Hopeful Jumpers: Trying New Adventures

July 1, 2012

Trying New Adventures

(I started this post last night and just barely didn't finish it so it's getting posted today instead)

It's been a very hot and humid last couple of days! I started the day off feeding at the old barn since Terri and the mounted games crew are at MGAA finals (I think). I haven't ridden Ramona for a few days so I tacked her up for a quick ride. Ramona was most recently ridden by a very timid and easy intimidated adult beginner rider when her usual horse had thrown his shoe. I really hope Ramona was good for her, but I haven't heard anything yet.

I sort of wonder if the ride did not go well (Ramona apparently was "the devil" for the last adult beginner who rode her) because as I was walking Ramona out to the ring she suddenly stopped and started doing these ridiculous buck/rear combinations that made me feel like I was riding some odd mechanical bull. I gave her the benefit of a doubt and thought that maybe a horse fly bit her or something, but when she did it again in response to me asking her to walk forward I got the impression she was trying to get out of working.

Sorry little black horse, that crap doesn't work with me. Ramona ended up in the ring and was decent for trotting. She started to throw a fit when I made her canter on a circle (too much work I guess). I was a little surprised she was so bad... it's been a very long time since she pulled anything like that with me. I don't think it was a saddle/tack/pain thing, I think she was just trying to get out of work. I realized as we were walking out to the ring that I didn't grab a crop today like usual. She's pretty darn smart, I think she's learned it's not worth fighting when I carry a crop, so maybe that was the issue. Or maybe she got out of work with the other rider, who knows.

The exciting part of the ride is when I decided to pop her over a jump or two and she instantly focused and cut all the bucking out. I jumped a bit more, and suddenly instead of fighting her to hold a canter she was forward and was practically offering a one step simple change without me even asking. She felt much happier and interested... I think the pony legitimately likes to jump. =-) We ended on a good note including not knocking as many verticals down.

I then ran out to see Prince who I hadn't seen for a day or so. I can tell that Friday was a really hot day because Prince was covered in dried sweat.

It was hot at that point so I didn't want to do much with him. Instead I decided to try something I haven't tried in several years- riding him bridle-less and bareback. I left a halter on him but instead of tying a lead rope to it I looped a thin lead rope around his neck.

The last time I tried this I very quickly found out that I had minimal steering and absolutely NO brakes. I ended up jumping off him as he trotted around and haven't tried since.

Today I first worked on reviewing our vocal commands and introducing the neck rope idea. Prince seemed to get it, so for the second half of the ride I dropped it and just rode him entirely off my voice and legs. It took us (and by that I mostly mean me) some time to figure out the steering, but once we got it figured out he was pretty good! By the end of the ride I was able to steer him in figure-8's at the trot. I'll have to get a video of it once we get a tiny bit better. I'm really excited about this new goal!

Prince earned a good bath after the ride. These pictures are from several weeks ago, but I've never gotten around to posting them and I promise that today looked basically the same (except I didn't tie Prince to the fence because he untied himself while I was getting the hose out and wandered off. Made me very glad the entire property is fenced in).

I like all the water droplets in this one. And Prince's cute face.

Prince says, "ugh, keep that water away from my face"

Prince really hates getting his face wet and I don't usually force the issue, but it's been getting so sweaty and this hose has a nice misting option on it. Oddly enough Prince loves getting sprayed in the mouth, he'll stand there with the hose in his mouth on full blast and loves it. (Oh and his halter has a safety release on it just in case he really gets upset about the water).

What a fantastic horse. =-)

2 comments:

EmmiJuly 1, 2012 at 11:21 AM
Haha, I love that caption and picture of Prince not wanting the water in his face, priceless! Also good job with Ramona, that little stinker.
ReplyDelete
Replies
RuthJuly 2, 2012 at 1:23 AM
Awesome work riding Prince bareback and bridle-less, I am working on that with Poppy as well lately.
Gorgeous pictures. Prince is so handsome.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Thanks for taking the time to leave me a comment, I love reading them!

-Jess

Quinus is a 17 year old Hanovarian gelding who was born in Germany. He spent the first part of his life competing in the jumpers in several different countries in Europe before traveling over to the United States a few years ago.

I found Q when I began looking for my next horse to get me back into the jumper ring. This time around I wanted a horse I could pick up where I left off, rather than starting all over with a green horse like Hero initially was. Q officially became my third horse on September 18, 2020.

Qbert has turned into quite the interesting horse. He's fancy, athletic, and talented and he has carried me around my biggest jumper classes so far. He can also be quirky and challenging and our journey has had its share of frustrations along with our successes. It hasn't always been easy, but I've certainly learned more from him than I would have with a packer! I never would have guessed the path our journey together would take when I first got him, and that includes a growing interest in dressage lessons and shows as well.

Hero joined the team on July 2, 2014. He is a 15 year old thoroughbred who spent his first couple years in race training, but after being slow and failing to get his gate card, he was retired before ever entering a race.

Hero came to me with only a handful of rides outside of the track, and training my first green horse was an interesting learning process for us both. He began his show career in the hunter ring, then progressed to switch to the jumper ring, and even moved up a few levels. I was thrilled to return to the jumper ring, and even happier that Hero seemed to be enjoying himself as well. We became a great team and even won year end Championships in both of our jumper divisions in 2017.

Unfortunately Hero suffered a career ending ligament injury in October 2017, and after over a year of rehab and an attempted return to jumping it became clear that jumping is not in his best interest.

Hero is a big friendly goof of a horse who loves to be around people, and ends up charming everyone he meets with his puppy-dog personality. He's very level-headed and calm and is just as well behaved on a hunter pace, at a wedding, out on the trails, or at a new show facility as he is at his home barn. Even though he can't jump anymore, I'm still lucky to have such a great second horse!

Horses have been my lifelong passion; however, it wasn't until college that I was able to take riding lessons and be around horses on a regular basis. My equestrian career began when I joined my college's IHSA hunt seat team, which lead to me leasing and eventually buying my first horse, Prince. Since then, I have been happily spending as much time riding and being around horses as possible.

In addition to my lovely horses, I have a dachshund x terrier mix named Fred, who is one of the cutest dogs ever with a fun personality much larger than he is. Loki is our goofy and playful Australian Shepard who loves to play fetch all day.

The troublemaker of the group used to be my cat Munch who is very mischievous and way too smart for his own good. Lately he has been getting a run for his money from our newest cat Ace (also commonly called by his nickname Meowser). I raised him from a week-old kitten ever since he was found stuck inside a wall. Even as a grown-up cat he's still crazy as ever and still loves snuggling with his human parents. My second cat Luna takes after her Harry Potter namesake, happily living in her own special world. She is very sweet and friendly and doesn't seem to realize that she is any different, despite having a hind leg amputated as a kitten due to a chronic, nonhealing femur fracture. She's the shyest of the group, but also has the loudest meow when it's time for dinner!