First Jump School Alone (and at the new barn)

Originally my schedule called for Fridays to be jump days, but because of work and the birthday of a fabulous boyfriend, "huuump dayyyyy" was also "jump day" last week. It was super hot, so I just set up 2 little jumps and figured we would pop over them a couple times and call it a day. There was a 2' vertical with "scary" PVC pole ground lines (they're scary for me... I won't be using them again as I have seen the injuries that occur when they shatter) and a simple cross rail that eventually became a little 2'9 vertical. We didn't have enough poles, so the ground line for the vertical was directly underneath it. This caused Otie to get VERY close distances to it each time, but that will change soon. Okay, enough blabbing... let's get to the pictures!

"I hate dressage, this is my favorite day."

Case and point. He was getting close to this one each time,

but that's a nice balanced hind end!

We had only 1 awkward jump to this one, he likes real ground lines.

Awkward 2'9 hop.

It was fine, he wasn't putting much effort into anything, but my goal for the day was to hop over a couple things and assure myself that we can jump without a trainer no problem. The wonderful boyfriend was kind enough to get pics, yell at me to add more leg every once in awhile, and stop me and scold me when something weird happened over the fences. He's learned a lot from watching so many lessons! This week we are going to do either a Lainey grid or a Doug Payne (I believe) exercise to work on me being quiet and strong over fences as well as Otie getting his knees up. I am always writing down exercises to try, so that leads to my send-off question:

What are your favorite jumping exercises, and why?