Jumpin' Jackson

"WOW, mom this look FUN!"

Me showing Jackson the jumps he will jump. His reply?
"Let's do it NOW!!!" So we did. OK. Just not this one! This one's for next week! :)

Wish I had pics of all the jumps, with the one's in the pasture and in the woods, there are about 15-18 large jumps.


Linda taking Shorty over--I took Jacks over the same one quite a few times-really not even high enough to two-point over--but he LOVED it and I can tell he wants more!!! :)

Marking the easy pink trail

Putting up the flags.....

Went out to Linda's today and we trailered the five minutes over to Triple H Equitherapy to mark the pink trail which is the easiest one. All the trails (there are three--easy, interm. and advanced) have ten obstacles to find on the scavenger map and this year we are making some new obstacles and adding to the advanced trail (actually blazing NEW trail) so the people who have been coming for the past five years don't get too bored...I suggested a stop called "Hobo Hollow" and now I am suddenly the creator of 75-100 little tiny hobo bags with a bit of cotton inside attached to a popsicle stick...(Do you ever notice this happening when you open your trap with ideas?) Guess I will go to Michael's and do some shopping! :) Luckily, I am quite crafty when I want to be, so this should be OK...At every obstacle you need to bring something back--and the ULTIMATE is to get it all from the back of your horse without getting off--if you bring back all of the items from all ten obstacles you get a prize. There's a band, lunch, and a Peruvian Paso drill team performance. It is one of the major fundraiser's 0f the year for Triple H Equitherapy, but it is SOOOO cool!! So this is the first year I have rode Jackson while blazing, marking the trails and setting up the obstacles, and he took it in stride. Last year I rode Shorty the Leopard Appy in this posts pics... We began making pink flying ribbons, attaching them to clothespins and then 20 to his saddle and asking him to stop under trees and beside fences to constantly leave our "marked trail" so folks will know the correct direction. After a couple of hops when I first started to reach off of him to attach a marker to a fence he gave a sigh and then began to enjoy himself. I really enjoyed myself because this whole pink trail is A CROSS COUNTRY COURSE, part of it in a pasture and the rest in the woods; with huge scary downhill things, ditches, and tire jumps along the way!!!!

Much of the area that we traveled through had little jumps to practice over and since it is a REAL course it also has the requisite scary HUGE ones that Jackson was quite interested in!!! My horse wants to be a jumper!!! Thank you God! After we set everything up, we took the 1.5 mile trail at a fast trot to make sure that people could follow our handiwork. We took lots of little jumps through the woods, most of them quite a bit bigger than cavaletti. The only thing I have ever done on him is cavaletti at a trot and he does that well without hitting them, and I know that it's a start but this was just FUN and he was loving it! Of course, the big jumps are down the road, but I am just thrilled that I had the opportunity to do this and Jackson was SUPER and EAGER for more! We are in the process of finding a trainer and I am confident that with all the riding I'm doing I'm going to have a BOMBPROOF AngloArab! Hmmm. OK. It will most likely depend on the day! :) He is such a forward, willing horse and praise the Lord, he has NO bad habits. At 10 years old (on 9 May) that's really good! We then went and did arena work for approx. 20 min. Lots of transitions. I am also teaching Jacks "side" as we are learning to open gates, not always easy, but very necessary when you trail ride a lot!!!! After we finished, I went and got a 15 minute refresher course to do volunteer sidewalking in order to work at Triple H for a few hrs. each Wed night. This entails walking beside a horse in the arena; as a sidewalker you are there to provide safety and support to your rider. I did this when I lived in Washington D.C. , in addition to volunteering with the jumpers in Special Olympics. These riders have developmental and physical disabilities, some of them are there for psycho-horsie-therapy too--for example war veterans. Lord knows that's why I have a horse--for my psycho-Jackson-therapy--what a great thing, eh? So in addition to me being a sidewalker I have been asked to be a handler in which you actually are the one leading and controlling the horse. This requires an "official" class and a certification. I think I floored the Volunteer Coord. when I told him I really just wanted to be a sidewalker in order to have the interaction with the students. (After all, I "handle" my horse all the time...)I worked with folks with dev. disabilities for 12 years in Key West and Pa before finishing my BSN and becoming a nurse, and I MISS it.... Apparently, sidewalkers don't need to have any horse experience and are the bottom of the totem pole--the "handlers" are the cool thing to be... I told him I would do it in case they got stuck and needed a handler, but I WANT to be a sidewalker... BUT, obviously, if you don't have a handler you can't do anything, so I will be a back-up handler. Anyway, I am looking forward to starting next Wed.!

Jackson stepped on my foot two days ago, (very accidently as he was near the edge of concrete that dropped off a bit, so it was MY FAULT) and since I wanted to ride the second day in a row--I vet wrapped it and put on da' boot.... Well after 2.5 hrs. (and one re-wrap) of lots of trotting, jumping, and then trotting and cantering in the arena for 20 min. I have a really pretty foot! Enjoy the colors! Amazing the injuries we ride with eh? I continued to ride with my shoulder broken 2 yrs. ago....BAD, BAD I know!!!!

I think it MAY look worse than it feels, except after 3 hrs. of riding on it! Hmmm. Go figure as my mom likes to say to me...

Pain medication and ice are heaven sent friends!

Yep, and I DO need a pedi, but with the rest looking so bad, I have a little time to make it pretty again, dont'cha think?