Photos of JJ

Te Arawa Jimmy Jones:





JJ when I first got him...





3 weeks later:



Still stacking on the weight, after 5 weeks with me (ignore the grumpy face, he doens't like having his picture taken!)



Having fun on the beach :)







His stylish/nerdy "hoof boots", an alternative to metal shoes:


Showing off his Mark Todd sheet in the paddock at Mum's:

25.Nov - Pony Club shenanigans

It was Pony Club at the park today, so I went and caught all the horses and put them into the yards. Then txted Lisa to tell her that I had done so. And she replied saying that the XC was closed for the upcoming ODE so I needn't have bothered. Bugger. Oh well. The horses enjoyed the nice grass in the yards while I spit and polished JJ and got him tacked up. Speaking of which...

Presents arrived in the mail today! New breastplate/martingale (taken the rings off though) for him. And a new bit (sweet iron D ring snaffle). And new stirrup irons! And a new helmet for me (that doesn't fit and will have to be sent back. Sigh.) Also yesterday tendon boots that are the right size arrived.

So we got all geared up with our new stuff and headed into the park to say hello to the other ponies. After chatting to a pony mother and almost being flattened by her daughter's pony who trotted by EXTREMELY CLOSELY, lucky for Baggins that JJ isn't a kicker, we went to tell Mick that she can have her stirrup irons back now. And kinda got stuck there...

We ended up sort of joining the lesson, as standing around watching the kids do a bending race led to us being invited to have a go. We did it from a trot, having not done it before, but he was very good and responsive. (I like the new bit a lot.)

Then we went jumping, which in our case involved standing and watching. Despite Harry (Mick's horse) attempting to front-foot JJ when they were first introduced, JJ seemed to think that Harry was his new BFF. (It's possible that the fact that Harry is a chestnut gelding has something to do with that...) So when Harry went to do the jumps, JJ watched him with great intensity and nickered to him when he returned. Cute. Kinda sad, but cute. He actually really enjoyed watching the other ponies, although hopefully he wasn't watching Gemma's pony too hard - we don't want any mimicking of those shenanigans!

When the kids were done jumping through the 2 stride double - xrail onto an oxer - Melda very kindly put the oxer down to an X for me so I could jump. We trotted over the jumps, our first time through knocking the first jump down but jumping the second. Then we went over the first (which was never rebuilt, so was now just one pole on a slant with two ground poles) and ran off the second, or tried to. But then JJ seemed to catch on and we did a couple of times through nicely with actually picking up his feet. :) Also - we had the most lovely walk to canter transition!! On the right rein too, he was super, I wasn't even asking for it. I was thinking it, but I wasn't expecting him to do it. We'd come off the jump, back to walk and been patted, then I sat up and clicked him forward and we were straight into a lovely canter. Very proud. Did all the jumps from a trot of course as we can't canter in a straight line sans jumps, let alone with them! He was napping back to the other ponies, but not to the XC, which is progress of a sort I suppose. As we were jumping, the other fences were being removed by helpful parents, so there were people walking around carrying poles and jump stands, but JJ didn't care, he seemed to regard that all as normal, or at least untroubling. Good for him.

Afterwards we walked back up to the paddock, untacked and called Roly into the yard to get rugged. (Lisa had put the horses back out.) He came willingly when he realised I had food, and I let him into the yard where JJ was eating his dinner. Instead of backing away from his own bucket as he would've when he first arrived, he flattened his ears at Roly! Who naturally didn't even ask to share JJ's feed, he's not that rude or that stupid. Anyway he got another handful when he was rugged and then thrown back out.

The upside of lots of carrots - a horse that comes up to you in the paddock and enjoys your attention.

The downside of lots of carrots - constant nibbling. But he's smart enough to know when No means NO! Stop trying to eat my watch. And he hasn't nipped at all, just nibbling with the lips. But we may have to ease off on the carrots - from now on they are for catching and going into feed only, not for snacktime during grooming!

JJ...JT...J.Ro....

Today (Nov 23) Heather, Chelsea and I went for a long walking ride up the Waikanae River. The gravel made my boy a bit ouchy :( but at least he didn't pull any of JT's shenanigans. In fact he was by far the better behaved 6 year old. No bucking or rearing or plunging for us, oh no. We did however have a bit of an oopsy when attempting to jump a wooden barrier about 50cm high. Somehow it escaped JJ's notice that the barrier was there so instead of trot trot jump it went trot trot thunk! Silly boy. He was quite embarrassed.

21st Nov - Schooling in pointless circles

Not really pointless, but probably in JJ's eyes it is. He was waiting for me at the gate when I got to the paddock :) and very relaxed to tack up etc. Then I hopped on and he headed off up the track without any napping, I thought "wow a nap-free ride!" How wrong I was.

