Mum and I have been disagreeing on how to teach me to jump, we both have different ideas of how this should be achieved, so in the end I had to put my foot down and make it very clear how I want to learn.
I've been doing quite a few lessons with Polly, and we have jumps at home, and I have been out on fun rides which have jumps too, so I'm starting to get quite a bit of practice in. My cousin, Eric, and I went on a fun ride with Avon Vale Hunt in May. I seriously wonder about our humans sometimes, we might have set out in lovely sunshine but we soon got stuck in a thunder and lightening storm. Being sensible ponies we wanted to turn our back to the rain and standstill and wait for the storm to pass, but oh no the stupid humans kicked us on and made us walk and trot into the rain - not happy.
So I don't know why Mum was surprised that I wasn't that keen to jump the jumps on the ride, it was hardly the weather. I jumped a couple but decided I wasn't jumping anymore, which Mum wasn't too happy about, but as we were soaking wet and she was wearing buckets for boots, we agreed a truce and headed home.
Our next disagreement was at a private cross country lesson with Polly, my favourite instructor - well she was. Mum had explained about me stopping on the fun ride, so when I stopped at the first jump in the lesson, i got told off, but came around and thought I had better jump it the second time around. At the next jump I decided I didn't want to be hit for stopping so executed a fabulous napping manoeuvre left while Mum tugged my head right. Ohhhh she was not happy and when she finally pulled me up I got a very sore bum - ouch! After that I decided I had better do what I was told and she whizzed me up so much we charged around the rest of the cross country course, jumping, water, ditches, steps, logs etc. I went home tired but with a very happy Mum, so that was all good, but I was dwelling on my beating.
Our next outing was gridwork with Polly at our usual venue in Hankerton. The lesson was being shared with some other KVRC members. It started OK but I got a bit confused because Mum couldn't decide on whether she wanted me to canter, gallop or trot. She was asking me to canter and then gallop down the longside of the arena and then asking me to trot into the jumps - can't you just decide on one pace please? Eventually I had enough and just stopped, Mum asked me to go forward but I didn't want to go, this wasn't fun and I was just getting confused and then I was getting hit. Mum realised her mistake and burst into floods of tears. Polly kindly put all the poles on the floor and I reluctantly agreed to go over as a truce.
Mum went away scratching her head and after a good nights sleep worked out she needed to make jumping fun for me. So we went to a combined training competition and Mum made sure she didn't put any pressure on me, so I enjoyed having a jump around the course, I did stop a few times, but did get all the way around. My friend Emma did a video of me jumping which you can see here https://youtu.be/JRmG2AyuH64.
Next came an outing to another new venue, Trow Lane, where Mum entered me into their clear round showjumping. We started small and then it got a little bigger each time, Mum was so proud of me, as I got three clear rounds. I didn't stop once or knock down a single fence. I wonder whether I will be going next?
Will I jump or not..........
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