Jumping Fun

The Oatsmobile has continued to be an excellent riding horse, remembering his lessons from ride to ride and getting much better.  Saturday during my lesson we trotted a small jumping course (mixed poles and cross rails) and he did great.  He still won't land on his left lead very often but that isn't a priority at this time.  

Sunday I went hiking in the morning and managed to limp to the barn (freaking rolled ankle) in time to watch his training ride with R2.  

I took video which I will clearly need to upload to youtube because blogger and I can't agree on uploading it directly, but in the meantime the video stills tell a relatively interesting story to me.  Mostly about how baby horse is tired of this cross rail shit.  

First jump of the day, trotting in and just stepping over.
Not really trying and definitely not jumping round
Lazy front end. Kind of fugly

Hard to see but a slightly better effort going into the line as he warms up.
Still trotting in

Coming back to this jump he gave a slightly bigger effort now that he is rolling
But obviously still not trying super hard

A crappy angle but this is cantering out of the line in the add.
Speaking of, this horse has a monster stride.  He can do the step trotting in.
Slightly better effort, using his neck a little, still a little lazy or maybe just awkward with a tight distance.

The biggest jump he did that day, probably 2'3".  This was trotting in.
Commands a bit more respect and effort.  

Cantering to the flower box. I think having fill made him actually stretch his neck a
bit to take a look

Jumping out of the line in the step

And finally, cantering to the "big" vertical

Not too shabby

Looking at it in total with my very amateur eye, it seems to me that a bunch of pretty predictable stuff is going on.

• He isn't really trying at the tiny stuff anymore (especially when it is warm out and it was on Sunday).  
• He jumps tidier and better when he has more momentum, the jumps are higher, or the spot is bigger.
• He hasn't learned to really use his back or neck when jumping yet. 
• Odin is a pretty bold jumper.  He will peek at the fill but it doesn't phase him and he doesn't stop unless you pull on him.  Totally acceptable, he is green so he isn't expected to offset rider error at this point.
• Can deal with the tighter spot or the bigger one, although he has plenty to learn about both.

On the whole I am thrilled with him.  The pros are confident he is going to develop into a killer jumper (although possibly not hunter material) and he seems to have retained most of what he learned about jumping last summer even with a pretty long 6 months focusing on flat work.  We have plenty to learn, but I think we have the basics installed and it is the right time to advance.

I am hoping for lots of photos and videos over the next few months to keep track of how he progresses over fences.  Always open to any other thoughts!