Enjoying the new indoor school

Manege. Indoor school. Whatever you call it, it certainly is a godsend in weather like this. I have discovered that don't have enough willpower to work the horse in deep snow in the outside school – and not only because it's rather prohibiting, due to the slippery and hard ground conditions, resulting in not very effective work at all. We have been hacking, as a result, since approx. mid-October, the opportunity to ride indoors has been a lovely change and very inspiring. Rainbow is moving better than she has ever done in Finland – well, since we last were able to use an indoor school, which was back in the UK. As the outside school here is always a bit on the hard side and contains bigger stones within the sand, it is not the best base, I've noticed Rainbow has never really stridden out in the way she is able to now in the indoor school.

Having spent all her life in indoor schools, Rainbow hasn't as much as batted an eyelid about being in there. We have ridden there a couple of weeks now. We even took part in a two-day jumping clinic on 26th and 27th Dec. We hadn't jumped for over two months, so the nerves showed again, but we did manage some nice jumps and I am particularly proud of jumping a very narrow jump with some playing cards patterns on the side and a mini-wall on the bottom. I am afraid of them, as usually Rainbow looks at jumps like that and there is a chance that she might stop, despite being an extremely genuine and hard-working jumper – she always tries her best and, more than often tries, to fit her gaits to ensure I stay on...! So, with this narrow jump, first time, she went through it like nothing. It's almost just a horse's width wide. The second time, I bailed while Rainbow was going towards it, I just looked at the side and clearly gave her the insinuation that didn't want to go through it, so she evaded it. By then I was so nervous that as we tried approaching again, the same happened. On about a third or fourth attempt I managed to get brave enough again, so bounced over it in trot. Good girl – stupid rider! All my fault. 

But, as a friend said, if you never fail and just sail over all jumps then you never learn anything. Well said! So I mustn't dwell on it but just look at the photo she took of us flying over it on the first time around and be proud. ... And enjoy jumping! After all, I have a great, genuine horse who also loves jumping, so sky's the limit really, eh? :)

Happy New Year to all readers as well.

   All photos (c) Jenna Koivisto.