JR

JR is now a few months into his 3rd year and he stands at 15.2 Hands. His legs are almost taller than I am! I can’t see over him from the ground unless I’m looking at jet airplanes. Just recently I noticed that the mounting blocks were getting too low! Jenny finished starting him and I started riding him in the Monday night group lessons. I was getting more and more relaxed riding. One weekend, I asked him for a little speed and he started pacing like he was a…

  "Gee Susan, He's REALLY Testing You!" "My, JR is being ORNERY Tonight!" 2/22/2002 There's nothing like a young horse to make one humble. I was foolishly thinking I had gotten pretty skilled in natural horsemanship principles. I remember riding Velvet in many workshops thinking, "Gee, I wish I had a young horse so I could experience all those early training experiences again with a young horse. I'll be so much better this time." Ha! Jenny uttered the two statements that make up the title during the latest Thursday nite…

Yep, I’ve ridden JR twice now. Jenny let me ride him the first time one evening after she was finished riding him. She wanted to make my first experience a good one!  And it was a couple days after my birthday. Riding JR was a great gift! Let’s set the important background: I haven’t rode a young horse since Velvet was two…eight years ago. I was understandably a little nervous. I tried to breathe and relax and almost succeeded. Jenny helped me on, and JR and I were a team.…

It’s our house that is the site of the family Christmas. This year we held it on December 9th.  I like to have the horses home when the family celebrates Thanksgiving and Christmas, so JR came home for the weekend.  It was warm here in Missouri and so the kids got to ride a horse!  The little kids choose JR to ride, since he’s the cutest and friendliest! I put the Parelli bareback pad on him and hoisted up the oldest child.  We walked quite a ways and things were…

Jenny and JR have spent time just passenger riding which JR choose to do at a walk.  The emergency stop or bend to a stop was instituted before JR moved.  Then they added direction with reins, stopping, backing, fore and hindquarter turns.  I know that Jenny has asked for the soft feel and probably have done a little sidepassing. Our philosophy is to FIRST get JR to be a versatility horse and learn the athletic moves plus flying lead changes.  After this is accomplished, we were going to help JR…