Shamu! + jumping video

Today was Fastelavn, and a good excuse for a mini costume class. Barokko and I were dressed up as Shamu and his trainer - we call him Spækhugger (= killer whale) as one of his nick names, so it was an obvious choice of costume :D

Speaking of jumping, we had a jumping lesson with a new trainer on Friday. I got it all on video, so here's a little clip The jumps are 60-70cm, the "big" upright in the middle of the arena is 80cm. I love little jumps, it saves the horse from physical exertion, and saves the rider from psychological exertion, but is every bit as valuable as a training exercise. Finally seems like I've found a trainer who respects and understands what my goals are with jumping, and who likes my horse for what he is, instead of dissing him because he's not a fancy jumper (psst - I know... I didn't buy a Friesian cross expecting him to be a show jumping champion :P )!

He's such a good boy with jumping, if I just get him there and keep him straight he'll jump anything, I really get the feeling that he knows I wouldn't steer him toward something he couldn't handle, so if I ask he answers. He bascules really well over the jumps, but hangs a bit with his front legs, it'll be interesting to see if he keeps doing that when we get to slightly bigger jumps. Not that it matters, he's perfectly capable of the heights I'll be asking him to jump, my ambitions with jumping him are just to have a fun gymnastic variation in his training.