The Heavenly Horse and the Law of Fences

Jones went to his first horse trial and it went pretty well. Dressage was good.... we were in fourth with a 37. Cross-country looked pretty inviting, with a couple of surprising fences for a schooling BN.... the fourth fence was two overturned metal water troughs topped by a log, with false saloon-fronts to either side, for instance! But I figured he's a good brave fellow and it would be no problem. Three fences were in fencelines between the pastures.

So if you've ever read The Heavenly Horse From The Outermost West (kind of a horsey Watership Downs) the horses in the book talk about The Law of Fences, where horses have an agreement with Man to obey fences as part of their "bargain" for shelter and food, etc. Well apparently Jones read the book or at least subscribes to the philosophy! LOL. Cantering up to the first fence, which was in the pasture fenceline, he said "What??" and stopped. We circled and I gave him a tap with the whip and he jumped it, but I could tell he thought I was NUTS! The next, oh, ten fences were great.... then we cleared a big table, galloped up the hill toward the second fenceline with jumps in it, and he started slowing down and giving me dubious ear-flicks. REALLY? A little kick and he hopped right over, down the hill to another fenceline, he just hesitated for the barest second there and went without needing additional encouragement. Galloped to the finish very happy and hopefully a better understanding of Legal Fence Jumping!!

Showjumping was a cinch, nice colorful course with turns and bending lines. He listened very well and handled it all no problem. Finished in 7th. He got a lot of attention for his good behavior as a young stallion, too.

Huggy, the medium pony I've been riding for four months, went and did his first horse trial also in the "Moving Up" division (his mum has no faith whatsoever, right Pam?). He is a little herd-bound and was NOT happy to be down in the dressage ring with no other horses in sight (it is in an isolated corner over a hill from the warmups), but he managed to pull off a 3-way tie for first. He jumped clean on cross-country, cantered quite a bit and nicely under control, and we trotted the last couple fences to avoid time penalties (275mpm is NOT very fast!) In stadium he was a little distracted and knocked the first fence, finishing in second overall.

Madison and her new horse, Lee, had a decent first show. He got spooked by a golf cart running right up behind him and was a bit tense in dressage, and as he was circling the start box for cross-country, the horse before him went flying across the course with its saddle under its tummy! So he was a little hyper! But he jumped around clean for cross-country and stadium and finished ninth out of 19. So, ribbons all around!

All's well at the barn.... new boarder coming in a couple weeks, a playmate for Gracie! Breedings starting to roll in for Jones as well, Vanna is at the vet's hopefully getting bred to Future Illusion (BSH eventing stallion by Fleetwater Opposition, the sire of Summersong, Opposition Buzz, etc), new training horse Sassy (Dutch cross 4yo) is w/t/c and trotting ground rails after less than four weeks work....