I LOVE my pony!!!

So I took Cabot to Pine Hill to school cross country on Sunday.  It was a little intimidating first driving up because there were a TON of people there (there is a show in 2 weeks).  I thought I would have time to leisurely unload, tack up, lunge him and hit the course.  However, there were way too many people around to safely lunge him (he still doesn't have the best manners at that).  So I just hopped on took 10 minutes to get him to stand still enough and eventually needed someone to hold him so I could get on and said let's go for it.  I took him in their big show jumping arena to check our power steering and he was amazing.  A little looky at the camping chairs that were in the corner, but overall paying attention, not trying to run off and steering like he knows how.  The steering is a big improvement from Saturday when he basically didn't give a crap about what direction I wanted to go in.  This solidifies my theory that he is 1000x better when I take him off the property and away from his friends, which is the totaly opposite of any other horse I have ever encountered. 

With steering intact, we hit the cross country course.  We have been to this place once before in July I think and he was well-behaved but not really sure what to make of the obstacles I was asking him to put all his feet over.  This time, he acted like a veteran and was one of the most well behaved horses in our group of 10.  He jumped everything I asked him to with minimal fuss - only 1 or 2 refusals at the scarier fences and went over the second time in most cases.  Went through the water like a champ on first try and jumped in and out (a beginner novice question!eeek!).  We jumped all the green-as-grass, goldilocks jumps and a couple of beginner novice questions including a log to down bank!!!  Please remember I was also smothering my inner chicken, as I have only ever gone crosscountry (on a horse that knew what he was doing) a handfull of times.  I think I sometimes find it easier to ride Cabot as he litterally doesn't know how to do anything wrong (or right for that matter).  It's a learning experience for both of us and it's amazing how much confidence I portray have.  Anyway - crosscountry is FUN!!!  Now we need to hit the sandbox and teach him some showjumping and dressage.

I also threw Riley (now 14 year old - who was my former student and witnesses Cabot's birth also) up on him at the end and she popped him over a couple logs as well.  She was having trouble steering as well but got him over everything she asked. :-D  Then we got to the most difficult part of the adventure - getting Cabot back in the trailer.  He is getting worse with every trip.  It took 4 of us 20 minutes to get him in :(.  He doesn't seem to really be scared - once he makes up his mind/figures out we're not giving up, he just walks right on.  I think he will be eating out of the trailer from now on...