palace of winds

Update from my last post: I’m not sure how long these pictures will be up, but if you’re interested in having a peek at the sunken roads complex, this series (arrow over to see the next three too) shows a successful negotiation, and this set of nine shows an amazing save after a run-out.

For my lesson last night I asked my instructor if we could do a jump chute for Ev. Setting it up immediately attracted the attention of everyone in the barn, and before we were halfway done we had a mass of spectators (I think there were 10 people in the arena by the end). I wanted to discuss the line my instructor was setting — she started placing every jump and cavaletti we hadn’t used to make the barrier, and I had some reservations about asking my entirely green horse to navigate such a long line — but I was acutely aware of so many people scrutinizing us so closely. I started to ask her about the height and number and placement of the jumps, but there was just no way to discuss it openly with her without looking like I was challenging/disagreeing, which I don’t have the knowledge to do. I wanted to know how many completely green horses she’d started, and what her thought process was, and what this particular question was supposed to be teaching him, but it’s just not a question you can ask in front of half the barn — at least not with the atmosphere then. It was really an uncomfortable situation, and I think it was a little tactless of everyone involved. I was torn between feeling like I needed to be a better advocate for my horse, and feeling like I needed to trust my trainer.

In the end I went with trusting her, and we sent him down — a bounce over two cavalettis, a stride, and a bounce over a cross-rail to a vertical. He did great, and after a few times through we declared him done. I’m really excited to get him started on jumping, but was also a little bummed to’ve spent an entire lesson fee on such a short one, especially given the lack of discussion. (Though I do plan to catch her aside sometime to talk about it further, and try to set up more of a plan for his jumping education — even if that plan is ‘take him to a jumping trainer.’) And then we ran every other horse we could get our hands on through too. It was fun watching them all figure it out, and in large part everyone had a great run their third or fourth time through (the Arab was, of course, stellar on his second). Two of the bigger, more forward horses left the stride out, and they all seemed to enjoy getting the chance to rip down the long wall opposite the chute.

I also practiced my braiding last night for the first time — or tried to, since it too attracted the immediate (and kind of tactless) attention of everyone in the barn. I’m not sure how to give off more of an ‘I’m concentrating please don’t interrupt me or distract my horse’ vibe — apparently mine’s a little weak. Every time I’d get him settled back in someone else would wander by and think it was a great idea to stand in front of him for a chat first with him, then me. It’s good for him, I guess, but I just really wanted to be able to give my first few attempts my full concentration. A bit of a frustrating end to a long day, but I think I learned a few important things: yes, the braids really do need to be that small; and it’s going to take hours to do the full mane the first time, because he’s going to fidget and people do not understand when to stop getting all up in my business. I love all the barn people, I do, but sometimes — bah.