I'm having a blast with Jacco, who is turning out to be a real star--and Jürgen is so smug about it, he's impossible! Jacco's hindleg has always been amazing. Since we removed his wolf tooth and continued with the basic work on the training scale, his shoulder is becoming wonderfully expressive, too, and his mind, well, I won't bore everyone by waxing eloquent. Let me just say that he's been to four shows now, and he's undefeated at 3rd Level with the exception of a single class where he was 2nd (but they went off course twice, and only lost by a single point).
I'm riding him at home 4 days a week now (of my 6 days in the saddle), with one day on Facet and one on Quila. I think Facet probably tells tales in the barn aisle about my mistaken aids. He'll ignore my request for flying changes, or give me half-pass when we've been working on shoulder-in and I decide I want to do canter work, because he doesn't think my aids were clear enough (or he thinks I'm going in the wrong sequence--I'm never quite sure which...) and I'll catch him looking back at me with one eye and shaking his head. I tell Jürgen that maybe it's a good thing horses can't talk, because sometimes I'm not sure I want to know what Facet has to say about me, LOL. You have to love the old man, though, who at 21 is still the world's most patient (and exacting) teacher.
I need my day on Quila--it comes on Friday, after I've been to the gym 5 days in a row, and that morning, I've had my hardest workout class of the week with all the endurance runners and triathletes. I can manage precise aids or I can manage forward, but not both. Quila, at least, will go forward on her own, unless I ask her not to, and she'll take pity on me and give me the benefit of the doubt in the aids department. Facet is a demanding task master, and he wants his i's dotted precisely in the middle--not the slightest drift to the right or the left--which is as it should be for where I am right now. Jacco? He's not hard so much as he's a big mover. My core is exhausted after a ride on him, just from staying firmly in the saddle--and if I don't sit quietly, then he refuses to go forward. So riding him is tiring in and of itself. And it takes all my concentration to give him the correct aids while I'm sitting nicely up there so he'll go forward without me having to push him.
I know that when I've mastered everything with him, riding him will be a piece of cake. He's really quite forward... but he's also sensitive, and he does NOT like to be ridden from the seat, and he especially does NOT like to be pinched or to have a seat that isn't quiet and nice on him. So, my priorities have become an adhesive but not driving seat first, then we work from there. He's more like a mare than any mare... very particular, but if I ride him his way, then he'll do anything. If I don't, he's obstinate, and it takes muscle. You can still get your way (not like a mare in that regard), but then it's not finesse riding, and I would rather not have to go to the gym ten times a week to prepare to ride him!!!
Jessie, who has been riding him at home and who competes him, showed me the secrets to getting him light and easy and forward, and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! So different, though, than any other horse I've ridden, especially for picking up the canter. He hates it if I use my seat. Just leg, please. With Quila and Facet, if I don't use my seat, they'll canter flat... so much to remember. But I love him, and his goofy personality. And I'm so grateful that his previous owner let him come with me and be mine!
The only other news is that the Breyer horse that Quila was the model for is FINALLY out. Here it is:
And here's a video of Jacco at the last show:
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