JJ's Summer Home

FINALLY! Thanks to a good friend, JJ finally arrived in his Harvard, MA summer home Saturday evening. We had left MA at 6:30AM to pick him up in NY. We arrived mid-morning after a smooth ride, and after I loaded up the trailer with all of my tack and such, I brought JJ down. He had no interest in getting on the trailer... UGH. Three people and a syringe of ace later, he was finally on.

JJ's new digs: Mansion!

JJ's new digs: grassy paddock!

All in all the whole trailering experience was very frustrating for me. I've had awful experiences with non-trailering horses in the past (Ahem, DOLLY anyone?!) and I really haven't ever seen a good way of teaching a horse to trailer. JJ was also not on his best behavior. I'm not surprised about that - he hadn't been really worked in several weeks and I had been in MA the entire week prior to trailer day. Anyway, as we were all trying to get him on the trailer he began his kicking-out thing again that we had worked through way back in March. $%$(*%#$#)^. The in trying to have him back off the trailer, he acted like he didn't know the cue to back up, which he absolutely does. So basically anyone who met JJ yesterday probably thinks I've done nothing productive with him in that past four months. Very frustrating. At any rate, I'll have to work on trailer training at some point... A tricky summer project.

This morning I lunged JJ in the ring for about 15 minutes without tack (VIDEO BELOW). He threw in a few kinks as seen in the first circle, but settled down quickly. We later turned him out with a chestnut mare named Olive in hopes that they would be pasture buddies. After a few discussions, the two of them settled and enjoyed their afternoons munching on grass.

In the evening I tacked JJ again for another short lunge, then hopped on for a ride. I am SO pleased to report that JJ was AWESOME today. Better than I ever would have expected. HOORAY! Hoping to start taking lessons soon so we can start making some real progress!