Here's my troublesome sweetheart. Someone pointed out that I should avoid raising the fence bit by bit and inadvertantly training him to jump higher. Good point. But I have to admit Charlie was getting out by stepping over the fence in a place where he'd leaned on the wire so long it was bent low enough to step over. He can jump (I've shown him over fences) but he
thinks it's stupid. I can't imagine him ever jumping with out being told to.
Charlie 
3 comments:
Charlie's a beauty! I doubt if he would necessarily jump over just to get out; the only problem would be if he got spooked.
Oh, my memories, way back when I was taking English lessons, jumping and dressage (stopped when I was 4 months pregnant, just to be safe so I wouldn't jolt the baby loose). We'd get a different horse each time, so we'd have to work with all temparaments. I remember trying to urge particular ones over; times when they'd approach the jump then stop dead. One time, at a low jump (basically a log), the horse stayed put, but I went over. You bet I got right back on...second try, I stayed in the saddle, third try, he went over and I stayed put, in perfect form.
My favorite horse was a little dappled-gray Arab with a scrub tail. I'm kind of small, and so was he, so we could melt together, and he was so responsive. I made quite a few "friends" over the years at stables when I went for rides (prefer Western style, but I still post). Changing the saddle on a monstrous but sweet (can't remember what breed he was!) guy once, and he shifted one of his paddle-sized feet and placed it on my foot. Ouch! So gentle when I nudged his body aside and off of me. I Charlie a quarterhorse?
Hi Darlene,
Luckily, Charlie doesn't spook -- unless you count that time we were riding in the woods and flushed a grouse. True to his quarterhorse nature, he took two steps at a dead run, realized the error of his ways and stopped dead. I can't say which was worse: the running or the stopping. But I stayed on.
When we bought him, he'd been a trail horse at a "rent-a-ride" sort of place - western. But we trained him to jump - which, as I said, he thinks is really silly. My daughter showed him for a while. When he got a blue ribbon we retired him.
He must be so happy out there, in your hermitage. I picture it as being akin to something Thoreau would appreciate. Wish I could see a picture of you or your daughter riding Charlie, though. Or at least more of his body.
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