My pony is so special! She jumped 3'6 two days ago UNDER SADDLE! I'm so proud of the little beast. I recently made some tack changes that stressed her out at first but that will ultimately help her go better under saddle. I switched her to a figure 8 noseband which will help to keep her mouth closed and keep her from crossing her jaw so she can't evade the bit and from a standing martingale to a running martingale. This will help to continue to encourage her to use her body over the fences and it doesn't restrict her from throwing her head up.
Yesterday on the flat we worked on canter lengthening and collection which is a totally new concept for her. Its cool to see how responsive she can be, and even though she is hot, these days she just loves to work. She loves jumping more than anything though so that is what really focuses her attention. Yesterday I also worked on a cross-rail exercise that gets her thinking about her leads.
She is much stronger to the right than to the left, so the focus in her flatwork should emphasize circles to the left. I did two exercises yesterday over cross rails and both were figure eights. One was the figure 8 exercise where you jump on a diagonal each time (more of this will really help to get her off the forehand in those tight turns) and the other was a big loopy figure eight that emphasized leads.
Today we are making a sale video for her since I leave for the summer next week, and then tonight I'm photographing a girl from riding's pre-prom at Elon. It will be a fun and busy day!
Here is the video of the pony doing 3'6!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAi_luY7QMk
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