I was determined to capture London’s second session of conquering the black barrel on the lunge line but the weather wasn’t very cooperative. We got snow and yesterday the ring was frozen solid. Today it finally warmed up so we did a short little session in the slop. I did a brief little warmup and he was listening very nicely. You can see in the video we warm up over just a little cavaletti oxer and then I slowly bring him closer and closer to the barrel. Even though he’s jumping the part that joins the barrel and cavaletti he still wasn’t sure about jumping the middle of the barrel. What I was really impressed with was that it only took him less than a minute to get on board with the jumping the barrel compared to the 5-10 min of arguing he did the first session. I can’t really get behind him to encourage him forward because he will just jump that wing that I have on the side of the barrel so I encouraged him to go over the cavaletti and then back to the barrel.
After we warmed up we made a bigger oxer jump about 3ft and he was really good! It’s super hard to steer them and I don’t like how they have to turn so much but it’s not like I’m going to drill this whole lunging over jumps thing. I doubt I will use it again now that he’s gained confidence but it’s a tool that I can break back out if needed. I love how good his instincts are despite being absolutely green to jumping. He prefers to add to the base which is a good thing. He had gotten bored so not super tight with his knees but the jump is pretty plain and if you pause it you can see how nicely he uses his body. He was very proud of himself and got lots of treats 
man, he’s going to be so nice when he’s finished. wannnt