Jackson again

[velessa]

I've decided I definitely want to sell Jackson, I just don't see us working out in the long run. While I thought I wanted a "challenging" horse to ride, I definitely don't want a horse that's nothing BUT a challenge to ride! I can't see him ever really mellowing out to be the chill, hack-around horse I now realize I actually want (not for many years at any rate), and I simply can't justify throwing all my money away and not having any fun in the meantime while waiting for that to possibly maybe happen. Of course this is a terrible time to sell horses, and I'm not sure who would really want a huge, cranky 15 year old sort-of jumper/sort-of dressage horse. If worse comes to worse I may end up giving him to someone's jumping lesson program. Other options could be getting a month or two or training for him, or trying to put him at a sale barn, but those would be really expensive and not something I can really afford to do.

For the time being one of my instructor's other students (Kelly) has been riding him a lot, three or four times a week for me. She's currently between horses and looking for her next eventer, and she's riding Jackson in both dressage and jumping lessons. He definitely does not like dressage, but he does seem to enjoy jumping. She's all for continuing to ride him even when she does get another horse, and my hope is that him basically getting all this free "training" will make him more attractive for someone to buy down the road. I'm just hoping it's not TOO long down the road; I can't wait forever because I really need to move him to a cheaper barn. However, when I do that I will no longer have Kelly to ride him, and he won't be getting any better with me on him. I've decided I'll leave him where he is for about two more months, but after that I'll have to make that move.

Furthermore, once I do find Jackson another home, I'm going to hold off getting another horse for a while. Instead I'm going to take more riding lessons and possibly lease a horse in order to get a better idea of where I really want to go with my horse hobby, as well as work towards becoming a better rider. I'm also considering going back to school (and studying something that would actually be USEFUL for getting a real career; kids, don't major in liberal arts!), and not owning a horse would free up a lot more time for me to do so.

Anyway, the point of this post was to share some video clips of Jackson being jumped the other day. His previous owner said she did a lot of showing with him in jumping, although I have no idea at what level or for how long or even if he was ever taught how to jump in the first place.

Trotting:

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Cantering:

Watch on YouTube

Crossrail at a trot:

Crossrail at a canter:

Series of a few jumps:

To you horse people, how does he look? What kind of a home do you think I could find for him?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/blitzen_/]

good onya for making that decision. it can be tough getting there, but sometimes finding a better home is just so much better.

personally, he looks great at trot, but his canter appears to need a bit of work. tho not 'crazy' that head tossing could really discourage someone who lacks confidence or the ability to ride thru it. i also think he needs a lot of gridwork to build confidence over jumps at a canter AND stop him from rushing after landing.

it's good ur friend is riding him. does she know he's for sale & everything?

[velessa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the head tossing is really annoying; it's something he's always done. I was told it was because he used to have bad teeth, but they've been all fixed up and he still seems to do it out of habit. The dressage trainer thinks it's because he doesn't know how to really collect himself and use his hind end and back, so instead he hollows out and throws a fit. His canter needs A LOT of work, which I can't really do as I can barely ride it, and I don't like it because it feels like he's running away with you. But I do know he is now getting lots of canter work with her, I guess it will just take time. He's still not in great shape because he doesn't really get decent workouts with me, but she works him pretty hard. Hopefully he'll improve as he gets fitter.

She knows he's for sale, but I think she wants something younger and more capable of eventing to higher levels. And I don't know if Jackson could handle doing cross country, he's never done it as far as I know.

[offside-element.livejournal.com]

Good luck to you and you never know, there are always a few people out there looking for project horses to "flip". I know what you mean about challenging horses...there's only so much of that I can take.

[my-lady-aria.livejournal.com]

I'm not a horse-person, want a horse, never had one, but he's pretty. And huge! Or is he normal-sized and my ignorance is showing through?

Ha! Lib. arts is about as useful as English lit., which was Cody's major. Fat lot of good it did him, just debt.

[velessa.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it. I don't know what I was thinking, studying Japanese and English. Someone should have made me to do business administration or something like that!

He is definitely a big horse, which was something I wanted. But he's more "horse" than I want to deal with, not in size but in attitude.

[my-lady-aria.livejournal.com]

Cody majored in English lit. Fat lot of good it did him. :) And an old friend of mine got a PhD in anthropology and his girlfriend was a semester away from a PhD in philosophy when they both realized they wasted eight years on degrees they can do nothing with by teach in college, and there are only so many positions teaching these classes, and they lack the credentials to teach high school, and neither wanted to be a teacher anyway. They basically got degrees in hobbies that have nada in the potential-to-make-money department.

[allevil.livejournal.com]

ya, the throwing the head bit would be very annoying. :-( The trot work needs some work too, as he seems a little short of tracking up, and he isn't soft or on the bit enough. This could be for a lot of reasons...and the shortness of the video could be misleading as he may very well start tracking up and have more forward impulsion once warmed up. He is a very good looking horse. You are right though, the horse market is pretty bad at the moment. :-(

Its a tough decision to make, but you are so right. Its too expensive a hobby to not be enjoying it. :-( Best of luck. Maybe Kelly could show him for you? You may find an interested party that way, but that would mean waiting for the show season.

[velessa.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I never considered that about showing. I think I'd rack up a lot of credit card debt keeping him where he is for that to happen, but it's not a bad idea. I'll ask her and our instructor about it. If it would help get him sold it might be worth it.

I'll have to get some video of her riding him in dressage mode, too. He does kind of loosen up after a while, but he's lazy so he starts throwing hissy fits when he's had enough of working. =P

[llamalover06.livejournal.com]

his canter looks a lot similar to beauty's. her problem is that since she didnt have the strength in her hind, she would "dump on the forehand" so it looks sea sawish. i did a lot of slow loping and really collected loping in circles and she got a lottt better! That is... until she went and broke herself. :( his trot looks good though!

also loungeing helped Boot a lot with the cantering problem but when I was on her and she was cantering I knew it looked awful but i just did it anyways and would collect her to a bunched up canter for a bit to work her hind and then loosen up so she could have a little break (but still at the canter) and then repeat the collecting up!

but yeah. thats my 2 cents... for what its worth lol.

[velessa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when I got him the barn owner/trainer lady who was boarding him suggested I lunge him in side reins at least three times a week to help get him to use/build up his hind end. But I got lazy and then it fell by the wayside when winter came and I had nowhere with light to lunge him. >:( He hates collecting, throws fits and rears and stuff, but I'm sure making him do it would help in the long run.