Cross-country schooling at High Point!

Sadly I have no real photos but trust me- we did it on Saturday and it went really well! The last time Oats and I were X-C schooling was oh, two years ago? The course was set up at Avalon, but I figured it was time to give it another try since Avalon has since sold their course to High Point, who are very enthusiastic about starting up their own venue. Thank god, is all I can say! I appreciate new blood in the equine field, particularly when they seem like pretty cool people 🙂

A few girls went up last Monday and I was so jealous. Getting the day off to go up was NOT going to happen though, so I let it go…Until another girl on Thursday mentioned she was looking for a partner to head up on Saturday. A weekend? Sold!!

Ugh it was early though, yikes. Freezing out too. Nevertheless, we packed up the horses, our gear and took them up island to Duncan/Glenora, and my first time at High Point. We met with the trainer (Jane Stone) who was running the x-c lesson for us, and two other riders (all much  more competent than Oats and me, ohhh well).

We started in the smaller field that was jam-packed with jumps! So many jumps! And a big hill too. Oats was jazzed and a little frazzled, he couldn’t figure out wtf was going on. He was game for a few logs, but then when we turned to jump the small green house from the other direction, he quit – HARD. He couldn’t figure out what was going on?!

We just turned and re-approached from the direction he was comfortable with, no biggie.

Went up and down the hill and worked a small course of logs (me) big jumps (everyone else). And then it was time to tackle the big field! Oats was hot to trot on the path out to the big field, but settled really nicely and finally figured out the game- no refusals here for this guy!

Bad news- our path and precision need a TON of work. We drifted, hardcore, and it was bad. Good news- no refusals and Oats jumped really nicely! He really got the game by this point and was really game. 🙂

I was so proud of him, it made up for him being kind of a dink about going into the water (he wouldn’t, and then he did, and then when I wanted to go back in he started getting light, threatening to rear. Oh Oats!).

A great day, and a very good experience courtesy of my hauling buddy (who had a fantastic session on her horse, VERY impressive) and trainer Jane Stone, who made it very doable and approachable even for Oats when he was confuzzled.

Mr. Oats- Cross-Country superstar?

Yeah I don’t think so! Photo courtesy of Jodie Wright, at a rather miserable clinic we attended a few years ago.

In short- Oats and I both lost our minds a bit. Oats was threatening to rear and go nuts, he would NOT stop bucking during the clinic, and frankly, we were both way overfaced. (Ugh, no thanks to the clinician. What a miserable experience!) also the farm owner was a freaking nutszo who verbally attacked me for ‘abandoning’ my horse- in the pen that I paid for the weekend? Ugh I hated the whole weekend, and actually wrote to the clinic organizer saying how the farm owner had attacked me.

Not so much with the jumping, but with the scene, the atmosphere. It was too much for us.

~ anyways~ that is in the past. No need to think about it further!

So…Old Mr.Oats is so awesome these days, and so on Saturday I heaped up a pile of fir branches and we hopped over them back & forth a bunch of times. Set on a slight incline, you could jump them going ‘up’ or in a slight drop ‘down’ fence.

SO FUN

Oats loved it. He had a blast! The teenagers from the stable were like heyyy what are you doing? And I was like, what does it look like! Having fun! So they joined in too and took their horses over the little brushy fence with my supervision.

Hah, now my coach is suggesting we re-visit trying to school some x-c fences this summer. To make it clear- we are NOT eventers- but Oats does seem to have a certain affinity for jumps that have a bit of ‘challenge’ added to them…Like liverpool fences, or natural obstacles on varied terrain.

Had a fun time! Yay Oats!