Cross Country Schooling

Finn went cross country schooling for the first time yesterday. We went to the nearby Laurel Hill, which is a very nice facility for the young horses. Chrissy nicely brought Gator along to babysit. Loading up was excellent, trailered over quietly. No problem tacking up or walking down the hill or walking around with Gator. Being asked to jump was a bit much for his little pea-brain and he acted more like an OTTB than he ever has. When Missy arrived, she sent us to gallop up the hill, which we did 4 times at a pretty impressive clip (perhaps a tiny bit *more* bit than the KK snaffle next time). He was willing to trot serpentines coming down. Then with Gator done with his jumping, we went down to jump. The little logs went well. He was perfectly happy to walk through the water. The first coop took two tries as did the first wine barrels, but all in all he settled down pretty quickly and once he was settled and realized he was jumping was very good. There was the unfortunate vulture-induced spook, but he gets a buy on that one, really vultures - yuck! Gator scared them away for us. He needs to do this a bunch more times, but for his first off the farm venture since arriving at the end of April, it went very well and today's dressage lesson was also really good.