In Which Dino and I Disagree

The little snot himself, looking terribly awkward. Confo shot fail. 

I got to ride Dino FIVE days last week, and it feels really good to be back to work, despite all my sore muscles from having a few weeks off of riding.

Homeboy, on the other hand, has been feeling fantastic! He gave me some phenomenal flatwork last week, and has been working really well. I've felt absolutely no soreness or stiffness in him the day after working hard. I even did some real sitting trot, after which my poor abs were complaining loudly. We're pretty much right where we left off before his break, which makes me feel a whole lot better about competing this fall.

I gave him Sunday off, and then planned to do a short jump school yesterday.

Dino had some different ideas about how that should go.

As we all know, a good warm up on the flat is necessary before any jumping can happen. My plan was, in all honesty, to do a quickie walk/trot/canter to get him loose and then just jump some stuff. Easy day. However, His Royal Highness was using every excuse in the book to avoid doing anything on the flat.

Me: Okay, buddy! Let's get a good free walk going to get started!

Dino: Um. Picasso isn't walking forward. So I don't have to. It wouldn't be fair to go faster than him, he'd feel inadequate.

Me: Sorry. Incorrect. Walk on.

Dino: *heavy sigh* FINE. But trotting is out of the question.

Me: Seriously?! Dude. You need to go forward before we can do any of the fun stuff. TROT.

Dino: Ehhhhhhhhh no. No thank you to the trotting. I kinda have to pee.

Me: I gave you the chance to pee before we came in here, and you didn't take it. That's entirely your fault. WE ARE GOING TO TROT NOW.

Dino: Ugh. Okay. But only for like... five steps. That counts, right?

Me: NO IT DOES NOT COUNT.

Dino: But it's hot. I'm already sweaty. Do you want me to die of heat exhaustion!?

Me: You are not going to die. Get your butt moving.

Dino: Fine, fine! Geez. You don't have to get so cranky about it. Someone's got their grumpy pants on today...

Me: If you weren't being such a brat I wouldn't have to bust out the grumpy pants.

Dino: Touche.

Me: Forward trot established, thank you. Now, I know this is pushing it, but can I get a canter?

Dino: OMG WOMAN ARE YOU FOR REAL?! Ughhhh you are so DEMANDING. And now I have to poop. I think. I need to just stand here and think about it.

Me: No. No you cannot stand here and think about pooping. You're being ridiculous. Go canter and then we can jump stuff.

Dino: But I don't really feel like it. HEY, WATCH IT WITH THE SPURS!

Me: Well I don't really appreciate your attitude, mister!

Dino: "No" is a complete sentence.

Me: So is, "Canter or I'm putting your ass in reverse until you get a better attitude."

Dino: Alright already, cantering, cantering...

Me: Thank you. Now you can have a walk break.

Dino: FINALLY.

Me: Oooookay. Jumping time. Let's trot again.

Dino: YOU ARE JUST ASKING WAY TOO MUCH OF ME TODAY.

Me: What do you not understand about the necessity of forward motion for jumping!?

Dino: Oh, we're jumping? For real? I can dig that. Jumping's cool. Let's roll.


And that's basically how my entire ride went yesterday.

Unless Dino was 100% certain that we were going to jump something, he was being a total pig and completely ignoring my leg. I was booting him like a little kid and keeping up a steady rhythm of crop-on-shoulder taps, and eventually he relented every time. And was absolute PERFECTION over every fence. Every distance I asked for, he took. (Bonus points for me actually asking for good distances.) Well, once he saw the long one and just gunned for it, but I'm okay with him making his own decisions sometimes. I'm getting into a good place as far as contact with his mouth when jumping, where I can keep a solid feel without pulling back and adding a stride every time. Dino even treated me to a display of his uncanny athleticism by jumping a 3' fence from a near standstill when a massive wiggle on his part placed us pretty much underneath the fence with no pace whatsoever. He just sort of levitated us over it and loped away like it was no thing.

We jumped a little bit of everything, from the little 2' coop up to some 2'9 oxers and the 3' gate, and Dino was absolutely awesome for all of it. Minus getting him to actually move in between jumping exercises. Minor detail.

I think today is a trail ride day. Someone needs a break from the arena.


Comments

  1. Hahaha oh man, that conversation between you and Dino cracks me up! Reminds me of the conversations Carly has with Bobby :) Glad you guys came to an agreement and had a good jumping school!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I seriously laughed so hard at the ''conversation".... Stinks that you had a rough ride. We all have off days, it seems!

    ReplyDelete
  3. sassy pony is sassy. he must be equally impressed with his ability to bounce back - and now thinks, ehh i don't really have to work (jumping doesn't count, duh) before shows, since i've already demonstrated that i stay in excellent shape. so. no more work evah.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds exactly how the warm up for my last jump school went. Flat? Bobby was incapable of moving. Stick a jump in front of him? ZOMG, so fast!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. haha, minus the difficulty, that conversation is pretty accurate and hilarious

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts