03/06/2025
Sellers love to post dramatic pictures of horses over jumping fences, and, as much as the next rider with big track aspirations, I appreciate knowing the scope is in there; however, if I’m bringing one along, over-jumping is a tell-tale sign my horse may be overwhelmed by the questions she is being asked, so it’s a bright red flag waving with reason to back off a bit.
Sainte has had a really busy first show season, especially for such a young horse fresh out of the field only eight months ago, and, so far, she has responded to all the exposure with enthusiasm. However, on Saturday, Icarus almost flew a little too high.
The opportunity arose to hang out with our AHJA friends at River Pine Farm, so we happily hauled to Huntsville! We enjoyed catching up with everyone in the stunning sunshine, then… whether it was because she had only seen full hunter fill once before, or because the line was light gray, or because she didn’t get a chance to school the fences prior to completing her courses, I will never know... but what I DO know, is my baby pony jumped the absolute ish out of the in anddddd the out, and then she came back to refuse there on the next course.
Both of these reactions are out of character for her, so we went again to clarify the quandary (one handed - I got a little proactive to convince her we were super sure), celebrated big time (pat, pat, pat pat, perfect pony), and then came home to step it way, waaaaaaaay down the next day.
Sunday morning, we all focused on opening up our stride and using it to get the step - straight - through lines and lines of ground poles. Then we did it again over inviting 2’3” speed bumps. Luckily, there were no residual ill effects to be found and only continued progress to be made!
Sainte has the coming weekend off and then a fun cross country clinic to attend at Copper Top with our favorite eventer, Jim Graham, on June 15th - this will strategically serve to further build her base and teach her to read questions intelligently instead of panicking and resorting to over reaction in the face of excess information.
This little bay mare is beyond special to me and every precaution is being taken to ensure she loves her job and will eventually jump THIS big over fences that are actually this BIG. 😅❤️🦄
