Sliding stops, leaps, and bounds

Recap of the past week - Ryker had his most wonderful dressage ride (to date), turned 8, and conquered his first gymnastic line. 

After his wonderful dressage ride (see post below) he got the day off, followed by our first jump school in a while.   He wasn't solid going over more than one or two single fences during our previous attempts; he wasn't confident and would occasionally slam on the brakes for no apparent reason.  I figured we needed more flat work and more work with poles, and then we'd try again, if there was little to no improvement, he was simply telling me he did not want to jump.  After our wonderful dressage ride he felt like a different horse, confident to the point of  almost cocky - he was ready.  An boy did he prove he was ready!! We started with just trotting a simple Xrail, and then cantering. From there we progressed to a small vertical, and finished with a 2'6" vertical.  (just ignore his little toe catch trip... the footing on that side of the ring was pretty deep and uneven, and we went a little too far over -- On the plus side, he saved himself and didn't lose his marbles afterwards!!) 

The following day we made our first attempt at going through a gymnastic line since the week we first introduced jumping.  The first time he tried a gymnastics (about a month ago) he got in and panicked, it was simply too much too soon -- not wanting to push the issue when he was just starting out, I kept his routine gymnastic free - just slowing adding more poles after and before single fences.  This time we started with three poles, one stride apart each, and built the 1st and then 3rd obstacles up, leaving the 2nd just a pole.  The first time through he slammed on the brakes at the 3rd element, it wasn't that he didn't want to jump it, more that he didn't realize it was there, and wasn't sure what to do.  We then trotted just the 2nd pole and 3rd obstacle, and tried the whole thing again.  He went through unquestioning, and it was beautiful.  The same stop and then eventual go happened again when we built up the 2nd obstacle.  Once we conquered all three, the light bulb went off, and he started to take me through it, instead of relying on me to push him through.  We built up the 3rd to his first oxer, did it a few times, put it up once, and called it a day.

Here is the video of his first solid gymnastic work:

The next day, we repeated the exercise in the opposite direction, we wanted to repeat and solidify what we had worked on the day before, since it was obvious that he wanted to do it, and that he understood it enough to go through it well.  We started the same way, simply building the 1st to an X and keeping the 2nd and 3rd poles. Then we switched it up, putting up the 2nd before the 3rd, he slammed on the brakes.  At this point it was obvious it was not misunderstanding but he was testing the waters --he is a little bit of a trickster on occasion, I tend to forget because he is so willing otherwise...  I walked him into the line and started from the halt and from a small trot we did just the second obstacle. We then walked for a bit and started over, he went though, but it was a tough ride; the following time through was beautiful, and he was ready for the 3rd.  From here on, there were no more sliding stops, he understood the game and wanted to jump the fences. He was taking me to the first, second and third elements. Having to hold him steady to the first fence was an unbelievable feeling on him! We then put the 3rd element up because what we were giving him was obviously too easy at that point.  We finished before he was by any means taxed, but our last effort was a decently wide 3' oxer, which he made feel easy. 

Go Ryker!