Post by april on Jul 13, 2009 12:19:02 GMT -5
Teddy is yanking at the bit with as much force as possible, and he dances anxiously under me as if he’ll burst if he doesn’t get to jump right now. I giggle and pet his neck. “OK boy. Your wish is about to be granted.” I hardly have to signal to him to head for the first jump of the preliminary course, the arrowhead. He’s up and over in a smooth arc, and then it’s on to the oxer before the wall and shark’s teeth parallel. I let him really open up between the jumps, and I can feel his joy rise with every step and doubly so with every jump. He takes the combination step up and palisade, the trakehner, and narrow birch as if they were as easy to leap as a small twig laying on the ground. He’s amused by the strange looking chicken coup and picnic table, and it feels like he’s holding in intense but silent laughter at them, and he flicks his tail and bobs his head to exclaim how good he feels at every takeoff. It’s impossible not to have fun doing this, frolicking on the most beautiful trails and taking the jumps strung out over them like deer, up and over the combination fence, over the treacherous corner jump, and the palisade table. He’s as amused by the pheasant feeder as he was by the coop and picnic table. There’s two more combinations, the first being a step up to a brush jump. I can tell Teddy has a lot of fun sailing over the jaguar leap, but his favorite part of the whole course is the final combination. That’s because he loves water. He used to be so afraid of the light reflecting off it, but he's gotten used to that and loves the water itself. First he leaps into the water with a splash like a diver at the swimming pool doing a cannon ball. Then it’s up and over a log in the stream, and up a bank back out of the water. The only obstacle left is Gary’s Horseshoe, and I grin and give Teddy a petting as we cross the finish line. Teddy tosses his head happily, but acts disappointed when he realizes there aren’t any more jumps. I grin and say “That’s OK boy. We’ll take the scenic route while we cool out.” We take another cross country trail home, at a peaceful walk between the fallen logs, Irish rolltop, streams, stone walls, and other natural jumps. By the time we get to the paddock, Teddy acts completely refreshed.