Gia - session 489 - jumping in the field!

 I took Gia out in the field today for our ride.  We haven't been out there in a while, so I lunged her first.  She was SUPER relaxed and obedient, so I didn't lunge for very long (hoping I wouldn't regret that).

Under saddle, I started with some trot warm up around the field.  Basically, just trotting all over, working a little on bending, leg yields and half halts.  When she felt good, I tried her over a few of the very low stadium jumps.  Nothing was higher than 2'.  She jumped most of them from the trot, but I did get a few from the canter at the end.  No bucking at all, by the way!

I moved into the other field after that to play over some of the cross country jumps.  I didn't really have a plan, except just to see how she felt after each one.  I started with all the small ones, which were easy.  The hardest one for her was the brick wall.  She stopped at it twice, but I kicked her to let her know that was unacceptable.  When we came around to it the third time, she hesitated, but finally went over it.  The fourth time was no problem.  We even did some light galloping around the field in between jumps.

Since she was feeling so good after that, I tried a larger jump - the cordwood pile.  That one was super easy.  So, with all our bravery good to go, I decided to attempt the largest jump I have on the property - the bench jump, which is 3'3" at its highest part.  She came at it a little wonky because she had hesitated when going through some mud on approach, but she looked at it, set herself up, and soared! (Actually, her hind feet were still on the ground when she was at her peak).  We did it a few more times to clean it up.  She was really good!  I'm going to have to build some bigger jumps!