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.