Just jump it

On Tuesday I headed out to the barn with the intention of doing a little bit of jumping, however I got a little bit of a pause when I pulled Otter out and saw his hind legs.

 A little bit of stocking up is normal for him, especially with the heat and humidity that we have here, but this was a bit much for his norm.  I didn't feel any heat in them that made me concerned, so I took him to the arena for a quick jog to see how he was moving.  A spin on the lunge in both directions showed me that he was feeling and moving fine - even if he had the excess fluid in his legs, so I decided I would go ahead with my plan to jump if he felt fine under tack.

I tacked up and headed out to the ring, where I had to lower all the jumps, because after 5ish weeks off from jumping I just wasn't ready to jump at the height they were set at.

Novice-ish height

With his legs, and the heat, I kept our warm up pretty short and sweet - just enough to loosen up - before I started over the cross-rail.  Over all, I was happy with how our ride went.  It definitely could have been worse after having such a long period away.  We were able to canter most of the jumps, only having to revert back to trotting one once after a  bad spot that I just didn't want to chance an even worse jump on the next attempt.  Remembering to sit tall on the approach helped a lot.  I only ended up jumping about 15 total jumps (with lots of walking in between) due to both of us still adjusting to the heat.  

After Otter was cooled out, I hung out at the barn for a while watching a few of the lessons and chatting with some of the other people at the barn.  It was good to catch up with everybody after being away!