Jasper Turns Four

Good grief, I have not posted in awhile so I thought I would give an update on Jasper. He’s been in training for about 5 months now. We’ve had some ups and downs but things are definitely on track now and he is doing well.  I’ve started lightly riding him myself and he has been great. He is filling out nicely and is in much better shape than when we started. He turned 4 last week. I cannot believe it, time has flown. He certainly has turned into one stunning looking horse and a sweet one to boot. Everyone at the ranch just loves him, it’s really quite comical. Oh, but can he be stubborn. Anyone of you Parelli-ites with a left brained introvert horse knows what I mean! But his spirit is what I love about him, too. Here are some recent shots with his trainer riding him.

 

Back from Aiken

Actually, we’ve been back for awhile, but like everything I am behind on updating. Aiken, South Carolina was really nice. This is the Willcox hotel, where we stayed. It was really beautiful and the rooms were so cute, complete with a 4 poster bed!

The Willcox

Wow, we could not believe the properties we could get for the price! Our realtor was top notch! When we arrived at the Willcox, there was a welcome packet waiting for us and an intinerary of our next couple days of viewing homes. Our first day, we viewed NINE properties! We narrowed it down to 3 that we liked. My personal favorite was this one: Check out this pasture – ahh!

Pasturepolooza!

Oh yeah, the house and barn were nice, too – lol

 

The Barn

 Oh wow, compared to California, these places made my head hurt! And this place is going for a song because it is bank owned. Okay, it needs some work, but – those pastures – ahhhhh!

Actually moving would be tough when we actually thought about it. This canuck has gotten a little used to the California lifestyle. Can you blame me? I live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Which, of course, is why it is so fabulously expensive! So we are still continuing the search, but Aiken was sure an eye opener. One day, I WILL be looking out my bedroom window and waving to Jasper!

 

New Year, Big Plans!

Happy New Year to all my blogging horsey buddies!!!

I’m looking forward to what this year has in store. Yes, the economy is tanking, but I still have a smile on my face (and I’ve stopped reading the newspaper!) My husband and I have been thinking about a change for awhile now. I love California but it is getting ridiculously expensive to live here. And since we both run our own businesses from home, with no kidlets, we can transplant fairly easily. So next week we are heading on a short trip to Aiken, South Carolina to check out real estate. If you haven’t heard of Aiken (no relation to Clay), it is MAJOR horse country. 
Some interesting things about Aiken:

• It’s located between Augusta, Georgia and Columbia, SC
• It is home to polo events, steeplechasing, fox hunting and every other discipline you can think of!
• Hitchcock Woods is just outside of downtown, it is the largest urban forest in the United States. This nearly 2,100-acre longleaf pine forest has 65 miles of marked trails available to hikers, runners, equestrians, and carriage drivers. And has 130 jumps throughout the trails.

Owning a home with some acreage and a barn and pastures would be a dream come true. Looking out my window and seeing Jasper frolicking in a pasture would truly be wonderful. And he would of course have to have some friends…

If anyone knows lives in the area or has some insights, I would love to hear them!

 

Best Xmas Present – Ever!

Me riding Jasper

 

Jasper Boot Camp Week Four

Things were progressing nicely with Jasper in the smaller indoor arena so Debbie decided to try the outdoor arena. After lunging him and walking him around the various jumps and obstacles, she rode him. Here he is walking.

And here he is first time trotting outside. I am amazed at how sensible about everything he is being!

 

Jasper Boot Camp Week Three

I’m a little behind with my posts, we’re on week 5 and I’m posting week 3! So here goes. It’s amazing to see the progression on video clips! In this clip, you can see Jasper’s walk is much less stiff and unsure after a week of Debbie working with him.

And here he is trotting! Yeah! And Debbie said it is smooth, too! And yes, that is his breath you see, it has been brr cold here in California! I love how he glances at me as he’s trotting by like ‘hey mom, look at ME!’ What a good boy!

 

Jasper Boot Camp Week Two

Jasper looking pretty relaxed and happy with his trainer and new location

Week 2 and here is Jasper being ridden by his trainer at the walk in the small indoor arena. This arena is great because it keeps Jasper focused. He looks a little stiff, but that’s to be expected. Things are progressing nicely!

 

Jasper Boot Camp Week One

Jasper greeting me at the gate

Jasper is settling in. And after barely sleeping and stressing and one trip to the chiro for a pinched nerve in my back, I’m ok now too!

When we went out to visit him, he was still pretty nervous. He was very glad to see me, though. I was planning to take him for a walk but I thought he was a little to spooky for me to handle so I kept him around his stall. There are already people feeding him cookies!!
At that point I thought it was going to take awhile for him to get comfortable. But the trainer worked with him all last week and by the time I went there on Friday to watch her work with him he had settled down considerably, I was amazed. She’s been turning him out every day and she told me that he tries to get any horse turned out in the paddock beside him to play with him. He was turned out when I arrived and sure enough, a horse was just being turned out beside him and he popped his head over to say hello to him. He’s made a friend with the trainers horse, she says they play all morning so she tries to turn them out beside each other.

