Today I didn’t ride, but just lunged Kip: first on the flat and then over fences. I haven’t done any work with him over fences yet because he’s been too young, too big, too clumsy, and then there was the shoulder injury. Now, although he’s doing really, really well, he just doesn’t seem happy about anything. He’s bored…or he could just be lazy and unmotivated, I suppose, but he feels miserable to me. It’s like trying to work Eeyore, just not much fun for either of us. Jumping is something that, theoretically, he should have all the ability in the world for. I was hoping that it would be something that he could enjoy.
So, after some cross-rails that he just trotted over with his normal bored expression, I tried lunging him over some of the regular jumps, set very low. Impossible – I don’t have the knack of flipping the lunge line over the top of the jump wing. There are no convenient jump bloks or anything, so I was trying to make these mad constructions of small oil drums and poles…and couldn’t get a high enough jump without resorting to using the regular jumps. Grrrrr….even with the oil drums standing on their ends, with a horizontal pole on top (probably 2′ 6″), he’d just trot it. He’s so damn big – he can just step over anything. Frustrating.
I did talk to the trainer today, and scheduled lessons. (She was the one who got me through my dead fear of jumping using my friend’s wonderful mare Larkin.) She knows that Kip hasn’t done much, as he’d just been started when he fractured his shoulder, so she’ll let me continue at the slow-ish pace that has worked best for Kip so far.
I want to event…nothing ambitious, just Intro or Novice level horse trials. No huge drop fences or anything, just something reasonable – which seems so far away at this point. It’s my dream, though. It’s why I bought Kip, and why we’ve spent all of the money that we have so far…I want to try before it’s too late. Perhaps it’s a silly dream, perhaps it’s already too late; I don’t want to regret never trying to acheive that dream, though.
Phil? This is what I need for Christmas. :)