Monday, June 11, 2012

First jumping lesson on Oberon

Saturday we took Oberon for his first jumping lesson. I'd jumped him during our try-out ride over a few x's, and he did fine, but we wanted to see what our jumping instructor thought of him and how he behaved in a new place.

The lesson was at 7:30 am, which while insanely early, was also relatively cool. It's been 100 degrees here in the afternoons for the last few days, so riding when it's 70 is very nice. Oberon was inattentive during warm-up, but not spooky. I could not get my spurs to stay on the spur rests, and as a result, our canters were pretty much non-existent (really gotta work on that). We did, however, have some lovely medium trots, which our instructor commented on. Too bad I wasn't asking for a medium trot...

We moved right into jumping two small x's on a line. He sort of stepped over them, and our instructor asked me if he's actually jumped at all. I assured her that he had, and we just needed something slightly more impressive. We tried the x's from the other direction, and in between the two fences, Oberon spotted a car coming down the driveway. He watched the car quite keenly as we trotted on, and at the last moment remembered to pick up his feet over the second x. So much for keeping his mind on the task at hand!

The fences went up, and up some more. He started to canter in a nice, forward rhythm. Two verticals became a vertical and an oxer, and the oxer went up. We ended at 2'9:

I commented that the fence wasn't all that scary, and could we try something like a gate. So Paige put up a gate on the oxer, and we had a slightly hairy moment:



Definitely not my finest riding moment ever, but we made it over and didn't land in too much of a heap. Of course, we had to try it again to perfect it:



Overall, it was a huge success! Considering that Oberon hadn't jumped until a month ago when he went to the trainer to be sold, I'd say he's doing fantastically well. I don't think he'll have any problems at all with the 3' coops we find out in the hunt field, and he should be able to bomb around a Novice course with some good miles on him. It's pretty clear that he hasn't seen much in his life and needs experience, but he does try, which is good. My riding didn't help much at all - I felt super loose in the tack, and couldn't seem to keep my leg on him to save my life. I also wanted him to pick up the pace, instead of just letting him get to the fence. Old habits of "chasing" down the fence die hard!

Our jumping instructor really liked him - liked his pace, thought he could be super cute with his knees, and liked that he tried.  Alas, she did say that he's a bit "clunky" for the hunter arena. Poor Oberon. Clunky. Imagine that!

Is this the face of clunkiness to you? With those cute ears? I didn't THINK so!

12 comments:

  1. SUPER cute jumper. You look great together. If he's clunky, then I'm a 'clunker' supporter!

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    1. Heheh! He is kind of clunky compared to all of the lean TBs and refined WBs you see in the A hunter circuit, but I think clunky is just what we need right now.

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  2. He looks easy going and makes it all look like it is so easy! To think, he will only improve is exciting as I think he is fantastic right now! What an amazing, beginning for Oberon and you!

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    1. Margaret, he is definitely an easy-going guy for the most part, and it is cool to think that things will get better. I can't wait to see him this fall after a couple of months of work... I hope my husband has a blast on him!

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  3. great video! He looks like he's just hanging out :)

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  4. Since I'm a little slow... YAY! I'm glad to hear you're keeping him, and I love the name Oberon. According to Wikipedia, "Oberon is a fairy king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature." Is that where the name idea came from? It's super cute!

    He looks great in the videos too! :)

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    1. in2paints, we just kept playing around with names until we found one that fit. Oberon cam from a list I found online... we literally just went down the list and tried name after name. It just seemed to work for him, and it happened to be a bonus that it has ties to medieval and renaissance culture. :)

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  5. Love this! Man he seems like a cool horse. Love the new name and love his attitude!!

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    1. Attitude is definitely the #1 reason we bought him. Good looks and nice gaits are just a bonus!

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  6. Looks like you hit the jackpot on this one.

    (And clunky my ass... it's what a horse does in the chosen discipline, not how they're built imho!)

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    1. Well he is definitely not a refined hunter... but I think clunky is OK here. :)

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