Holy smokes!!!

In the BEST way possible! Muffin has NEVER felt better than today on the xc field. We were in sync, he was BRAVE, he was QUIET ... it was flat out amazing. Usually we have a minimum of ONE jump where he stutters off the ground. NOT today, woo hoo! No stops, no stutters, no hiccups. Guess I'm doing SOMETHING right, lol;) He's well on his way to being a xc machine!

Started off in the stadium ring. He was super quiet and comfortable. Did a little w/t/c, then opened up to a gallop, then back to a canter. Trotted a crossrail twice, then came to the other side of the ring and did a little skinny x, to the one next to it. I then cantered into a jump with 4 blue barrels lying down, and quit with that. Nicole and Marisa jumped a few more, but I sat those out. Honorary little sis Nicole was kicking butt and taking names with Sparky! He jumped GREAT over a little bit of a spooky vert with a red gate, and then jumped a nice sized BN oxer. We made our usual way over to the lincoln logs, and hopped out over them. I went first, and Tiki was just perfect:)

Our normal hanging logs had been "fixed". They had new trees on them and had been cleaned out. Also, they seemed a *hair* bigger than before. He didn't even look. Came into the 2 stride planning on a 3, and he TOTALLY could have done the 2, no problem. Decided not to dwell, and made it over to the ditches. Um, ok. They had RUNNING WATER running through them, lol! As a result, weenie me decided to just do the little ditch, let him LOOK at the big one, then forget about it for the day:)

Strung together a funky Y-shaped log to the big bank going up, left hand turn to the bridge jump. Not even a hesitation. Reversed that; the bridge to the big bank going down, tight right turn to the funky Y-log. He SAILED off the bank, woo hoo! Guess he remembered that one from Chatt Hills. Came into the train barrels, and he actually cruised in and took a little long spot, WOW. He usually sits back, peeks, and gets the deep one. NOT today! Did the bridge to the barrels, and he was a perfect little rock star:)

Time to head over to the water. I started to come into the little open-faced coop. Um ... the hunter pace we're doing in 2 weeks said some of the jumps could be up to 3' coops. So ... I let him scratch his head on the massive 3' red coop, put on my big girl panties, and came into it! He was a ROCK STAR! Didn't look or hesitate; perfect! Decided instead of doing that one again to go to the ramped coop that looked around the same height as the red one. Let him see it, then came in ... not a problem in the LEAST. And it WAS big; the biggest solid jump we've done:)

Jumped the cabin next to the water wheel; NO issue, overjump, look, anything. THEN Nicole decided she and Sparky were doing the Novice cabin with the hole and the doggy. He was SO good! Little Napolean Dynamite. What an awesome boy! So then Marisa and Pony did it. That pair is so dynamite:) So, due to Peer Pressure, I let him see it, then headed in to the Novice cabin ... and he did NOT CARE. AT ALL. Hot damn! Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finished up in the water. He walked in with no hesitation. Then dropped in and cantered out, no problem. Then trotted in, and jumped out of the BIG drop, yay!!!!! It was about the same size as the "dry" big bank, but it rode so much bigger because of the water; and after all the rain we've had, the complex was, uh, full lol:)

The final jump we did was the BENCH. The one I ran him at last time, and he slammed on the brakes 5 strides away. Let him see it, watched the Pony do it twice, then swallowed my nerves and picked up my canter. NO PROBLEM. NO hesitation, no fear. Just a nice forward canter, and a lovely hop over it. Came back on it, same. Jumped it one final time back into the stadium arena, and again, he was just perfect. Patted the heck out of him, hopped off, and tied him to the trailer.

SO MAD!!!!!!!!!!!! Took 29 pics; most of them non action shots. But did make sure to get one of all of us holding our babies, and sitting on our babies. Nicole and I then walked around the course and took pics of the "big jumps" we did. I then put the card in the drive, re-named them, then deleted them ... BEFORE I MOVED them. UGH!!!!!!! How stupid can I be????? Tried as hard as I could to "undo" the delete, but they're gone. I am pissed beyond belief. All I have is a 6 second video of the bench which is better than NOTHING, but not by much. Oh well, nothing I can do! Will just have to get some good pics next time we head out:(