Updates

I wish blogger let you back-date entries, because I'm a little behind. I suppose this'll just force me to to be more intentional about writing after working with Jester.

Wednesday

I got my State Line Tack order on Tuesday night and took everything over to get fitted for him today. It was also a cool, pleasant evening so Steve came with me and met Jester. The tack mostly works great (my Western saddle apparently doesn't have the usual complement of rings to attach breast collars to) and Jester got all fitted up. Of course, he could hardly stand still to save his life. He also showed me that I really need to learn how to tie a horse to a ring in a safe way. At one point he pulled back so hard, the knot was very difficult to undo and I worried he was going to panic. He didn't, but my list of skills to work on got longer.

I was also playing it by ear whether or not I got on him today. Despite the antsy tacking up, he calmed down a fair bit after lunging him a little and taking him up to the arena. So I thought I'd see how far I could get. He either didn't want to, or didn't understand that I wanted him to stand still at the mounting block. His owner's mounting assistance is more of a platform than a small, two-step block so it's possible he didn't get it. He moved off early, backed away, and drifted time after time, but each time I just circled him, moved him back or forward and then stepped him back up to the block. Six, seven, eight times.

Finally something clicked in his head, because I put my foot in the stirrup and stood up against his side and he didn't move a muscle. I stood back down onto the block and stood up again. Zero movement. I stood back down again, patted his neck and then stood up, swinging my leg over his back. STILL no movement. I got my feet in the stirrup (yep, need to adjust those, I thought) but he was still standing still. Finally I gave him a light squeeze and he moved off at a walk, willing as ever.

We kept it to a walk and moved around a bit. He doesn't really leg yield, and he's definitely a direct rein horse. But he's an easy mover so far and willing to go. At the lunge, he's a very easy mover, hardly needing encouragement (of course we don't know each other yet, so this may be in part fear). He keeps going and even responds to looking at his hindquarters to stop. Learning Parelli with him will be very interesting, I think.