For our last jumping lesson, we had talked about jumping out in one of the fields were we have some obstacles setup. However, it was threatening to rain and our instructor—who from now on will be known as Ulrika or Ulle, because its easier to type ;P—also wasn’t certain that some of the horses might not be a little too frisky. So, we put that off for the autumn. Instead, we jumped a series of four obstacles, with one stride between 1 and 2, one between 2 and 3 and two between 3 and 4.
Mostly Ulrika wanted us to do it in as uncomplicated a way as possible, with good drive forward. Most people were asked to come in at a trot, but for me and Murphy she asked for canter right off. Its easier for him, and I also get less pushy that way. Even so, I did get a little too active on some occasions, but after she’d told me to jump the series once and then gallop him around the paddock once before coming onto the jumps again, I definitely had him charged up enough that I could relax. He even changed canter on me at one point. Not something I asked for, but he usually has nowhere near the canter to be able to do that.
And yes, I avoided doing any sharp corners. ;P I did, however, try to keep in mind the comments from the competition, so I tried to work on keeping my legs in the same position over the jumps. Other than that, there wasn’t too much for me to work on once I had the “hands off” approach down. Murphy got the distances sorted out after one attempt, though he did keep knocking down the second jump for no good reason other than laziness, since he cleared the higher and broader jumps after that with no problem.
When we returned to the stables, he stopped a little oddly as he got in there. He does that now and then, and Ulrika saw it and explained that he seems to have some slight vision issue. Specifically, when going from light to dark or vice versa, he takes longer than most horses to readjust. But it doesn’t seem to affect anything else, though perhaps he is a little nearsighted or farsighted since he can get stuck looking at things for a long time. He never spooks, he just studies them with curiosity. I think that also has to do with a total lack of survival instincts. ;P