Parwood XC schooling 19-05-13

Hacked Monty to Parwood this morning - feeling full of it - reminded me why I hate hacking him - did a 180degree spin out of nowhere at absolutely nothing - thought I might be needing my air bag for the hack there rather than the jumping!  The back gate to Parwood was unlocked so it only took 15mins to walk there, then as soon as you get through the back gate there are 3 logs which meant for a very bouncy canter down the side of those and then a strong canter up the side of the hay field.  Nice way to warmup.  Walked him through the XC field to the car park and he was bouncing - absolutely gagging to have a go.

Went and stood and chatted to Lizzy for 10mins while she got ready then had another canter round the XC field - I say canter, it was more like flat out gallop at times - never known him so strong.  Took me 3 circuits of the field to calm him down enough to stop.  Then he tried napping to Winnie which is always a sign he's feeling well as he does have quite a strong nappy streak in him when he wants but normally cant be arsed to show it XC schooling.

Popped a little roll top as our first jump and thought we were going to have a broncing fit afterwards but he just took off with me again.  Popped over a nice selection of logs including one at the top of a bank, over the ditch, cantered through the water nicely including then popping out over a house which came on a bit of a long one but he went for it.  He looked at both of the tyre jumps slightly for some random reason but still jumped them fine.  Popped up the step onto the bank and off again.  Jumped the ditch palisade no probs.   Was feeling a bit chicken about the trakehner there for some reason - sure it's no bigger than the one at LMEQ but it's much more open.  Save that for another day I think.  Didn't jump anything very big but was a great feeling having him taking charge and taking me over them no questions.

And this is before his joint injections and his first time jumping in his stilettos - think how good he's gonna feel after his joint injections and with a bit more time getting used to his new shoes.

So pleased with him - you'd think he'd be tired after that lot but he still got excited by the logs on the way out and had another nice canter to the gate before an attempt at a steady walk home.

Clever orange horse.