Listos Last Mimosa, Jonesy

[Leslie]

This evening myself and Mandy B. had a lesson with Carmen down at the Armstrong arena - the outdoor where the upcoming (August) show where Jones will make his show debut will take place. This is the first of at least two visits we will make here prior to the show.

Tonight was perfect because (all you baseball fans will know this) it's "Funtastic" weekend here in the interior- baseball fans from all over come to this humungous tournament in a bunch of different venues and it's huge.

So there were lots of tents going up, people driving around on quads, lots of activity at the fair grounds tonight. I couldn't have asked for a better first experience for Jones.

He was a bit spooky walking from Carmen's trailer to the arena, but I walked him around twice both ways before getting on and he was great. Just one little spook once I got on. I am so happy with this guy!!

I rode him around while Carmen gave Mandy a lesson, then she got on him for his first lope around the arena. I wanted him to do this with her just in case he got a bit excited. Which he didn't...


Then I got on. I loped around a bit, did a really crappy lead change (my fault) and a nice stop. While we were loping I had to smack him with my rein (no spurs on, just to be safe...) and he was a Prince. He's such a LazyBoy!!!!

So, I am VERY happy tonight, again, as I have been so much lately with him. He's a really nice horse. I feel so lucky to have him and Carmen has done a really great job with him.

[cowpony]

sounds good Leslie!

[Leslie]

This Thursday the Reinin' in the Sun show will begin at Armstrong. Carmen's going to bring Jonesy down and he's entered into his first ever Reining competition!! One of many, I hope.

Once that's over (and we win First place!! ) he's coming home!!!!!

I'm really excited about having him home again for a few months, learning to ride him, getting to know him, giving him some time off to relax and play with Ringer, and rest after being in training for the last ten months.

We're going to start that time off with a 4-day clinic with Josh Nichols. That will go a long way towards helping us get to know one another, teach him some manners, help him shift gears away from being the pony-in-training to being the well-behaved horse I'd like to have at home. Not that he's a total jerk or anything - don't get me wrong. There's nothing really bad about him, I'm just taking this clinic to help us bond and refresh my learning about natural horsemanship.

I'm really looking forward to Thursday, no matter how he does in the class. It's the beginning of a whole new phase for Jones and me and I'm excited to begin!

[Leslie]

Wow I just read this again for the first time in a long time and am sitting here pondering the strange turn this whole journal took this past year.

So much potential and enthusiasm in my words! So much hope and excitement for the future. Such a disappointment when it all went south...

For the last 10 months Jones has been on total turnout and pasture rest on the recommendation of two vets. After the Reining in the Sun show, where Jones performed his pattern with the calm good manners that we've seen him do everything else, I took him home and rode him, just as I had planned, for the fall. He then had some time off for the winter. In early February I started riding a bit again. I moved him to Carmen's on March 1st to get him back into shape to take up the training where it had been left off in August.

I rode him regularly for a few weeks to get him legged up. Carmen started riding him around April. She rode him for 2 weeks and came to the realization that he just wasn't coming around to her the way she expected. He wasn't performing at the level that he'd been at when he was with her last. She was concerned. We called the vet out to have a look at him and found some really startling and scary things.

He had no sensation in his hind legs - the vet poked his cannon bones on both legs and he did not react.

He was knuckling over with his hinds at the trot on a small circle.

He could not properly engage his hind end into a spin or a rollback.

He had pain in his back, just above his loins.

I took him home and gave him a bit of time off. I had Britt come and do some chiro and accupuncture treatments, and one vitamin b shot into his back. It all seemed to help somewhat, but that lack of ability to engage properly continued.

I had his shoes pulled and his saddle fit assessed. It looked like my own reining saddle might have been causing some problems, so I looked for a new one. I found one that fit, bought it, and started riding him in it. He did not improve.

We tested him for EPM and other things, including vaccination reaction. His blood work all came back fine. I continued the chiro and accupuncture treatments. He seemed good on the ground, but he was still hurting when I rode, so that stopped too. The two vets both agreed that turnout might be the thing, since we didn't have any idea what was wrong, we couldn't see a point of injury or anything, and without an MRI of his spinal cord they couldn't really see what was going on, if anything.

So that's what happened and that brings us to today. Poor Ringer was re-enlisted for half the year and was an absolute Prince! He did me so proud for his last reining shows of his career! Even with fairly serious arthritis limiting him, he pulled out all the stops and did me proud. He's now really retired and getting fat and ready for winter.

Jones is looking great. He's 4 1/2 now and has filled out some and the time off has really been good for him. His body looks strong and his topline is nice. It's hard to imagine that anything could have been wrong with him.

I have bought a mare who will allow me to show this coming year, while giving Jones the time he needs. I vowed to give him a full year off before climbing back on him, and that will come up in May. I recently had him assessed and as far as he goes on the ground, there is nothing wrong with him now. Because I have this new mare, I will wait and see until next spring if that is the case. If I climb on him now and re-aggravate something I will never forgive myself. I can wait. He's got lots of years ahead of him if I do this right and there's no permanent damage, which remains to be seen. If I put my trust in the person who assessed him, I can say that we will be back in the saddle and in the show pen - but not this spring. Who knows what the summer holds, but for now, Jones is on hold and enjoying his year of turnout with his friend Ringer.