"Leap" of Faith

Today, for the first time since I fell almost two weeks ago, Jet and I jumped. I set up four jumps in my little arena of varying heights. Since I am not wealthy, I used common backyard items as jumps and standards.

For example, one jump had big sticks from the woods as poles and groundlines and two saw horses as standards. This jump was a 2'ish crossrail placed on a diagnol so we could practice switching leads over a jump (which is a new thing that we need to practice for upcoming shows.) Jet did awesome! He listened to me and my body as we were approaching and landing the jump so he would land on whatever lead I felt like putting him on.

The next jump had a toy bin as wings and a long 2'6" wide piece of plywood in the middle. I slanted the plywood up against the bins so the jump had both height and width. It ended up being about 2'3". Jet seems to like more solid jumps compared to show jumping style fences. I think since it is solid, it is easier for him to see it and find a distance up to them. He went over this without hesitation.

Out of the bunch, the next setup was probably the most "normal." I had two big blue barrels as standards and then regular wooden poles. I set it up as a verticle with one pole halfway up and halfway down to give it some sort of a filler, the top pole, and then the groundlines. This fence was probably 2'4/2'5"ish. He went over this from both the trot and canter. He did buldge right when we were going to the left but he still went over it.

The last, and biggest, fence was the largest fence we have jumped as a team. I had a traffic cone as one standard and the mounting block with a smaller cone as the other standard. I used regular wooden poles as the top rail and the half up half down filler and then big sticks as the ground lines. As I set it up, I thought the jump was only about 2'6/2'7"ish but went I went back and measured it, it was 2'10"! He went over without hesitation at the canter going to the right (his bad way ironically) but he kept running out when canterred it to the left. I finally got him over it to the left at a trot and cantered it once more to the right and then called it a day.

I know my stirrups are waaaay to long, I'm too far out of the saddle, and I have broken wrists, but look at how well Jet handled it! And check out my new saddle ;) (matching bridle and stirrup leathers are coming soon!)