Day 10: September 28 - Jumper

I've always known that Jack likes to play, and I've recently found that he really likes to jump too. He's gotten really good at jumping over the normal jump and poles, so today when he started getting bored, I decided to switch it up a little and try to to get him to jump the barrel. Yesterday, Shannon mentioned something about how Sylvia was going to try to get Milo to jump the barrel, so I decided I wanted to try it with Jack.

Going over the regular jump.

To start, I just had two barrels lying on their sides end to end. This way, Jack wouldn't be able to just get around it every time. Then, using the circling game, I did the squeeze game and had him go between me and the barrel just so he knew it was there. Then I moved closer to the barrel and kept him out on the end of the lead rope so he came right up to the barrels. He sniffed it and when I thought he was comfortable with it, I asked him to move forward. He ended up diving in and going between me and the barrel again. I expected this though, so it was ok. We kept trying, and before too long, he jumped over the barrel!

I already knew that he could do it, because I've seen him make huge jumps over the regular jump, but I did learn from this. I think the thing that stuck out to me the most about this is that if I should always let him try to figure out what he is supposed to do before I ask, or make, him do it. He will make mistakes, but that's ok, as long as he is trying. Horses are no different from humans when it comes to that.

Trying to get him to go over the barrel.