A Kaimanawa Called Prince: Photos, of Prince Jumping and More!

I’ve had a rather busy two weeks, especially last week! My friend from Wanganui was here so I spent a lot of time with her and hardly any with my horse. However last week Friday we did get up so some mischief……

I tacked up Prince and did some groundwork, Jazz watching (my friend from Wanganui). She set up a small jump for Prince but he jumped it with such disdain because it was so small, and knocked it with his hind feet (picture below), so Jazz made up another jump using my two blue barrels. In the pictures you can clearly see (ignore me) that he is jumping the height of the barrels and the jump is about half a metre lower, so would you say that is a metre in height that he is jumping?

After that I jumped on (after pulling up the girth another two holes) and rode him around doing very little. Just some simple stuff such as a pattern using four standards and doing a figure eight around two then crossing over and doing the other two. Also I trotted prince around the tree in the middle of the paddock.. He just wanted to see what Jazz was doing thank-you very much.

Once I felt he was calm and feeling safe I held Prince (not that he needed holding) while Jazz did up her stirrups and jumped on. She did a lot of walking and trotting. When she felt ok with it she asked him to canter. He only sped up trotting so I put a bit of pressure on him and slapped my leg with my savvy string (when I ride him it means go faster). Only when I did this the second time a car went past and he half cantered and then threw a bucking fit (too much pressure at once). Jazz half came off his front then flipped over his shoulder and landed on her head (my horse has a terrible tendency to land people like this). Thank goodness I told her she HAD to wear the helmet or else. If she wasn’t wearing it who knows what might have happened.

Jazz being Jazz jumped back on. I rubbed Prince and we let him sigh and lick and chew before walking again. I asked her if she felt safe enough to ask him to go over the barrels lying down sideways on the ground, she replied “Well, don’t we need a canter for that?” I shook my head, he can jumped them at a walk if necessary, then I told her that he had never jumped with a rider on before- she exclaimed THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR TELLING ME NOW! Why didn’t you tell me after?

So she decides to do it anyway and she takes him about six strides back from the jump and then asks him to walk then trot. I noticed he was watching me the whole way down and it wasn’t until the last stride he realized there was a jump and he stopped and swung around doing almost 360^o. Jazz nearly fell off again but she managed to hang on. I told her to take him over again because he was watching me, and I said he would jump it. I had been watching his face the whole time and he just didn’t see it.

She takes him up to the jump except this time I point over the jump (he was going to refuse it) and he shot over it. He had about a seconds delay before actually jumping so poor Jazz got banged around a bit. I was so pleased with Prince I told Jazz that we would leave it there. This is the first time he has EVER jumped with a human on him. After the ride I picked his feet out and brushed him. It’s so cute because after riding and playing with him he gets so cuddly, and this time he wanted loads of cuddles.. ohhhh that horse!