Did Ace Know It Was Derby Day?

My typically laid-back pony was all thoroughbred on Saturday, a very unusual state of affairs for him. Somewhere in his subconscious he must have known it was Kentucky Derby day and decided it was high time he act his breed.

Ace was on high alert as we rode late Saturday morning, spooking and dancing and generally feeling good. I had actually taken the time to set up three whole jumps in the arena, a small crossrail and two small verticals that were barely 18 inches. Nothing he hasn’t done  many times before with no problem.

We started with the crossrail. He got a little squirrely in front of it at first, making me work to keep him straight, and then he’d take off crowhopping afterwards because he was having fun. Once he settled down a bit, we trotted for one of the straight rails, and he decided to try to run out. He’s a bit nasty about too, and can really pull out to the side hard at the last minute. Fortunately, I stuck with him and got his nose back over the jump, eventually just stepping over it. We didn’t have to circle or come back to it, so at least that was good.

When he did it again a second time, I had my awesome jump crew (aka my lesson student Hannah), put one side down.  The next time he went right over but jumped as if it was 2 feet high instead of just sitting on the ground. We spent the next 45 minutes trotting the fences in both directions until Ace settled down enough to just trot over the fences in a relaxed state. And he eventually did.

The funny thing is, Ace seemed like he enjoyed the whole thing. Besides being on high-alert with everything going on outside the ring, he was happy to be working and jumping.

I’m not a fan of him trying to run out, because he is really quite adamant about it and even when I’m ready and being proactive there’s not a lot I can do to stop it other than getting him back in front of the jump after he’s gone to the side. I don’t want him to learn that anything but “over” is even an option. My plan is just to keep putting him over the little stuff until he hardly notices it and just goes over like it’s the oldest news in the world.

I so badly want to start putting the heights up and really jumping, but I know that Ace needs a whole lot more schooling over the tiny ones to get his confidence up before he’s ready to handle anything bigger. He’s a smart horse, and he genuinely likes to jump, but he gets worried easily and it is just going to take longer with him than with other horses. I just hope that putting in whatever amount of time it takes to build his confidence will eliminate his worrying so that eventually we don’t have issues with runouts. I don’t want to him learn that not going over is even an option and start making a habit of it.

It really was a fun ride, despite the things I worry about afterward. And I must admit, I do really like it when Ace has his thoroughbred days! The energy and the forward are so nice. And to top it off, we went for an easy ride yesterday to stretch his muscles after the hard work, and it was one of the best rides we’ve ever had. It was certainly the nicest he’s ever moved!