Anything But Standard

As the only rider for ABS, waiting around for an MRI on my imjured knee is driving me nuts ....

It's probably the ACL, which will mean I can't ride for a while, and may also mean my sanity levels will be clingly desperately to memories of being in the saddle....

So, it's groundwork and roundyard work for the herd; I'm sure that thrills them to the core to know that ... But; what to do when you're roundyard currently resembles a swampy marshland? ...
The answer: introduce the water jump!

A few rails and poles were setup, and those in work then had the thrill of working over and through the swampy delights; Blue, Jag, and Johnny all feature in today's exciting epispode!...

Blue:

Probably has the best style out of the 3, nothing much phases him, and to be honest he found it all a little too easy .... Next session, I may raise the height for him and ask for a bit more commitment in terms of his bascule... He was pretty lazy today, but all in all I was happy with him, and though it wasn';t much of a challenge for him, he seemed to enjoy himself ... When he's done, he walks back in for a pat and an ear scratch ...
You can see in the pic he's thinking "eaaaaasy... why jump, when I can just canter over it?!"

Jag:

Also in a lazy mood today, though when I finally woke him up, he was on the ball .... While he needs to work on style, he's not too worried about getting down and dirty in the mud ... He's always listening, and can get over-sensitive at times, but all in all he's a talented boy who I think can go quite far ....(Well, once he works out he needs to snap those front knees together, and use his hindquarters more effectively) ... But given this is maybe his 2nd time over a 'jump' I think he can be forgiven ;o)

Johnny:

I'm starting to think more and more that Johnny was born a Thoroughbred, but happened to be switched at birth with a Standardbred foal who looked just like him, hahaha .... He thinks and reacts like a TB, but without the explosiveness ... You can see his mind working a million miles an hour, trying to piece everything together and get it right .... He tries really, really hard to get it right the first time ...He's super sensitive, and pretty damn intelligent...

He was NOT so keen to go into the swamp, for fear that the beast from the black lagoon was still residing somewhere in it .... I tried leading him through first; ummmm no thanks .... So I put a short rope on, and we lunged through a tiny bit of puddle, and then a bit more... We walked through it together, and that was it; in no more than 5 minutes he was free-lunging through it like he'd been doing it all his life ... He's a smart cookie this one ...

He's got lovely, lovely movement, and I think he's going to make someone a very nice competitive hack or dressage mount.