Well, I think the Pivo has officially paid for itself in pure entertainment value. Some people say that it doesn’t work well for jumping – PFFFFT! I beg to freakin differ! It works well for jumping AND for vaulting.

On Sunday I moved a few jumps around to make a semi-new course, and took Henry out to jump. Nothing fancy, just our once-weekly hop around to keep most of the rust at bay. I hadn’t used my Pivo in a while and have definitely been lacking on media, so I carried it out with me and set it up. I will admit that sometimes when I first set up the Pivo I get kind of paranoid about whether or not it’s working, and half of my attention ends up on it. That’s exactly what happened this time… I jumped the first fence, passed behind a tree around a corner, and flicked my gaze over to the Pivo for a few strides to see if it had stayed with us past the tree. Henry could 100% tell I’d stopped paying attention, by the time I looked back at the jump again my distance was off, the canter was shit, and while sure he could have bailed me out and gone anyway, he thought instead he’d give me a quick riding lesson.

He was, as usual, 100% right. I had that one coming. He’ll cover plenty of mistakes for me, but not ones where I was being a complete asshat. You have to admit though, it was a really good flip. And the fact that he deposited his sidepull on the ground with me, then turned around and flipped me the bird before sauntering smugly off… savage. Point taken, dude.

Luckily if you’re going to fall off, that’s one of the best ways to land. It rattled my bones, for sure (honestly my back has felt better since then so maybe he adjusted something for me) but otherwise my sufficiently fleshy ass absorbed the majority of the impact. And, bonus, my helmet never even made contact, which was literally my first thought as I hit the ground.

I got up, caught Henry, put his bridle back on, apologized profusely, and got back on. He seemed to think that he’d said all that was necessary, and he was right. I got my mind in the game, focused on what I was doing, and never once glanced at the Pivo again. We jumped around two courses with no problem, Henry’s mood undeniably chipper, and called it a day.

When we were done I made my way back to the Pivo, really hoping that it had managed to catch that. And of course, because Pivo has very rarely let me down (why do I feel the need to stare at it sometimes then??? shit.), it got all of it. It didn’t miss a single thing the whole time, and even calmly followed Henry after he deposited me on the ground and sauntered off. Excellent. That’s the kind of performance I’m after right there. What a dutiful little gadget.

By the time I got back up to the barn and watched the video, I was chuckling. By the time I got it into my editing app and played it in slow-mo and reverse, I was in absolute fits of laughter. Pivo, you tricky little bastard. I’m not sure if I should blame you for being the reason I fell off, or applaud you for not missing a beat and ensuring that this particular blip can be enjoyed forever. Is he the hero or the villain of this story? Undecided.

Anyway… obviously I’m fine. Henry made his point loud and clear, and my days of obsessively checking on the Pivo are over. Obviously it doesn’t need to be checked on anyway, since it has yet to miss a beat – for better or worse. Lesson learned? Hopefully…