2/25/07
Mo's First Cross Country Schooling
at Quail Run Farm


Ready to head out. 
The pelham is what I usually hunt him in. We talked about tying up the curb rein, but it was easiest to just ride with both. It was more bit than he needed, and the one or two times we hit him in the mouth we felt quite bad.
 

Warming up over a cavalletti.
No trouble with the creek crossing. He gave a few leads to the others.
 
Some warmup trot work.
Happy to lead the way.
 
He walked right in the water. 
Trotting through on the way to a jump.
 
 He wasn't sure how big he needed to make the jump. It took a few jumps to settle in.
Chrissie and I traded and she took Mo through the combination of jump, water, jump.
 
 The first try he was careful and jumping green.
The next time through he started to figure it out.
 
Much more reasonable than our first try over.
 Down the bank.
 
Combining a jump and then heading to the....
Up bank.
 
We traded back, so here I am jumping Mo.
Jumping the ditch first try. There was nothing he didn't try for us. For our part, we made sure we didn't overface him.
 
Not worried about the cows on course.
I like his trot. It's comfy and can cover the ground.
Some canter work out in the open.
His canter was nicely balanced, but he didn't figure out, today, how to take a jump from a canter stride. When we tried, the jumps were still awkward. But, on the plus side, he did figure out about not over jumping, but stayed careful and never got excited.