I have no time for a proper update, but I will say this... GWEN JUMPED THE BARRELS!
I have been trying to get her to jump over the barrel "jump" since last summer, and last Monday (a week ago) she did it! Now, admittedly, it wasn't something I focused a lot of our time on, mostly because I thought (shamefully) that it would never happy. She's a little thing, only 14 hh or so, and those barrels are awful big and scary for a little RBI. She's also not very young... not an oldie, but old enough that I was worried about arthritis, or injury, etc, so I never really pushed it with her.
But as we've gone further, and she's gotten more in shape, I decided to try again. We had an awesome warm-up online session last monday, doing fun things like traveling circles, and lots of changes of direction, lots of side-ways to yo-yo to another traveling circle, to touch-it with the barrels... and when she gave me touch-it with her nose AND her feet... hm. I thought "Why not?" and asked for a little more. She was definitely trying her heart out, though she wasn't really happy about it, and after a bit of persistance and a LOT of patience, she hopped over!
The next day, we jumped it again, this time both directions! Last Thursday, I did only on-line, no freestyle, and we did TONS of flowing games, and even some figure 8's (which she did awesome), and then we jumped the barrels again. She's getting so "into" it that the last time, she didn't even jump 'em. Just plopped her front feet over one, two, and then the back, one, two. Next time, we'll aim for a bit more impulsion. It IS called a jump, silly Gwen!
More, with pictures, when I have a time. Possibly tomorrow!
Till then,
J
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