A couple of years ago, I decided that I knew what I wanted in my next horse.
I wanted a naturally gaited, athletic horse. My baby’s name is JR and his
mommy and grandpa can do flying lead changes.
JR is 2 1/2 now and he went to Jenny school yesterday. I talked to Jenny
after work and she said guess who I rode today? I couldn’t guess. She said,
“I rode JR”. Well, there’s another JR in the barn, so I said which JR. She
said, “YOUR JR!”
WOW! She “wallered” all over him and he was very calm. So, she decided to
get on him. He didn’t move for a while and she just rubbed him. Finally, he
decided to move a foot and she hopped off. I think that’s pretty good for
his first day of school!
JR is a fox trotter. We are going to start him differently than the “normal”
fox trotter. We are going to ignore his natural gait. If he gaits, fine and
if he trots…even better. We want him to trot. He will learn his athletic
stuff first…like flying lead changes and then we’ll go back and teach him
how to be a great gaited horse.
It’s a grand experiment we’re going to be havin! Lot’s to think about for a
youngster!
I had the arena to myself tonight, so JR got to play while Velvet and I
practiced on our level 3 tasks. What fun we had!