Introductions: VG Ben Jovi

I’ve had Jovi for two years now.He is a nice little 14.2 hh Arabian gelding. We got off to a slow start as he grew a huge sarcoid in his groin soon after I got him. It took a few months of treatment and then a few more months to completely heal and then we started to work slowly.

I worked through a lot of training issues with Jovi – for those that have followed me already know some of the ups and downs. One of the bigger issues was trailer loading. He would load great at home, but then would refuse to go in the trailer to come home when we trailered out. It was so frustrating. I know many thought we just had to force or beat him to go in the trailer but I knew that wasn’t working, and that the end result would be having him get worse and worse each time, and a completely shut down horse.

I was fortuantely given some advice from a very experienced endurance rider that worked beautifully on how to get him in the trailer. Jovi has been loading and unloading like a pro for the last 9 months with just a neck collar.

For awhile I felt like Jovi was difficult because he was stubborn, or holding a grudge due to the sarcoid treatments. I nearly gave up a couple of times. I came to learn that he really wasn’t being stubborn at all but rather he was just shut down. I had never worked with a horse before that was like this, refusing to budge, not giving to pressure and not willing to even try. I read a lot of books, watched a lot of videos and tried to educate myself on ways to work through this.

The most important lesson that I have learned from Jovi is that we were going to be doing this on his schedule, not mine. I thougth my other horses had taught me patience. It just goes to show that you never stop learning with horses. Jovi has taught me so much and is such a joy to work with. He definitely hasn’t held a grudge, if that is such a thing as he wants to be my partner and tries really hard. He also isn’t stubborn, he just needs to figure things out HIS way, and needs a patient and calm hand.

Now I feel comfortable trailering Jovi anywhere by myself, riding him and then loading up to come home. He is now happily going along well in a braided noseband hackamore or a rope halter. I have taken him on one AERC 25 mile ride along with several other rides from other groups like NEDA and Cal/Neva. We have done the Nevada Day and Sparks Christmas parades, a trail trials and are currently training to do a Ride and Tie next month. I also feel that he is ready to do a 50 so will be looking forward to that.

Jovi is of CMK breeding, here is a link to his pedigree. I’ll post some additional photos and video of him below. In the coming months I’ll go over some of the training issues that we have had, and how we worked through them.