blinked, jaw dropped & laughing while I cantered by & eventually laughed out the words "He jumped like 'this much' over it and looked INSANELY CUTE" she held her hands about a foot apart from one another. Jimmy jumped over 4'. Holy power.

I cantered around, with adrenaline bursting from every pore in my body & gave him the perfect ride to the perfect distance and he did it again. PERFECT, beautiful amazingly strong power off the ground and just gave everything up into me when he jumped. I have to say that it was one of the most powerful things I've ever experienced because this is the horse I saw in the pasture one day and said "Mom, I want him." This is the horse I have been through trials, tribulations, and heartbreak with. THIS is the horse I was ready to put down because we all thought he'd just "never really come back". It still gives me goosebumps to think about how incredible it felt to have him jump that way. My barn owner Julie always tells me "He has a LOT of power for a little horse", which I know...but WOW. I've never felt it like that. I can't even describe the level of pride I feel right now and I can't wait to go back out there tonight to see him.

When I cantered away the second time I paid more attention to how he handled himself and even cantering away from the jump, he felt bigger. He felt so full of himself and like my mom and I say he felt "All bad" like he was kind of snickering "Yeah. That's right. I did that. Yeah." Haha! I cooled down & got off & brought him in to untack and he just seemed like he was glowing as much as I was. It was like for the first time he was telling me THANK YOU MOM! THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME DO SOMETHING FUN!!!!!!!! He was in my lap the rest of the night rubbing on me and snuggling with me – proof that he was so happy he didn't know how else to tell me than to just rub himself all over me.

Gosh am I ever proud of him. Not only for doing such a great job, but for finding happiness in it. I am truly blessed to have this horse. Truly.