There’s an old adage that begins, ‘boys go to Jupiter…’ followed by a statement that implies it is where one goes to lose intelligence. Jupiter, the horse, is grounded enough to not take offense from such slanderous statements (and the fact that he does not understand English probably also helps), but we are here in his defense to express how much that little rhyme does not apply.
Jupiter is a very smart boy, and proves it consistently. He has been gaining more balance under saddle with each session, and has been testing the waters with different riders and their varied feels and doing well, overall. He still does not ‘fill in’ completely, and tends to shift back into ‘barrel mode’ if he senses a rider grow tight or fast in their body, but he has really slowed down — literally — from where he was when he first arrived. He can still be a lot of horse, but he has an arsenal of tools now to help his riders manage if he does get going a bit too much.
With a confident and more experienced rider, Jupiter really shines. Lexee, who has been riding him since his restart under saddle here at SAFE, has been helping him find balance and freedom in his feet, and as a result has been able to have great success with things like riding outside the round pen and having a rider flag off of him.
One thing is for sure, Jupiter is for sure getting more knowledge!
