From racing to riding... the training diary of an off the track Standardbred

Saturday, March 6, 2010


Trotting Jet! You can see how he is stretching now vs. sticking his nose up and out like he was last time we went. Also a trot to walk transition

Ohh boy! We jumped! They were tiny crossrails and we only did it a few times just to desensitize him to them for later on down the road. Last week he thought that the colored poles would come up and eat him, I swear... but he was so much better this week! We also trotted over a "flower box" and introduced him to a rockwall but didn't go over it since it would be higher than a crossrail. I wasn't going to push jumping and I only wanted to go over a few times. He was such a good boy! The first jump he went straight to it, but I dropped my contact so he didn't jump it. I didn't know if he would go to sniff it, or something, so I decided to drop my contact. Why? I don't know. I know that it's not what I should have done but it's what I did. Over the second jump I kept my contact and he jumped it! He tapped it with his back foot since I got left behind. I didn't know he was actually going to jump! I wasn't expecting that pleasant surprise. After he did that, he was thinking, "Ok, I'm done. Time to walk." He got a huge praise for going over them and lots of treats ;)

He was actually listening! This video was just one to see how his trot to walk transition was  but I ended up really impressed with the trotting part of it. It really shows how much work we have accomplished this past week. Stretching has really paid off! I was able to get him into a nice frame for a few steps at a time! I know, the videos all are crappy quality but that's what you get from a video from a phone. Tomorrow we ARE bringing and actual camera and so is Mary-Kate so we will get some better video of us in the ring, as well as on the trails! Check back tomorrow for better quality videos!

Best. Video. Ever. I laughed so hard when this happened. I just wanted to walk him over the crossrail to show him that it would not eat him or jump out at him, etc. like he thought it would.  His front end went over it completely fine, he just dragged his last foot over and it knocked both poles on the crossrail down at the same time! He always finds a way to make me laugh ;)

Katie Jumping last weekend over a 2 ft vertical =) What a good girlll!

Katieee! Pfft. and they say pacers can't canter or jump. Look at this girl!

Katie! Mary-Kate's horse :) Shhe is doing an amazing job with her! Taken today

If Only Everyday Were As Good As Today

What a day. What an awesome day! I will post later, too tired right now. I am getting pictures and videos right now and they will be ujp in a few minutes!