Anyway we went down into the 100 x 100m arena and did some work in walk-trot. He was good, he's definitely improved since I had his teeth done, he's taking the contact much better now and not chewing on the bit all the time. He is still nappy, especially on the right rein because my left leg is weaker than my right and that's apparently evident to him. So our right rein circles bulged way more than our left ones. Curse my crooked self.

Most of the steering problems however went away as I rode better - I'd been having trouble when he was napping with him drifting away and just turning his head back the direction I wanted to go. This came from using too much inside rein to steer and not enough outside leg. Also once I sat up and looked around where I wanted to go, which is riding 101, he was heaps better. Same goes for trying to trot straight lines - unless I'm looking up and far ahead of myself, the line goes incredibly wonky. Eyes up, line straight. (Well, straighter.)

Then we went down into the park and jumped the creek a few times before going for a canter. The first canter up to the far end by the showjumps was very crooked, as JJ just wanted to go back to the XC and his whole body was bent in that direction the whole time. But we made it to the far end and settled down and had a lovely canter back down the park. Then we did a couple of circles on each rein which were very bulgy but when I remembered to watch my line and keep my outside hand down and give-release the inside rein instead of being suckered into holding it against him...it improved.

I need lessons.

All in all though he's a snugglebunny and I do love him dearly, he's such a good boy :)

Nov 20th - Cross Country! (sort of)

JJ's owner came today and trimmed his feet, she said he's looking well :) So that's good, we have passed the first inspection so to speak!

When I went to catch him he was lying flat on his side, so when he got up he was a bit soggy and muddy! But that soon brushed off.

Today we were riding in the rope halter again, to give him another day to recover from the pulled wolf tooth. We started out just hacking around the paddock, he was good as gold doing that. Then we did a wee cross-country course, jumping up a tiny bank, then doing a 180 curve and over a tiny ditch, then trotting into the water jump and jumping up the bank. Which is the biggest part of the water jump and we hadn't attempted it before, but as most things with JJ, it was no fuss, no muss. It's probably about 70cm (2'6") high, the biggest we've attempted :)

Then we went out into the park and down the road, weaving between the street trees with Heather and Roly :) We always enjoy doing that. Then back into the park, through the creek and went for a race up the hill. I let him go as fast as he wanted this time, but when I started urging him on he put his head down and twisted his back slightly, having a "yee ha" combined with "this is really hard!" moment. So we steadied up. BUT we made it to the top of the hill with some gas left in the tank! Progress.

Then we jumped on and off the box a couple of times, went back into the paddock and walked around for a while. Heather's friend was riding Roly at this point and she went off for a walk and trot around the cross country while JJ and I stood and dozed and waited for her to come back. Very patient for a baby horse.

Nov 19th - dentist, jumping and alpacas

Well the dentist visit went well. Ray always sedates them to do their
teeth, so that he can really get in there and work on them. He got the
needle in pretty quick but Jimmy still bounced backwards, but then he
held still while Ray took the blood sample for Selenium test and he
used the same needle to give him the sedative.

He had very sharp edges on the outside of his upper molars and inside
of his lower molars, a couple of ulcers on the inside of his mouth and
a partly broken and slightly loose wolf tooth. He gave him a local
anaesthetic and pulled the wolf tooth, filed the rest down. Jimmy was
very good about it, admittedly he was pretty sedate :P but Ray was
impressed with his behaviour. He confirmed that he is definitely 6
(not that I thought he wasn't, but last time I had Ray check a pony's
teeth he told us that the unbroken "rising 5 year old" we'd bought was
seven. Oops.) Ray said Jimmy was a really nice looking horse :) I put
him in a yard for the afternoon as he was still quite dopey, he
started eating grass right away (typical).

That was around 11am, I went back to work then afterwards down to the
paddock to go for a ride with Heather. Because of his tooth being
pulled I rode him in a rope halter instead of bridle. We went out into
the park and there were some showjumps set up so we went over some
ground poles then set up a few low crossbars and jumped a wee course
following Roly :) The jumps were all about 40cm high but he popped
over them all. He weaves a little in front of the jumps, like Do I
have to do it? but he's very relaxed about just popping over. So that
was good :)

Then we went for a hack down to the river and to my parents' place. We
had to go through the paddock with an alpaca in it, I swear JJ grew
about five hands! He put his head up so he could see over the deer
fences, which are over 2m tall...I was on foot as I'd had to get off
for the gates. Usually whenever anything is "scary" we look to Roly to
be a good example. However despite having grazed at our paddocks for a
couple weeks about 2 years ago Roly had decided that alpacas were
terrifying so with much snorting we led the horses through the
paddock. I hopped back on him and went up to the house so my parents
could meet him, they said he was "huge" (haha that's what comes from
only ever seeing me on ponies) and they think he's gorgeous too. Seems
everyone does :) His head will swell soon!!

