I shouldn't call him dumb...

but I do.

Saturday I went to the barn to make their beep/falf stuff.  While it was soaking, I free jumped them a bit.

The Mare was first.  I set up a 3 part bounce, first on the medium side of the jump blocks (15"), and then with the middle part at 2'.  She's fun to free jump because she doesn't like it.  She seems to take it as an insult.  She'll usually go over it once okay, but after that she's just like "screw you, this is stupid.  I've already proved I'm capable of jumping it, I just don't want to."  Going to the left, she kept switching to her right lead in the middle, but would she go to the right?  Of course not!  Chestnut Thoroughbred mares....

Then it was Riv's turn.  I put the middle back down to 15" for him.  Hm, no.  No, going over three very low jumps in a row is simply not possible.  It cannot be done.  So I pulled the poles so they were only on one side of the blocks.... so one end of the pole was 15" and one end was on the ground.  Still no.  Seriously, it just doesn't work!  So naturally I grabbed his halter and walked him through.  And turned around and walked through the other way.  And turned around and walked through again.  Then I sent him through.... and he trotted right through it.  He was doing a weird mixing of trotting, cantering, and jumping.  He even went through to the right!  I got ambitious and raised the middle so it was 15" straight across.  I neglected to adjust for his having a longer stride than The Mare, so he cantered and jumped and crashed through because it was too short for him.  I put it back up and pulled the ends out a bit, but I was worried he'd be afraid, but he was a very good boy and went right on through.

I make fun of him for being dumb about things, like not understanding how to go through the bounce until I walked him through.. but I really shouldn't.  He's green, what does he know about bounces?  He's actually quite wonderful... he doesn't get himself into situations he can't handle, but once he's shown what to do, he gets it and tries hard.

But it's more fun to tease him.