Gina overcomes

Three years ago when I bought Gina, it was under the assumption that she jumped. I made this assumption because her previous owners provided pictures like this:

This is not a carousel horse; this is a Gina.

Also Gina.

When I made the decision to buy Gina, I had been riding her on the flat for about a month. Why didn't I jump her? It was winter time and I was confined to an extremely small indoor arena used for therapeutic riding lessons. As you may have guessed, the therapeutic riding center was not a place where people jumped.

I just assumed that a horse who lived at a hunter barn and had a lifetime USEF registration with records of competing in over fences classes was a perfectly fine jumper.

I was very, very wrong. 

For many months (years?) I struggled to get Gina to jump anything that remotely resembled a stadium jump. There was one memorable ride where I set up a course of ground poles and my beautiful former hunter reared up at the sight of them. I didn't even have standards out. I don't know what happened to make Gina so upset at the idea of jumping.

I finally stopped trying to force my horse to do something she obviously hated. I focused on dressage; my riding improved, Gina improved, our relationship improved. But y'all, I am not a dressage enthusiast. I am a dressage tolerater appreciator.  I understand its value and don't mind working on it. I enjoy it sometimes. But I really, really like jumping.

So over the last few months, I've carefully reintroduced Gina to the idea of jumping. First over natural obstacles that had never upset her, then over tiny, tiny crossrails. Then tiny, tiny verticals. Then over slightly larger verticals.

One of my monthly goals is to jump Gina weekly. I don't want to overdo it- I mean, she's 17 and I don't want to injure her or burn her out. Sunday, I set up a few jumps in the arena: a 2' vertical to warm up over, a 2-stride line composed of a 2'6 vertical and 2'9 vertical, and some barrels. Now, the barrels are probably only 3' or 3'3, but they're metal, painted black and yellow, and look kind of intimidating.

Of course I put run-out rails on there. I'm not stupid!

I figured if we were having a good day, we'd give 'em a shot. If we weren't having a great day, who cares?

"You want me to jump what now?!"

We were having a pretty good day, although the arena was a lot more slippery than I'd originally assessed. Despite having a couple of slip 'n slide moments, Gina was going beautifully, getting pretty decent distances and not acting like a fruitcake. 

I pointed her at the barrels and she slammed on the brakes, like "Are you serious, lady?!" I was serious, so I very calmly backed her away and represented. It took a couple of times (and a couple of taps with my bat), but Gina gave it the ole college try and cleared it by what seemed like five feet.

Of course, because nothing is ever good enough for me, I pointed her at it again, and she stopped a couple more times. Then she gave up trying to convince me she couldn't possibly do it again; she sighed and heaved herself over it. I immediately patted her and hopped off and hand-walked her to cool her out.

I'm pretty proud of The G. It's been a process, but she's finally jumping (mostly) well. I'm feeling very positively about next year's show season. 

This weekend is the hunter pace (rain forced it to be rescheduled) and I'm eager to get in some XC schooling!