Living the dream

Power Jewel

I tacked Power up and got myself ready before taking him to the mounting block to mount. Once I mounted him, I get myself comfortable in the saddle before heading to the arena. He was relaxed under saddle, so I suppose he had a bad experience in the round pen.

"Glad to see you sorted yourself out for once." Lucas says watching me. "Whatever Lucas, why's Lux here?" I ask. "Because we're going for a ride together after you've done a few jumps with him and we're going to have a talk." he says. I nod and start warming Power up. After about 20 minutes I stop infront of Lucas again. "You're going to jump that combination and that oxer then you head for that vertical." he says. "I've never jumped this horse before, those jumpz are like 1.40m." I complain. "I thought you're supposed to be a professional." he says lifting an eyebrow. I huff and pick up the reins again. I get Power in a steady canter and do the jumps in the order he told me to, Power only knocked one pole.

"Was that so difficult? Now do it again." he says. The jumps were put up to 1.50m. I get Power in a steady canter again without rushing him as he had a very big stride. He does the jumps with ease and as we head for the vertical, Lucas starts shouting the next jump we have to do and another 3 jumps. "Okay let's go." he says getting on Lux.

Lux is a 15 year old retired jumper, who have been instead trained to teach the newer riders here the ropes in higher level dressage. She was the first horse I started riding when I joined the barn. Lux is a beautiful 17hh Irish Sporthorse mare.

"I know I'm being hard on you Ava, but I don't know what happened with you in the last few months, because you really got an attitude on you lately and Caldera does not deserve that, so until you pull yourself together and start listening to me. I'll leave it in Power's hands to sort you out, Caldera will be going on a 3 month break, but also you really have the potential to bring the best out of Power, I'm serious, but you need to sort yourself out or I'm giving Caldera to someone else. I know he's your baby, but I'm not going to watch you take your frustration out on him, when he's telling you that he doesn't want to do it." Lucas says.

Caldera was a 16th birthday gift from Lucas. He's a 16.3hh Warmblood gelding that Lucas used to compete with when he was still actively competing. I loved that gelding so much, he was always able to comfort me when things at home got tough, Lucas was like an older brother to me, so he always looked out for me while I was still in school. He's like 5 years older then me.