We had one knock down. The strange thing was, he knocked it down with his face, not his feet. After he hit that one, the spectators said that he was sure to keep his head up before the jumps...

 

Adamir never offered to refuse. We haven't jumped a course this high before, so I wasn't sure. The only problem we had was a bunch of tight spots. When I remembered (and had the strength), to keep my leg on, he jumped really smoothly. When I just sat up there like a bump on a log, he'd tend to chip in. I'm not sure that it matters to him, if he jumps like a deer, but I'm hoping to explain to him that jumping out of the canter stride is much nicer. Someday I'll have more than one jump at the house, so we can work on this stuff without trailering somewhere.

This was one of the nice, comfy jumps.

This one wasn't so bad, but he definitely jumped too close. Luckily we weren't trying to get striding for a line.

This one was a nasty, tight, deer-jumping fence. It was the last jump on the course, and I was so tired, all I could do was grab mane and trust him. Hard to believe from this picture, but he didn't touch it.  I've just got to teach him that as the fences get raised, impulsion is going to become a requirement for jumping.  I think it's more my fault than his. I can get timid when he gets forward, so, in the past, over the smaller fences, I've asked him to have little impulsion on the approach, because that feeling of power was intimidating.  If I'm going to ask him to move up the levels in the future, I'm going to have to trust his forwardness as necessary for jumping the bigger stuff.