Monday of Week 15 we picked up some awesome blue barrels from Hastings Produce. Blue barrels are great because they don’t rust and there are no rusty sharp edges. We can jump them, sidestep them, push them… they are great.
Sansa has a unique jumping style, she is incredibly good at jumping from a stand still. In week 2 I let Sansa go for a roll in the indoor arena. She didn’t roll, instead she walked straight to the gate, poked her nose over, had a good look at the concrete on the other side and bunny hopped right over. I couldn’t believe how effortless the 1.15m jump was.
After this little stunt I had no doubt that Sansa could handle the barrels. I led her forward toward and asked her to follow me over. She looked at me oddly and walked straight around. I am sure she was thinking “silly human”.
It was great that she made this mistake because it gave me the opportunity to demonstrate how we allowed horses to make mistakes before correcting them with the opposite. This is Nigel and my favorite principles from our training System. We find that it teaches horse to keep trying until they find a solution.
After letting Sansa make the mistake of side stepping the barrel… I turned her sidestep into a backup and started the exercise again.This time she led straight to the barrel, poked her nose over, and bunny hopped the barrel.
We will have to work on tempo and rhythm before jumping at EQUITANA. At least I know I will have a willing Brumby ready to follow me to the end of the world and take on anything. We finished the week with an exciting open training session at Tubbarubba Arabians. Big thankyou to all of Sansa and Daisy’s supporters and too the new faces who have jumped on board the brumby journey.
Next week we have even more toys to play with can’t wait to share how she masters each on