Lungeline Jumping the Minis

I cannot remember if I already mentioned it or not, but when it was still nice and warm we lunged the minis. Over elevated cavaletti poles. It was fun!

The basic setup was easy, but it did require a lot of running (for both horse and handler) and the horses wearing either wraps or boots to protect their legs. Generally when lunging the handler should stay in one spot, but for this it was pretty essential to move around or the horses would be lazy and avoid the jumps.

When I recorded this (and that's my awesome horsey friend doing all the hard work!) Angel was on the lungeline, but sometimes during the session we would free-lunge them both. Free-lunging is lunging them without using a lungeline. :)

Jumping Backwards?

There are some really cool stunts that people do with their horses that are both safe and interesting. Others are merely the latter and tend to make me very dubious as to their safety.

Last night I happened upon this article about a girl who rides her horse over jumps backwards. Perhaps this girl is not taking such a big risk, and I'm merely being over-critical. However, there is one thing that keeps pestering me:

Image by Polo the Weirdo.

Have you spotted it yet? Let's try that again.

Image by Polo the Weirdo.

Please tell me you have found the riding error that's driving me crazy. No? *sighs* The girl's heels are not down. They aren't near horizontal, and if one is gonna do crazy stunts, they really should incorporate the standard safety precautions.

I mean, I'm not great at keeping my heels down either. It's something I still must think about because it isn't a habit yet. I would like it to be one, but I haven't consistently ridden a horse for about two years, and I probably won't anytime soon.

Regardless, thanks for letting me rant about that. Next time you ride, keep in mind the position of your heels. If you find that you need to work on keeping your heels down, do it.

Let's not take the control God has over everything for granted and be reckless when we know how to not be. Have a safe day, cheers, and +1. Thanks!