Posts Tagged ‘history
Jumping is not in my Skill Set
Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t jump. Well let me rephrase that. It’s not that I DON’T jump my ponies, it’s that I don’t like to jump my ponies. I have nothing against it, at all, it’s just that I like to keep all 4 feet of my mount on the ground.
I’m pretty sure the reason stems from one of my childhood ponies, Oopsie Daisy. With a name like Oopsie I’m sure you can see where this is going. Dear Oopsie (may he rest in peace) was an amazing pony who taught me so much. Oopsie excelled at Dressage and Mounted Games, however he HATED to jump. When I met Oopsie at the age of 10 he had a mild disdain for jumping, occasionally refusing a jump or two like any pony would, but as each year passed he began to despise it even more. To the point where at the end of his career you could barely get him to jump an 18″ fence.
I consider myself a pretty tough rider. I was never one of the kids to burst in to tears after being dumped by a runaway pony (not that there is anything wrong with that – we all know how scary it can be). I was just always the kid that popped up after being dumped into a fence, dusted off my pants, caught my pony, and tried it again. But I think probably after the millionth time of being thrown in front of, onto, or over top of a fence, jumping started to loose it’s appeal to me.
By the age of 13 I announced to the world my mom that I was going to be a dressage rider (this is also around the time I discovered Mounted Games). No more eventing, no more stadium jumping – it probably was a pretty wise decision for the sake of my relationship with my pony, as well as his happiness. I eventually upgraded my quirky pony to 16.3 hand Nitro – my dressage protege. Somehow I traded one jumping phobia for another, in a horse that excelled at stadium jumping – but thought a cross-country fence would gobble him up whole. But I managed to (maybe not gracefully) complete a c-2 pony club rating on him in 2006, complete with cross-country and stadium jumping. I just won’t mention the water jump incident nor the 5 spills at the ditch jump. 🙂
So what exactly am I leading up to? Well the video I am about to show you, and the fact that jumping IS NOT IN MY SKILL SET!
Don’t worry, no horses or people were harmed.
Also, apparently I did not know you were supposed to turn the phone to record video. Sorry for the weird angle, still trying to figure out the iphone 🙂
Atleast we did eventually make it over the fence. Boomerang actually LOVES to jump, unfortunately for him his rider has no idea what they are doing. I’m sorry Boomer, I will try better next time.
