Never Say Never...

Its a two in one blog kind of day. Mostly I just don't want to miss writing down all the cool things that have been happening lately, but putting them all in one post it started to seem... well a bit like trying to read The Odyssey, Gone With The Wind or War and Peace rather then a blog update. Anyways make sure to check out my blog from last weekend that was posted this weekend because I'm so busy I don't have time to blog... you can see that here. 

And, the reason I don't have time to blog.... 

School is officially back in session. Which means long, long, torturous work hours. I keep reminding myself that its worth it to be able to have Rio. And, I do love the kids despite all my complaining. 

My real reason for posting this blog though is this!...

We've been slowly working on adding a little bit of jumping to our routine with the help of my trainer, but up to this point he'd only free jumped 2' and never done more then an 18" cross rail under saddle.

My leaser was riding with me to day and she asked if he'd go over the vertical. I said I don't know lets find out fully expecting him to stop short and the above is what I got instead! 

 When I bought Rio, he would either plow through or just plain refuse to jump anything, even a six inch cross rail. I know this doesn't look like much... and lets ignore for the moment my HORRIBLE form, but it is indeed a 2'2" vertical. And the standards that he's pretty close to clearing thanks to his majorly over jumping the fence are 3'3. Verticals are also more difficult to jump then a cross rail because they maintain their hight all the way across so they look more imposing to the horse. Just to make sure it wasn't a flue we went over it again 2 more times. 

I once had a trainer tell me that maybe he was just not cut out to be a jumper and I foolishly believed her. All the dressage we've been working on has improved both our balance so much that even though he still hesitates at times going to a fence we are doing more then I ever thought possible and of course when things don't go as planned to a jump its usually my fault not his...

Something to be said for the saying "never say never". 

Personally I think I should get extra points for jumping in a dressage saddle... cannot wait until I get a replacement saddle and a few more months with the trainer under our belt. 

Happy three day weekend all!