Jake @ 3D

I took Jake to 3D Equestrian Centre yesterday.

I've never trailered him before. I've loaded him several times, but never actually gone anywhere with him until yesterday. My boy moves around a LOT in the trailer! And since he's so huge, it felt like the truck was lurching all the time. But when I loaded him he just stepped in and stood facing the front and just turned and looked at me as if to say, "Ok, let's go!" So we did.

Different story once we got there though. He was very right-brained and frequently tried to walk over me. I had to get pretty firm with him a couple times while walking him around to protect my space.

I led him up to the barn after a while, but he would have NONE of that. His threshold was about 20 feet from the door. He followed reluctantly to about 5 feet from the door then tried to back up. So I did about 30 minutes of approach and retreat and every time he got closer I rewarded him with a cookie. After that, he started forgetting about his surroundings and nosing my pocket for more cookies. Eventually I got his nose and neck into the barn and 3 tries later he followed me in. Even at that, I probably pushed him past his threshold rather than waiting until he did it on his own. Not exactly sure. Had a tough time reading him. He was doing lots of licking and chewing, but not much blinking.

Anyway, he did come in, and I led him through the barn to the arena. For quite a while I just walked around with him. He was pretty high-headed and uncertain, but he stuck with me. In fact, I took the 12' line off his halter and walked away. He followed me like glue. I even ran (trotted) a bit and he followed me at the trot too -- even over a jump! Very cool.

He did eventually leave me and I let him for a while. He hung around at the gate ignoring me after a while, so I did Linda's trick of heading toward zone 5 (his tail) and got "sneaky" as I got closer. He had his ears tipped toward me, but didn't move until I flicked him with the savvy string. Boy did he jump! He trotted off to the other side of the arena with me following behind. When he turned toward me, like Linda did, I turned away. When he turned away from me, I followed in zone 5 again, then turned away if he turned toward me. If he ever stopped, I crossed in front of him to see if he'd follow and if he didn't I moved toward zone 5 again. In no time he was walking at my shoulder again. Very cool !!!

I put the 12' line back on and gave him lots of rubs all over, brushed him off, then started doing some driving, porcupine and friendly games.

THEN, I put on my BRAND NEW, PARELLI NATURAL PERFORMER saddle that just arrived the day before! Woohoo!! It's a beautiful thing! The coolest part was that when I picked up the saddle, Jake didn't run away! He always used to try to get away from me when I brought the saddle out. But since riding him in the bareback pad, and then the Fluidity saddle last year (right), he's become much less afraid. Well, really - not at all afraid of the saddle. And yesterday was no exception. He stood quietly while I saddled and fitted the girth, and adjusted the stirrups. I moved him around a bit, tightened up the girth a bit more, then got on.

For about a half hour or so I was just the passenger. I didn't guide him at all unless he stopped at the gate. If he wanted to circle by the gate, so be it. I just wanted him to get used to the saddle. It was kind of fun actually. He started out trotting quite a bit, then just walked around with his nose on the ground snorting and blowing --- all good.

I had to get going so I'd be home before the kids came home from school, so we left it at that. Next time I'll try some more L1 ground work and riding.

Of course, I did bring my camera, but when I turned it on, turns out it didn't have a memory card in it, so no pictures from yesterday... just a couple old pics of Jake from last year!