Anyway on the way home he was good as gold. Might ride in the halter
again tomorrow just in case his gum is still sore. Ray offered to let
me keep the tooth but I passed on that.

Nov 18th

Took him down the road today, we took a detour to see a new
subdivision (there was a sign that said "Have a Look, Take 2 Lefts" so
we thought what the hell. Riding with Heather again for the first time
in a week and a half, he is more settled in company as is to be
expected for a young horse. He was very good mooching around the
streets, although when we turned for home he sure got his walk on!
Heather's Thoroughbred was struggling a little to keep up :)

Otaki PC had a rally on our XC course so we went to chat with them,
Karen Walker was very happy to see Jimmy :) There is a very small
ditch jump on the course that I led him over the other day,he just
stepped over it without any bother, today because I wasn't alone (as I
had been that day) I tried riding over it. Heather couldn't give me a
lead cause her horse is silly at ditches, so we just walked over it.
Then walked over again. And then again and gave Roly a lead :) We
trotted over it once too and he was good as gold. Which is good
because I have fallen off into that ditch before so I don't like it at
all! Glad he wasn't fazed.

Nov 17th

Had a bit of trouble catching him today, he objected to the way I was
putting the halter on and decided to run "away" which is to say circle
around the other horses. Roly decided to "help" by pretending that I
was also trying to catch him and basically encouraging Jimmy to run
away from me, but carrots prevailed as always and I had Jimmy within a
couple of minutes. He was good to ride, I took him to the big arena
and schooled him for about half an hour, he kept drifting towards the
gate but he didn't fuss about being way out of sight of the other
horses which was good. I need lessons! My dressage is a bit rusty. Not
that we did much, just walk and trot on a long rein getting him to
stretch forward and down, get those back muscles loosened up. Then we
had a canter on the grass around the arena in either direction, no
problems on the left rein but when we switched onto the right rein he
picked up the wrong lead four or five times (partly my fault for
giving him rubbish transitional aids) and was getting very annoyed at
me telling him to canter then bringing him straight back to trot as
soon as he did it. I'm sure it was very frustrating for him! We
eventually got the correct lead but by then he was being a bit silly
and feisty. Although his version of feisty so far seems to be "I'm
going to go slightly faster than you want and a bit sideways and fuss
with my head ooooh" which is hardly going to strike terror into my
heart. But anyway. He's an angel on the ground (aside from the
catching today although it's the first time in ages he's done that,
usually he walks right up to me) and very snuggly when he's being
groomed. Tried to eat the hoofpick on Monday, I turn my back for a
moment and he's got it in his mouth, chewing away. This carrot tastes
funny...

Nov 8th

Today I went to feed him and he came up to me when he saw me walking
over, of course he knew I had a carrot :) but I like to think he was
happy to see me for other reasons haha.

He gets a bit nappy like on the beach when I was trotting he wanted to go
back to Roly, but when I said no he was like "oh okay". Actually at
one point we were trotting ahead of Roly and over tiny logs and he
decided Roly was too far behind and tried to turn around and kind of
waved his head around a bit then pulled the reins down. The most
naughty thing he's done so far! Haha but nothing compared to what my
last lease pony Willow used to do, I just laughed at him and told him
that was a pathetic attempt and to keep trotting. So he did. Then he
was more than happy to canter up the big hill back at the park by
himself, Roly was not so happy to be left behind!

Nov 6th

Presents! Today he got 3 new saddle blankets, two have built in sheepskin
along the spine and the other one is very thick, combining that with
the super thick sheepskin riser pad I'm surprised he can feel me up
there!! He'd be like the princess and the pea if anything was
pinching I reckon but better to be sure before we start doing any
proper schooling/jumping.

Today when I got to the paddock he was waiting for me at the gate, and
couldn't wait to get caught (because that means carrots...). And no probs with his legs pulling forward or anything. Maybe he was just having a grumpy day yesterday! We went for quite the ride today, from the park down the road then onto the beach.

He was so busy looking around at everything on the beach, very
inquisitive. But he just likes to have a moment to check things out,
if he's unsure about something I just let him have a moment to look at
it and have a think, then he gets on with it. (Like going through
narrow gaps or over streams - I just let him look at it and then he
decides he can do that.) He's developing quite a talent for eating
leaves off the willow trees while walking, although he looks a bit
like a spastic giraffe when he tries - very cute.

