Jumpin' JJ!

Two awesome days in a row - can't beat that!! Except maybe with three awesome days in a row, but we'll have to see how tomorrow goes for that.

Yesterday was a repeat of everything we've done so far - tacked, lunged, set him loose in the ring for half an hour. All awesome.

JJ on lunge Thursday.

Today I tacked JJ completely. That means stirrups on the saddle, reins on the bridle, and even a makeshift standing martingale to see how he would react to his head being restricted. Sue has encouraged me to use the standing martingale on him, at least in the beginning, so that when I do get on him he is less able to rear. The martingale (er... my rendition made of clothesline and duct tape) didn't seem to bother him at all, so that's promising.

Trotted in both directions on the lunge, then I set up a crossrail to keep things interesting. Had him trot over that a couple times and he was perfectly unenthused about it (video below!). Good. Then I stood him at the mounting block, climbed up, and put all my weight in the stirrup. I did this several times, laying over his back at the same time. He stood fine for all of this. There are no more intermediate steps now - there's nothing else I can do but climb aboard! Soon enough, soon enough...

I then untacked JJ and let him roam the ring without a blanket in the balmy 32 degree sunny weather (no really though - today felt really warm. How sad is that?!). He enjoyed rolling in the sand, eating snow, and nibbling on what little plant life exists in the corner. I can't even call it grass anymore because I looked closer today and really there's no grass. There are some weeds and a couple little shrubby looking stumps which he likes to chew on.

MM I love ring sand in my coat!!

Oh yea, and Al fixed the fence in JJ's "playpen" - put a whole new board up where the broken one was. JJ's reaction? After a good week and a half of not chewing wood, he went straight to this new, untouched board and began a-muchin'. Well-played, JJ.