Looking for a friend

He was pretty relaxed when I was grooming him and MUCH calmer than earlier in the week, thank goodness.The trainer had walked him around the facility quite a bit getting him used to everything and besides shying at some things he’s been pretty good. She’s been working with him in the round pen, then the small indoor arena, then moving up to the large circular outdoor arena, I had told her he gets difficult in a larger space. She said he was doing fine, I’ve done great groundwork with him, he definitely knows whoa, she was bridling him no problem.In the round pen

Well, on Friday he decided to be a bit of a pisser, of course when I was watching! It was good to see how the trainer handled it, though. He was doing great in the round pen and she moved him to the circular outdoor arena. He was doing fine up until someone decided to work a horse right beside the arena and I think it scared him or he just decided to take off, but he revved up his engines and I swear he did about 5 loops galloping around the arena, calling out to every horse in the

In the round pen

facility! Well, we knew he would run out of gas eventually, and he did, he stopped and faced the trainer and snorted as if to say, I am DONE now. And then, being Jasper, he was all kind of sorry looking about the whole incident. This was the first time he had taken off like this, the trainer says ‘wow, he seems kind of lazy at times when I work him, but he really goes when he wants to’ Yep, and THAT is why you’re riding him before me – lol. She worked him a little longer just to let him know if he does that, he still has to work, and he was fine even in the area that he spooked so it ended on a good note. But was he tired! I just kind of chuckled and said to him ‘bud, you’re in boot camp now!’

So he has already reached the point of testing the trainer – she knows it isn’t going to be a total cake walk. But I think she’ll do fine with him. She said when we were putting him away ‘you know, he’s very smart…almost TOO smart’. WOW, only said that a MILLION TIMES!

 

Jasper’s New Home

Right by the front so he will see everyone walking by…

 

Jasper Update – The Winds of Change

I have been behind with Jasper news and it’s time for an update. And it’s a big one.

What a journey this has been so far! From not being able to get near Jasper to getting him to trust me to ground training him and actually finally getting on him! But the last while I had come to the conclusion that it was time for Jasper to go into full training. He’s finished preschool in a sense and it’s time to go to college. I wanted to leave the starting under saddle part to a professional.

So I went looking around for a trainer that would start my big guy. I had several issues to face. In the first place, not many trainers start horses – at least in my area. There are a lot of western trainers but I wanted to start Jasper english, which lead to my next problem. Not many english trainers start horses. The third problem is that most english trainers are not that into natural horsemanship. I finally found an english trainer who used nh techniques. And was closer to me! I was all set to move there, but changed my mind. This raises another issue. Trainers who compete a lot and/or don’t return your phone calls promptly! I’m busy just like everyone else but not getting back to someone for a week at a time raises a big flag. After this happened several times I decided not to go through with it.  How often is this person going to be working with my horse if they are away at clinics and shows and can’t even return a phone call?

I decided to go to another trainer, who is a little farther, but closer than where Jasper has been living for 2 years. The facility is huge and has about 70 horses, but this trainer currently has a fairly small clientele and I felt would give me a more personal approach to Jasper’s training. This is a critical point in Jasper’s training and I want to ensure it is done with care and with his well being in mind.

So it was with great sadness about leaving the ranch and also excitement/trepidation for the future that we made the big move.  Jasper was very sensible about the whole thing, I was so proud of him! In fact, I think I was more of a basket case than him. Even though he had not been in a trailer in 2 years he stepped right on in. It was about a half hour drive to the facility but it seemed to take forever as we followed the trailer. Every once in a while I could see Jasper’s head reflected in the windows and my stomach would kind of lurch. Is he freaking out? Is he going to burst through the back door? Well no, he was fine, but me, well, I thought I was going to puke!!

We finally arrived and he made it off the trailer fine, although he had sweated quite a bit. As soon as he stepped off he stood up in his giraffe stance and had a good look around. As I lead him to his new stall and paddock, he stayed close beside me but again, was perfectly fine. This place has a lot of quarter horses so I think people were naturally intrigued, ‘who is this big fella?’ (one in a million) ‘is he a friesian?’ (my cheapie friesian!) ’what’s his breeding?’ (Heinz 57). He seemed to settle in pretty quick, went out to his paddock and immediately popped his head over the fence and watched all the goings ons. This is a pretty busy place so he will definitely get to see a lot of action. He had a good roll and looked pretty relaxed when we left him. He was bugging me for cookies so I felt that was good sign!

Moving is hard! Especially to another boarding facility – with new people and maybe a different way of running things than your previous place. You want to fit in but you also would like certain things for your horse. But if you ask for too much, you’re afraid of looking like the ‘problem boarder’. It’s still keeping me up at night.  Hoping I have made the right choice, wondering if he is ok, wondering if I’m going to be ok with this. I had to weigh the positives and the negatives in choosing to move – to this trainer, this facility – and remember that my goal is to get Jasper trained under saddle, and trained well.

I’ve just placed one toe into the pool. Baby steps.