Cob Jockey

Ever since Disco came home, Mary has been dying to free jump him, but the holidays and the weather made that impossible until last night. And boy was it worth the wait.

Mary and I have free jumped enough non-Warmblood horses at this point that I know what to expect from the first time, even for horses that end up enjoying and having aptitude for jumping. They're uncertain, they don't know how to use their bodies, they jump weird. We give them a positive experience, but we don't push them, and it's not usually until the second or third time that they really start to figure it out and show us what they might be made of. 

Of course, with testosterone on our side, I also joked that I felt like Disco would have all the attitude of a 19 year old Tik Tok star as soon as he jumped his first fence, and, well.

Nobody tell him those were ground poles, he thinks he just won the Olympics, lol

He ate it up.

He sent himself around and around at first, ears up, kicking his heels up when he finished a line like "Did you see how awesome I am?"

Man I love stallions, lol

As the jumps went up, his enthusiasm continued. He had a rail or two as he made some green horse pace and judgment mistakes, but generally he was very aware of his feet. 

I was also somewhat stunned to see him actually move for the first time. Here I thought he wasn't capable of moving like this, but he's been playing me.

We don't normally put the third fence up to an oxer for a horse's first time through the chute, but Mary noted that he was not fazed at all by any of this, and he really seemed to be enjoying it even after all the fences were up to verticals, so she put the back rail up.

This was the first time he was ever impressed by something, but he still went over, and he showed us what those hindquarters are capable of.

Baby's first oxer!

We sent him over the oxer one more time so he could prove to himself that he could do it before taking the back rail down and letting him end on an easy, confidence building one:

"I'm glad he got a little impressed with the oxer. I think it’ll kinda challenge him and respect the “game” and blow his brain open a little more each time," Mary said later. I couldn't agree more. He wasn't scared, but it was the first time I saw him ever really forced to think through some circumstances, and it was good for him.

 

 

She also said he's got the hindquarters for scope and the canter for power, but that he's not naturally catty and we'll have to teach that. But the raw materials are there.

 

No idea why this GIF insists on being slow mo but oh well. Mary got on bareback to cool him out afterwards and walked him down the line so that he understood that poles don't always mean bomb around.

 

We won't be free jumping him that big again for a long while. Mary's plan from here is to free jump him over smaller, weird things for the forseeable future. Confidence building things. Flower boxes and little verticals with a tarp over them and barrels. And to start to incorporate more poles into my under saddle rides, but not to jump him under saddle until he's pretty been-there-done-that on small, weird stuff. At not quite four, I couldn't agree more with the plan.

 

But I'm already dreaming of getting back to eventing with this one... 

Yes, this is a video. He was so happy just to stand there with his ears up like this. I just love him.