Anyway he was a bit suspicious about the waves, as most horses are,
but with Roly there to give him courage he soon settled down and
splashed along very bravely through the water for quite a way along
the beach. Then we went for a trot before being stopped by a man who
we thought might need directions but who actually wanted to lecture us
about horses not being allowed on the beach (not true) and how horse
riders should have to pick up manure that their horses drop (give me a
break). We escaped from him and went for a nice long canter up the
beach, my legs were killing by the end - neither of us are terribly
fit :)

Then we went up the Waikanae river past the very scary
whitebaiters (well only the first one was a bit scary, after that we
were fine). The tide was way in at the beach and up the river, so the
horse crossing point on the river was deeper than usual. Heather went
in and said it was all good, it was just past Roly's knees so JJ and I
followed her. Last time he jumped into the river but this time he
walked in sensibly. Halfway across the water got deeper..and
deeper...and deeper until by the end they both had to swim a couple of
strides before we got to the other side! Jimmy was pretty unfazed by
this though.

On the way home after crossing back over the river we played a bit of
a game I like to call "Seperation Anxiety" where Heather and I trotted
through the park going on opposite sides of the trees & bush, so the
horses couldn't see each other. JJ was a bit perturbed and went
sideways for a while but after we practiced a halt and he discovered
that Roly was still there, settled down and we had a nice canter on
our own. Then back on the road we trotted along the grass verge ahead
of Roly and there was no hesitance to do that on the boys part. So
that was good - nothing worse than a nappy horse!

Then we went along the road past some kids who were collecting sheets
of corrugated iron and carrying them down the road on their heads. JJ
was a bit worried about this but then he settled down and when we
walked past the kids and one of them dropped his sheet of iron on the
ground with a clatter, Heather and I were the only ones who flinched!
Good horses :)

Then to finish we trotted along the top of the hill and over the box
on top - this time for the first time Jimmy jumped UP onto it and
DOWN off it! Usually he scrambles up then jumps down but he did very
well. So yeah he's been great and he's getting lots more cuddly
(mostly cupboard love for carrots of course) and getting used to being
kissed on the nose and cuddled while being ridden :)

Nov 5th

Someone did NOT want to be caught today! But perseverence and carrot
eventually won the day. It probably took about ten minutes to catch
him, not that long really I suppose. He just kept walking/trotting
away. Yesterday we rode for quite a while and he was probably a bit
stiff from that, probably thought why the heck would I let you ride me
again?? But he gave in to bribery and was very good when I rode him,
we went down the road and down alongside the river. He is a bit touchy
on the stones though, doesn't like walking on gravel or anything.

Yesterday they had pony club games practice at the park, that was terribly interesting! He could barely tear himself away from watching everyone :)
We've been for a ride past the skate park, past the cricket batting cages,
along the road, been passed by a bus, through narrow gateways, been weaving in
and out of the trees along park ave at trot and canter, racing Heather
up the big hills, and jumping on and off the box jump. He can now jump
off very nicely but tends to scramble up slightly :) Just getting his
coordination worked out.

As far as bridling and stuff is going, he's getting better at that. I
took the clips off the reins because I wanted a more even steady
contact onto the bit as I am riding into a contact more now, so we are
having to have the reins over our head and back again, this is
sometimes a bit horrifying but after a reminder that we are not being
ridiculous about our head anymore, he's fine. It's really all in his
head, and a stern "excuse me? What are you doing?" is usually
sufficient to remind him to stop being such a cabbage.

Tomorrow we are going for a gentle hack down to the beach in the
morning, weather permitting. Wonder what he'll make of the waves... :) Will try and get some pics.

Oct 31st

I rode Jimmy the last couple of days, once over a farm (and through a blackberry thicket) and then today down the road and into the river. He was a perfect angel :)
Although his first time into the river he paused on the bank then
jumped in! Took everything else in his stride.

He's being such a good boy :)

October 24

Today we went for a ride around the park, walked all the way around
the top end then up the hill and into the huge jumping arena. He was
very interested in the soft gravel and walked along with his nose on
the ground for a while :) Then we had a trot and canter around, he
was great, despite everything going on including Heather's dog yapping
away nonstop and people dropping off their recycling into the bins and
a big digger shoving greenwaste around into piles. Absolutely no
bother with any of that. And Heather's horse Roly was napping towards
Jimmy more than Jimmy towards him! He'd have liked to be close to Roly
the whole time, but when I said no he said okay then.

