The Howie Chronicles

Howie suffers through his flatwork because he knows that jumping is coming. He can be a bit of a pain, won't stand still etc, but once you start jumping, look out, Howie the professional is here. He lines himself up on the rail to take his turn in the jump order and would happily stand for an hour to take a trip down a line. He just loves to jump. How lucky could I get? So in our last lesson I opt to do just a little more. I could have been done but I thought he could do a little more so I said yes. So we jump a little X across the ring and then a bending 3 strides to a 2 stride line. The first time we missed the center of the jump entirely! Across the middle of the indoor is a quick turn. The second time was good, trotted after the first jump into the line, ok. The third time, all the stars aligned. We trotted perfectly to the first X, landed in a nice canter and I thought, what the heck-just keep going, what's the worst that can happen? He'll trot? He didn't trot. We got a really nice bending line into the first jump of the line and I was smiling before we finished jumping the second jump! I had no trouble saying, "I'm real happy quitting on that", and so was my instructor. I was glad I believed Howie had just a little more in him that night.