It was Pony Club at the park today, so I went and caught all the horses and put them into the yards. Then txted Lisa to tell her that I had done so. And she replied saying that the XC was closed for the upcoming ODE so I needn't have bothered. Bugger. Oh well. The horses enjoyed the nice grass in the yards while I spit and polished JJ and got him tacked up. Speaking of which...
Presents arrived in the mail today! New breastplate/martingale (taken the rings off though) for him. And a new bit (sweet iron D ring snaffle). And new stirrup irons! And a new helmet for me (that doesn't fit and will have to be sent back. Sigh.) Also yesterday tendon boots that are the right size arrived.
So we got all geared up with our new stuff and headed into the park to say hello to the other ponies. After chatting to a pony mother and almost being flattened by her daughter's pony who trotted by EXTREMELY CLOSELY, lucky for Baggins that JJ isn't a kicker, we went to tell Mick that she can have her stirrup irons back now. And kinda got stuck there...
We ended up sort of joining the lesson, as standing around watching the kids do a bending race led to us being invited to have a go. We did it from a trot, having not done it before, but he was very good and responsive. (I like the new bit a lot.)
Then we went jumping, which in our case involved standing and watching. Despite Harry (Mick's horse) attempting to front-foot JJ when they were first introduced, JJ seemed to think that Harry was his new BFF. (It's possible that the fact that Harry is a chestnut gelding has something to do with that...) So when Harry went to do the jumps, JJ watched him with great intensity and nickered to him when he returned. Cute. Kinda sad, but cute. He actually really enjoyed watching the other ponies, although hopefully he wasn't watching Gemma's pony too hard - we don't want any mimicking of those shenanigans!
When the kids were done jumping through the 2 stride double - xrail onto an oxer - Melda very kindly put the oxer down to an X for me so I could jump. We trotted over the jumps, our first time through knocking the first jump down but jumping the second. Then we went over the first (which was never rebuilt, so was now just one pole on a slant with two ground poles) and ran off the second, or tried to. But then JJ seemed to catch on and we did a couple of times through nicely with actually picking up his feet. :) Also - we had the most lovely walk to canter transition!! On the right rein too, he was super, I wasn't even asking for it. I was thinking it, but I wasn't expecting him to do it. We'd come off the jump, back to walk and been patted, then I sat up and clicked him forward and we were straight into a lovely canter. Very proud. Did all the jumps from a trot of course as we can't canter in a straight line sans jumps, let alone with them! He was napping back to the other ponies, but not to the XC, which is progress of a sort I suppose. As we were jumping, the other fences were being removed by helpful parents, so there were people walking around carrying poles and jump stands, but JJ didn't care, he seemed to regard that all as normal, or at least untroubling. Good for him.
Afterwards we walked back up to the paddock, untacked and called Roly into the yard to get rugged. (Lisa had put the horses back out.) He came willingly when he realised I had food, and I let him into the yard where JJ was eating his dinner. Instead of backing away from his own bucket as he would've when he first arrived, he flattened his ears at Roly! Who naturally didn't even ask to share JJ's feed, he's not that rude or that stupid. Anyway he got another handful when he was rugged and then thrown back out.
The upside of lots of carrots - a horse that comes up to you in the paddock and enjoys your attention.
The downside of lots of carrots - constant nibbling. But he's smart enough to know when No means NO! Stop trying to eat my watch. And he hasn't nipped at all, just nibbling with the lips. But we may have to ease off on the carrots - from now on they are for catching and going into feed only, not for snacktime during grooming!
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