Warm up was great. We'd taken a dressage lesson this week. Starting out we didn't have a steady head (especially in the transitions). By the end of the lesson he was trusting my hands and consistent with his head. This day my photographer mentioned that his head was noticably steady.

 

He had a sore mouth from the happy mouth bit we'd been using, so I switched back to the Boucher.

I did have to remember to push him forward if he thought about getting behind the bit. He's pretty sensitive in the mouth and needs a light hand.

No softening at the canter yet, but my trainer says I need to start asking on a regular basis. He doesn't get fussy about my requests, and I know that eventually he'll start giving me the right response.

He was nicely balanced heading toward his fences.

Our first jump was a bank. I thought he'd just hop up, but he moved right into jumping.

When I'm thinking of other things my elbows go where they're not supposed to.

With this jump, I knew we were going to have a good day. He was eager and foward and having fun.

We played on the hillside and he remembered how to balance.

He just attacked the jumps. Mostly it was nice and smooth and right in the canter stride. Here he did take off a little earlier than I planned, but he probably picked a better spot than the one I was thinking about....

This was a little bigger jump to take, but my trainer thought Mo was going good and wouldn't have any trouble (he was right).

There was a group at the water, so we just splashed through and continued on with the rest of the course. Water's never been a concern for Mo.

My photographer wanted to see us take the Novice version of this, but Mo was doing so good that we just had fun over the BN version and kept him feeling confident.

I can't wait to try him over stadium jumps again. Before he was sloppy if they weren't substantial, but I think today he learned how much fun jumping is.

Another down bank. He just goes where he's pointed.

This was a fun last jump. He pulled us toward it, took it as a canter stride and kept on going looking for another fence.