Another great day jumping

I'm really liking this jumping stuff Mums got me doing. It's great fun I can go charging around the back garden jumping all the different jumps. We started steady with just trotting poles and then built up a little grid.  First with one cross pole and then with two. 

It's a good thing I'm a little pony because it was a bit of a squeeze our grass arena (known more favourably as my yummy winter paddock) is only 30m long. But Mum just about squeezed all the trot poles in.  I got Mum to measure the jumps as I think they need to go up next time. They are all about 1'8" high and the spread was also 1'8" wide. The highest was about 2ft, Mum I want them higher, bring it on!

Mum got her Dad to help put up the jumps and take photos and video, so big thank you Grandad x

Like all my schooling exercises it's important to teach Mum to ride properly, so today I have been teaching her to keep her head up.  I had to remind her several times that if she looks down at the jump, I will stop.  

I also took it to a new level as I need to make sure Mum keeps her heels down and her toes pointing in.  I find the best way to test her position and stability is to put in the odd sharp twist and turn. It looks like she learnt from this test yesterday as she did stay on today, but I still think there's room for improvement. If you watch this video http://youtu.be/EPXaObcRQeE you'll see she needed to hang onto my neck at one point. 

Mum head up, heels down and we will soon be completing a clear round.

In the meantime tea, rest and dreaming of eating my winter paddock - there is a lot of grass in some of the areas, seems a shame to trample all over it!