Jasper on the right when he lifted his head up from dead horse sleep.Jasper lives at the house in a pasture with another OTTB named Robbie. It is really his first ever friend, because they were both the lowest of the low in the pecking order until they were with each other. Even though Robbie has decided he's the boss, he doesn't really bite Jasper or remove huge chunks of hair. (Thank you Robbie). They are inseparable in their paddock and eat, sleep, and graze together. You can tell them apart because Robbie naps with his head and neck up while Jasper sleeps flat out and looks like a dead horse.
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Jasper in one of the turn out pens, arena in background.In the mornings Jasper gets loaded up in the horse trailer and trailered about 10 minutes to the barn. There, he has to be in a stall which caused a lot of stress and whinnying at first, but is starting to get quieter. I think he's exhausted at the end of the day because he never lays down and is not used to standing up all that time. He's being a good boy so far. I'm working on posting the trot with a 'purpose' and being able to rate the trot just by slowing or speeding up posting. He already was pretty good at this before we came, but now I'm purposefully posting all the time not just when I want him to slow down or speed up. Apparently I ride like I'm always trying to stay out of the horse's way, which makes sense if you look at a lot of the horses I've ridden in the past. We're also working on canter transitions. We're really powering up the trot, almost to the brink of canter, then giving a very obvious scooping cue to pick up the canter. He's really "getting" the cue, but not always the correct lead.
Yelm is in the center of most things eventing. Aspen Farms is right down the road, and Northwest Equestrain Center isn't much further.
Josh (assistant trainer & eventer) takes stadium lessons on Merlin at Caber, about an hour away.
