| Subject: jumping & dressage with Miss Congeniality |
Author:
Dana
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Date Posted: 16:33:33 07/28/02 Sun
I walked through the door of the mares barn.The barn was very clean with the floors just swept.All of the stalls had brass and wood nameplates and were made out of pine which was varnished and stained to a darker shade of tan.The metal part of the stalls was black colored.I kept on walking and reached the tack room.I opened the door and stepped inside.The tack room had just been cleaned and was very organized.I grabbed my jumping saddle off of its rack and also grabbed a girth, a fleecy white saddle pad, a bridle,a grooming box and a breast girth.I walked back to the stall of a beautiful, bay Holsteiner mare named Miss Congeniality.Miss C.(as she was called)was one of my 1st horses.I had known her since she was a foal and had bought her when she was 5.Miss C. was now 7 years old and was doing 5 foot jumps and 1st level dressage.I walked into Miss C.' stall and gave her a hello pat on the neck.I grabbed a curry comb from the navy colored plastic grooming box and started currying Miss C. The bay Holsteiner mare was so well mannered that she stood still while I groomed her without hooking anything to her.Miss C. had perfect ground manners, but that didn't mean she was quiet over jump courses.Miss C. was very fiery & spirited besides being a real sweetheart when you were on the ground with her.I finished currying Miss C. on both sides and continued to brush her with a hard brush & a softbrush, then I picked her hooves with a hoofpick and tacked her up.I led Miss C. to the outdoor jumping arena and used the mounting block to get on to her.I lightly pushed my calf muscles against her sides and Miss C. walked off.I let my body swing to the motion of her walk, but that didn't mean that my body stopped flexing.My heels were pushed as far down as they would go and my leg was flexed against Miss C.' sides.I let Miss c. walk around the arena for a little bit before getting her to trot.Miss C. went into a nice paced trot that threw you up when you posted.I posted on the right diagonal to Miss C.' trot.After doing some trotting circles and serpetines with the 16.2 hand mare, I got her to canter.Miss C.' canter was very springy,Darci had said to me that Miss C. had a springy back end and asked if she had springs in her.I had to agree with Darci, Miss C.' back end had very springy motion.I didn't mind that motion at all because it gave her propulsion when she jumped.I cantered Miss C. in both directions for a couple of minutes before slowing her to a walk.I reviewed the course that I was about to jump Miss c. over in my head and then cued her to canter.I guided Miss C. to the first jump with the reins and let her out over the jump.As Miss c. was about to jump, I went into a 2-point.Miss C. cleared the 4 foot oxer easily and cantered on 2 the next jump.Miss C. tucked up her knees very high over the next jump and got over it with inches to spare, 5'3 jumps are pretty big, especially when there spreads! I made a tight turn to a blue jump with white standards and jumped the far side of it.Miss C. and I finished the rest of the course with only one knocked rail(which = 4 faults) and a very decent time.I didn't think that Miss C. neede to touch up on her jumping, so i decided to do some dressage with her.I walked her through the open gate of the jumping arena and walked her over to the outdoor arena for flatwork.I walked her into the arena and got her to do a extended walk.I went on to get her collecting and extending at the walk, trot & canter.After that, I did some half-passes with Miss C. at the trot and canter.I also did 10, 20, 30 and 40 meter circles with her at the walk, trot and canter, renvers, travers and getting her to do shoulder-in and shoulder-outs.When we finished, I dismounted and led Miss C. back to the barn.I waved hello to Arianna as a saw her.Arianna waved back to me and asked "can I untack her and groom her & turn Miss C. out mom?" Arianna really liked Miss C. and was always wanting to do stuff with her.After Ari had ridden Miss C. on the flat, she really wanted to jump her.I thought to myself, one of these days I'm going to let her jump Miss C. I said to Ari "if you want to untack her, go ahead." I handed Miss C.' reins to Ari and she led the bay mare to her stall, where she untacked her, hosed her off and turned her out in her own paddock.I went to put Miss C.' tack away after Ari had untacked her.
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