A few weeks ago, I hauled Jack up to Cheboygan to use my friend’s indoor arena and get some help with Jack. He loaded smoothly and rode quietly in the trailer, which was pretty nice. Once we got there, I tacked him up and did my groundwork in the indoor. He snorted a few times at some scary things but he didn’t seem to phased by much. My friend Elizabeth got her horse Dante ready, and we went to work.
Jack was pretty relaxed about being saddled, and after a few moments of checking out what it’d be like to step up on his back from either side, I hopped on all the way and got comfortable. He’s turned into a pretty mellow guy and that didn’t seem to phase him.
He wasn’t quite sure what to do so I had him follow Dante around for a bit til he relaxed about carrying a strange weight up on his back and just got comfortable. He let his neck down after a little bit and I worked on petting his neck and hind end, sort of moving around up top just to help him get used to movement.
When he got stuck, Elizabeth would help him move off her flag.
We worked a bit on un tracking Jack’s hindquarters and bringing his front end through. He was stiffer on his right side and needed more help there.
Overall I think his first ride was pretty low key and slow: just the way I like them!
