"PONY" is a four letter word

It was JenJ who introduced me to that phrase back when I first wrote about Krimpet. And naturally she was spot on when it comes to this little baby pony mare. Four letter words. So many of them. Le sigh.

stinkin adorable tho!

Long story short, I took Ms Pony Thang xc schooling at OF last weekend. While it's entirely possible that this horse has successfully been out cross country before, perhaps with her previous owner, to my knowledge she hasn't made it through a schooling without tossing her rider at least once. (in fact her current owner is still on crutches from the last time Krimpet was ridden out in the open...)

Alas we did not break the streak this go round... but it was honestly still a pretty good outing!

a little peek at the candy cane, but up and over no problem!

And thanks to my intrepid videographer Brita, we've got all kinds of fun pictures haha. Ooooooh. And video. Omg. The video guys. Brace yourself - it's coming!

cantering through the open like an adult!

I was a little late to the schooling so we warmed up fairly quickly - mostly just checking on the steering aids since this pony is really terribly herd bound. Everything seemed to be in order, and she managed a couple quick canters without any sass, so we moved on quickly to little logs on the ground (with the aid of a lead horse haha).

pony actually looks somewhat confident out there!

Aside from getting left behind at the first little log, and having to take a peek at another (then proceed to step over at the walk), the pony was actually quite good and we were able to cut the cord with our lead horse for a quick circuit of all the little logs in the field. I gotta say - this horse is surprisingly easy to jump when she's going. The spots kinda just present themselves!

baby banks are nbd

Next up was the water, where we basically just went up and down the banks while the other riders schooled over bigger stuff.

#bossmare

Krimpet went up without hesitation but showed a little more reluctance to go down. It was fine tho - a couple passes through and she was jumping down like a seasoned veteran.

seriously tho, how cute?!?

I almost felt like we could be done with that, simple as it was. Especially since it was SO HOT OMG out haha. But no - trainer P took me to task for not actually taking the pony, who was FINE, over some more appropriate jumps.

clearly not impressed haha

So we did that too and Krimpet couldn't have cared less. Good baby pony mare.

mayyyyybe the nicest trot jump i've ever ridden

Tho for most of the "bigger" jumps I opted to use a lead horse, which seemed to work out just fine.

no problem with coops either

Krimpet was happy to go wherever the other horses went, so we enjoyed some fun little canters through fields and woods and streams and such.

so fierce tho

Then on to the ditches. Where again Krimpet seemed to warm up nicely to them after some initial uncertainty. Tho I got left behind once pretty good, and the next time after maybe was a bit behind too and.... well... pony is apparently not very forgiving.

going...... going..... gone

So that snotty little pony just up and bucked me right off. Ugh. Ouch. Talk about rude!

It was definitely not the most pleasant experience... maybe the worst of the year (physically, at least. my {multiple} falls at that jumper show with Isabel were definitely WAY worse on the emotional scale lol). But the good ol' tuck-n-roll served me well and I as basically unscathed.

she had been going so well!

The pony was maybe slightly chastened when I got back on and got her going again - back over the ditch again (not on the video) and then up and over a few more fences.

slightly looky fence

The next fence up was basically OF's version of a BN trakehner. There wasn't actually a true ditch under it, but it was dug out enough behind that log on the ground to give the idea. We flubbed our first attempt over it but then more or less got it right.

And of course I was taking no chances on the landing side any more haha. Pony had her trust privileges revoked!!!

good over the bench! and let's just ignore that my heels are dug so far into her sides that there's daylight between my knee and the saddle lol

She was fine tho. I was kinda sad not to get the last couple jumps on video but Krimpet was basically perfectly behaved.

video here

that slo mo tho!!!

You'll see it in the video - she actually looks like a pretty cool little pony. Very green and needs miles. And obviously that buck really fucking sucks (but is somehow oddly mesmerizing to watch lol). But cool none the less.

naughty naughty pony

So perhaps if nothing else, this post will serve as some nice mid-week comic relief lol. I've already had a couple friends tell me they had to watch that slo mo over and over again since it brought all kinds of childhood memories flooding back. Did any of you ever grow up with a pony that bucked you off all the time?