Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Four Jumping Lessons!


Renny has had four jumping lessons, since he turned 3 years old in May.  I'm writing this entry on May 2nd and this past Monday, May 30th, he was amazing as usual.  During his first jumping lesson, he popped over as quiet and sweet as you please, lifting his knees properly.  And during his second jumping lesson, he was quite happy to trot in and canter out, during a small course of four jumps -- two on each side.  He took them both ways.  And mind you, during this second lesson, Grama dropped the reins as he popped over a rail and so he had to canter quite straight for many strides before jumping in a relaxed fashion over the next crossrail without aids from reins.  We thought that was cool until the third lesson.  The course was a 3 bounce with a 3 stride to a bending line crossrail.  And let me tell you.  Renny bounced quietly and sweetly and broke into a lovely quiet canter and popped happily over the crossrail several times.  Wonderful pony.  And then this past week, he was practicing jumping and then turning towards diagonal jumps -- no problem!  Trot in, canter away, break into trot for the next crossrail.  All good!  And then Stacey says, make him canter in.  I was nervous because cantering into a jump is a high-end sort of skill.  But Renny broke into his sweet responsive canter, and went straight, true, balanced and even right to the center of the jump.  And he popped over sweet and quiet and engaged and clean.  He is truly a spectacular pony!