Working Hunter ?

Yesterday it was finally time for Moon to take a trip out to hone his jumping skills around a full course of jumps. Jen very kindly lent us the course at Kirklevington and away we went, rather early in the morning!

Loading is a dream as you just hold the lead rope in one hand and a bucket of chaff in the other and he follows you in. Travelling is 'boring' after 10 mins and necessitates banging the floor every time you stop in traffic and trying to reverse out of the shut trailer. Oh and whinnying a lot and you leave your friends behind!

Travelling all done and Moon wanders out in his own time,( making sure he tidies the floor of any chaff he dropped getting in) and stands quietly in the car park, having grown a good two inches! 

Tack on and leg up and we make our way into the huge arena...

There are jumps everywhere, all beautifully built, and decorated with bits of fir trees completely covering the wings and each fence has its own pristine and horse scaring filler including: little dairy houses, fake sheep, a road closed sign on the Second part of the double, two stiles in a row and just to add to the effect, a cuddly snake woven into the ladder filler on the FIRST fence!

First reaction to a full and rather terrifying working hunter course (did I mention Jen builds the most difficult courses I've ever seen?) is to walk backwards into the 'grooms'. After a little 'encouragement' he realises backwards isn’t really an option and he trots nervously round the edge of the arena making sure the sheep get a VERY wide berth!

After a good trot and canter round in and out of all of the fences it was time to start going over. A quick conversation as to which is the least horse scaring fence (it was a little difficult to find one that had NOTHING scary about it!) and we chose an innocuous cross pole with little houses pushed right out to the wings. A big open space to jump, plain poles, it looks inviting even! So we trot round calmly to begin our first course. All goes smoothly till 2 meters away and we bounce to an abrupt halt. A quick nudge to try and move him forward again results in him snaking his neck in a way that’s only just possible for a horse and running sideways shaping his body into the best impression of a 'C' as he can manage. Those houses are clearly not safe. A quick smack and things get worse, now we are shuffling rather quickly towards the wall, backwards. And back, and back, and back until he suddenly hits bum off the wall and jumps forward again in surprise!  Now miles away from and horse eating houses we stop to asses the situation.

A moment later a little voice suggests that she walk over the fence first. Doubtful of this plan I agree and trot back up to the jump to join the 'groom'. (We have no problem getting to the fence, we can get as close as we like, just not over!) As close as he can to  the shoulder of our 'leader' we shuffle towards the cross pole and with his head all but ON her shoulder she steps over and Moon braces himself and lifts his front legs, and pops over, almost landing on our poor helper!

Laughing we come round again and reluctantly hop over on our own. A few more times and we have some rhythm so we land and aim straight for the next fence, the first part of the double (part b removed!). Its plain rustic poles with viaduct fillers, and a couple of kicks and some tactical steering and he steps right over first time! Yey, he's brave!

Next up is the snake, which requires a lead again, from one of our trusty helpers but again as soon as he has a human to follow he’s straight over. This time a warning call is required mind jump to avoid us actually landing on her! We continue with the walls (moved out to the side) and we feel like we've got some momentum.

So now it’s time to tackle the sheep.  . . The sheep are either side on the wings separated by straw bales and so far have been strategically avoided by Moon even when i try and trick him by Turing at them from a different angle or a very short approach. Overestimating his bravery we head for the sheep in a lovely strong trot and two strides away swiftly run sideways doing his 'c' impersonation. (Head and back legs in one direction - body and neck in another). Time for our trusty helpers again. This time he's been tricked one too many times and one helper going over is not enough. BOTH 'grooms' have to go over and even then we're not taking to the air over THAT. After both humans have been observed stepping over he will do exactly the same, carefully he lifts one leg and gingerly puts it on a bale, leg two is on and leg 3 and four all find their way ONTO a bale before safely stepping off the other side.

So now we're all set for the lead rein jumping! I wonder if they let people run around with 16.2hh horses??

Pseudo Intelligence

So far the posts have been dedicated to the hilarious things Moon does in his adventures into the world of a real riding horse. Today’s post is too, however someone has a new theory on the mind of Moon....

About a week ago, when spring was really trying to spring, Moon was tied up on the yard waiting for the mess he has made in his stable e.g. pulling his swimming pool of a water bucket over and finding the deepest part of the banks and then digging down to the concrete, to be tidied up before he goes in the field for the night. Deep in a stable tiding up after my boy I hear a strange noise and rush back out to make sure no one is stuck or is eating anything they shouldn’t and spy Moon holding the handle of the plastic curry comb in his mouth and 'brushing' the floor, not just in any way, methodically up and down, up and down. Apart from drooling on the brush a bit and getting it a bit dirty he did no harm whatsoever, carefully 'brushing the floor'.

After being informed of his activities a non-horsy friend exclaimed that he was clearly very clever and had seen us use the curry comb to brush him and seen us brush the floor made the connection in his mind and tried t out for himself. In fact "he is like those chickens in chicken run!" So apparently my horse has a secret flying machine hidden somewhere in a corner of my small yard I never visit. .

Maybe he wouldn’t need a flying machine if he worked out how his legs can propel himself of the floor!
 Xx