The nice thing about having someone dressage hack Rose a couple days during the week is that I don't feel guilty about jumping her when I have time to ride on the weekend. Not that the jumps we are doing are all that big anyway. She could probably jump them completely out of shape and be just fine...but I'm way to OCD about her health to do that.
Anyway, it has been three weeks since Rose got her front shoes on an five MONTHS since I've jumped her. As such, I thought I'd set up a little ex, and if she was feeling good I'd pop her over it and see if the shoes make any difference toward her mysterious jumping anxiety she had developed while I was pregnant. For your viewing pleasure, here is a little video from today's ride:
Yep...like a lot of other things, it seems that putting shoes on her fixed the jumping anxiety issue. I am fairly certain I telepathically herd her exclaim after the first jump "Oh hey this is fun again, my feet don't hurt". I didn't need a crop or spurs, and she never stopped, refused, or even thought about running out. Gah! Those shoes should have gone on a year ago. Oh, well. She's happy and comfortable now. So much so that I've been longeing her before riding. She's just feeling so good all the time that she appears to have lots of extra energy. Happily the hay on her pasture finally got bailed today, so it looks like she'll be getting transitioned back to the grass and get to run around and burn off some of her extra energy here shortly. I'm just not looking forward to the inevitable search of a 15 acre pasture for the random thrown shoe. You win some you loose some I suppose. I know she'll be happy to get out of her dry lot, so I can't wait for the transition!
Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•Renee•
Follow my adventures as I bring a long an upper level dressage prospect, starting as a yearling.
Maybe she'll just surprise you by not throwing any shoes in the 15 acre pasture :)
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