Then we went down the big hill to the creek and followed Roly through
that, preferring to step over rather than into it, but he didn't take
any flying leaps over :) Heather had her wee dog on a lead off the
side of her horse and Jimmy was slightly puzzled by that at first but
not bothered. On the way back to the paddock gate we went up to the
box on top of the hill and hopped up the bank and walked along,
baulked slightly in surprise at having to step off again and then did
it without any fuss. There were some people riding on the XC when we
got back, burning around and splashing thru the water jump but he was
more interested in eating his dinner than worrying about them.

He was very cute when I put him back out. There were 3 people on
horses, Roly had wandered off by himself, and Izzy's horse Sam who was
standing around socialising with the other horses. Jimmy wanted to say
hi to the other horses but he was a bit shy, he kind of thought about
going over, then changed his mind, then changed it back and went to
see them but stayed behind Sam, eventually he got brave enough to go
up and sniff one of the other horse's rumps (foolish) fortunately he
didn't get kicked. Then he got to sniff noses with one of the appys
and that pleased him I think to have made another friend. Then him and
Sam wandered off to eat the willow tree clippings that Izzy had
gathered on her ride :)

He was good to bridle today, backed up a couple steps then gave it up.
I was experimenting with fitting bridles so I had it on and off about
3 times, I'm sure the repetition was good for him. Oh and he has been
standing like a rock when I get on him from the ground, he's not fazed
by that now. And he was fine to catch. Yesterday I went down after
Levin show and took a feed, I went out there with just a handful of
feed and no rope (well it was in my pocket not my hand) and he thought
about running away before he got intrigued by what it was I was
holding so came over to see. Then I gave him a bit of it and he just
followed me back to the gate practically breathing down my neck to get
some more :) Today same thing, once he realised I had food he just
followed me to the gate. We had to put a rope over his neck because
Banjo was hogging the gate but he didn't care about that either.

Oct 22nd

Had a really nice ride today, I'm very pleased with him :)
I tried a friend's saddle on him. It's a smidgen tight over his
shoulders, but it has an adjustable gullet so as he fills out more I
can have it changed so that it's wider. For now it'll be fine as we're
just hacking gently for the first couple of weeks.

Had a couple of wee issues with him, the first being that while he was
very friendly to everyone in the paddock and took carrots from them
without hesitation :) when I went out there with a rope and halter, he
was not having a bar of it. Ran off a couple of times, so we just
caught the other horse loose in the field and brought him down to the
yards, opened the gates and Jimmy ran himself in. Then I caught him no
bother. So that'll work at least for a while til he gets used to me.

He was good to groom etc but when it came to bridling, he was a
bit silly. He wasn't really scared or hurting - I've worked with
horses who've had this ear fungus that makes them hard to bridle but
he let me handle his ears no worries, he's just making it up a bit.
Anyway Lisa showed me a trick she'd learned for bridling, she said
just go to put it on and then let him go backwards but don't give up,
when he stops backing move it up his face etc til he just gives in.
She showed me, had it halfway up his face. I took the bridle and just
put it straight on him, he didn't even bother backing up again. He'd
obviously realised that we'd had him sussed. So smart! :)

He was good when I hopped on him, no spinning around this time :) And
Heather and I just went for a walk around the cross country course. Up
the hills and down again, over some logs on the ground that barely
pass for jumps :) including one that's built into the side of the hill
to make the world's smallest bank. He led most of the time, although
when we trotted I had Roly in front/alongside to keep the momentum
going. He was great, no problems. Didn't like the idea of trotting
down hills but he worked it out by the end, it may have been the
saddle a little bit there too. Went into and out of the water jump,
then jumped up the tiny bank mentioned above from a trot. No bothers
about anything, I had him on the buckle for a good part of the time
and he was happy as anything.

After riding I gave him a small feed, mostly to help him associate me
with food so that he'll want to be caught! I gave him a couple
handfuls of lucerne chaff and a couple handfuls of Coprice Cool
Conditioner pellets.

He's settled in very well and is making friends with the other horses.
Lisa is pleased that he's so settled :) On Monday Heather and I are
going to ride again, this time around the park and maybe go into the
big arena and have a trot and canter around in there, so we'll see how
that goes!

Jimmy Jones

This is a blog to record the progress of Jimmy for myself, his owner, and anyone else who's interested.

Jimmy arrived at the paddock today, dropped off by his owner. He was interested in his surroundings but in contrast to the mad Arabs that I usually ride, was very settled almost at once. He didn't put up a fuss about being rugged or wormed, was very friendly towards the other horses in the paddock, and tucked happily into the hay I left him.

I'll go down in the morning to check on him and take his rug off, then in the evening he gets to be let out with the other 3 chestnut boys in his paddock!