This last weekend was the Midwest Horse Fair
in Madison, Wisconsin. Jackson and I entered
in the Wind Rider Challenge. There were 24
other people competing. In the first round
of preliminaries, we got second place. But
we were eliminated in the second round.
Jackson, however, was fantastic! Nothing
fazed him the whole weekend. Not the crowds
or applause, not walking in the crowds of
people, not even being let loose in a round
pen took his attention off of me! He was
really good. We had fun showing off our
Spanish walk, tricks, and passage. 3 of the
4 judges told me later how impressed they
were with Jackson!
I got Jackson out to work on some liberty
playing. I think we worked for about 45
minutes. I made some stuff so we could do
some cavelleti work. He did okay with that
except for the beginning when he kept
knocking them over.
The most fun was working on him “rearing”
side to side. I will have to get a video of
that someday. I ask him to start trotting
around the pen, then ask for an abrupt pivot
on the hindquarters to the inside (a little
rear), then back the other way, and back the
other way again. I am only asking for three
good jumps. He was really starting to get it
today. I am hoping that we can turn this
into a nice balance’.
I also hopped on him bareback/bridleless,
and did a little work. We worked just a
little bit on turning, stopping, and backing
up. He did really well.
