Floundering

Julio was a good boy today. He was full of the monkey's though. I was telling Dorothy yesterday, Julio is so great because he matches his rider's energy. You are feeling lazy - he trots really slow, you are hyper - he is prancy and dancy, and you are nervous and a little insecure - powersteering fails. He is a wonderful teacher. Gota love him. Well today we had an interesting experience. Clara and I headed out on Jules and Ollie. Oliver was full of himself as usual, and Julio was jiggy. We had some amazing trots. When he gets excited or jumpy, he sticks his head down, his back comes up, and his trot gets beautifully long and FLASHY! (Rachel, use that in Hunter Under Saddle @ Field Days!) Anyways, Clara decided to trot up Queen St. In recent years, Julio and I have become separated at the bottom of Queen St. (i.e. I fell off or bailed). Last spring the horse that never bucks, threw the biggest, baddest, highest buck I have ever seen, well I saw it as I was bailing off the side. But whatever, back to today. Oliver proceeded to trot/canter/buck/whatever he does up the hill. Julio missed the turn and went squirelly. He was in the driveway and Oliver was on Queen St!!!! UhhhOOOOOOO. He decided to jump the little peninsula in between them. (That's an easy 10 ft. spread) Needless to say. He failed. There was snow on the other side of the pen. The unseen part was that the snow was covering a 4 ft ditch, which he fell into. At this point he was up to his chest, half laying in the snow, and floundering to get up. I landed in the snow unhurt but a little squished by his LARGE belly. I was very worried that he was going to hurt himself becuase he was stuck in all that snow and was struggleing to get up. He did get out and seemed to be alright. This time he didn't leave me in the dirt and waited patiently for me to get back on. Such a good pony. I was more concerned that he was hurt than I was about me. Something about seeing an animal struggle to regain balance when jumping is difficult to watch. Like when you are watching a cross-country ride gone wrong. Lucky for us, we remained unscathed. And darn, why am I always the first one to fall off in the Spring!

ps Don't worry Dorothy he wasn't lame or hurt. We went on to PRACTICE walking up Queen St. and trotting up and down the camp rd. There was no hitch to his gait and he was standing on all fours when I put him out in the paddock. Checked him for any cuts or scrapes. Didn't find any.  If anything he might be sore tomorrow. You will see at the end of the driveway where our ice-jump failed.