Cross country training

Time to test The Flummery.

I lead Crownie up to the float. She takes a look around. "That doesn't smell like a horse float" she seems to say. She gets on. Ploomps. "Now it does".

We're off to the local pony club to do some cross country training.

I do a solid jumping warm up in the arena, then we head out to inspect the jumps. It's very wet and boggy. The approaches to some jumps are totally waterlogged. I don't feel confident at all about the normal warm up jumps, so I take a good look around and find some nicer ones.

This pays huge dividends as I feel relaxed and confident, and as a result, so does the horse. We can do a nice canter on approach and the jumping goes well. I get a good feel about the sort of jumps she finds easy, and the ones she questions. There is the odd jump where she stops then scrambles over it. This is obviously something we need to work on, in the future.

Today we cover off the necessary basics: ditch, drop, bank, water, log, tyres, and artificial drums of an odd colour.