| Subject: gridwork & cross country with Memento |
Author:
Dana
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Date Posted: 08:06:05 10/07/02 Mon
"Hey there boy!" I called.Memento looked up from grazing in his pasture at me.I walked out to the black TB a patted him on the neck before clipping a navy blue & burgandy colored lead rope to his halter & leading him up to the stable & into a grooming stall.I grabbed my jumping saddle, a breastgirth, Memento's bridle, a saddlepad, a grooming box & my chaps & riding helmet.I took all of that back to Memento's stall & groomed him & tacked him up.Then I put on my chaps & helmet & led Memento to the outdoor jumping arena.I mounted the 16 hand stallion & squeezed him into a walk.Memento was very energetic & high spirited, so he was prancing & looking arouns and sidestepping.I pulled back on the reins to get his attention & did a series of half-halts so he would slow down.Every time he looked somewhere, I would slightly pull on the reins so he would stop looking arouns & pay attention to his rider, me.Once I managed to get Memento to settle down, I trotted him arouns for a while.Then I cued him to canter & Memento leapt into a fast canter.I slowed him down some-what & cantered him for a while before calling to Jasmine(who was passing by) "could you help me by setting a grid & putting up the poles & stuff?" Jasmine replied "sure, mom!" She walked into the arena & set up a basic grid.a ground pole, a 1'-9" crossrail, a 2'-6" vertical & a 3 foot oxer.I trotted Memento into the grid.I got him to canter when he stepped over the groundpole.He practically stepped over the crossrail, then cantered 1 stride, took the 2'-6" vertical, then cantered 2 strides & leaped over the 3 foot oxer.I let him canter about 50 feet, then I slowed him down to a trot, then a walk.I patted him on the neck praising him with "good boy!" Then I asked Jasmine "could you please raise the crossrail to 2 feet, raise the vertical to 3 feet & raise the oxer to 4 feet?" Jasmine nodded and went to work setting the jumps.When she finished, I got Memento to trot again & trotted him into the grid.He did the grid perfectly, without knocking any rails.I said to Jasmine "I'm going to do the cross country course with him now, so could you please take down the grid, & then you can go ahead & do whatever you were going to do." Jasmine nodded & said "I'll see U later." I waved bye & walked Memento out the arena gate & squeezed him into a trot.I walked & trotted him all the way to the cross country course.There were many cross country courses at Timeless Farm.Some were just jumps set in different places in a big meadow, some were in a line.This course had some jumps set up in the meadow as warm-up jumps, & then there was a path in the forest where the 3'-6" through 4'-3" course was.I decided to try Memento over a some 4'-3" jumps today.I popped him over a few warm-up jumps & then cantered him into the cross country course.10 minutes later, we came off the cross country course, & right back into the meadow we had started from.The whole course was basiclly a big loop with a lot of twists & turns.Not to mention hills.I decided that he had done well for the day & it looked like it was going to rain, so I walked him back to the stables.I got there just in time, because it started to rain just as I dismounted and led Memento inside.All of the grooms & barn-hands, along with my family that was home right now, were rushing around, bringing in the horses that were still outside.I quickly untacked Memento & tied him up in his stall with a cooler on him.Then I rushed outside to help bring in the horses.10 mintues later, we still had some horses to bring in, but not many.I untied Memento & took off his cooler.Then, since the horses were inside, I helped to give 2 flakes of hay to each of the horses...
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