Profile Mythical Jester

  

 

Stable name: Jester

Show name: Mythical Jester.

Born: 27/11/2000

By Snowview Jamieson from Sagamore Melody

 

 

Jester is owned by Dr. Julia Vines and was bred by her and her mother Mrs. Margaret Vines, from Sagamore Melody, a mare they had also bred.

        

Jester was born a few weeks premature and I saw him a couple of days later. He was small, sickly and had legs that went in every direction. After an amazing effort by Julia who is a vet he survived and started to grow. Until about three years of age he never really caught up, always looking the poor cousin. He bloomed both physically and mentally in his 3rd and 4th year.

 

He was broken in during 2004 and arrived at the stables very green and a little nervous about life. I started schooling him slowly, as he needed time to work things out. During the last part of 2004 he started to become more confident and developed well.

        

 

After the summer break I told Julia that with Kurt starting work in 2005 I might not have the time to work two young horses. We brought him back with three weeks at the breakers to restart the year. After about another three weeks of me working him I felt he was working well and he was offered to another rider. To my surprise, within a short period he was returned. I had always felt that he had a good future as a Dressage horse and after talks with Julia and Margaret we decided that I would continue with him.

 2005 was spent getting him stronger. While he had developed into an impressive upstanding horse, he was not physically strong. I had to teach him to trust me and become less nervous about life. We spent all of this year developing his strength. I would say that Jester was at that time, front wheel drive and the year was spent transforming him to rear wheel drive. The work then, as now, included lots of stretching, long and low, without curling under. Transitions and leg yielding in all paces was also important.

      
         
His first year of competition was 2006. To my relief he coped well and won a test on each outing he had; 11 starts for 6 wins and 5 placings. The highlight of the year was winning the 2006 Bates Dressage Newcomer’s Award.  By the way, August of this year was when we filmed the Accurate School Figures DVD.

 

2007 had a difficult start, with Jester having time off because I was in Europe and then when coming into work having an injury. I had already decided he would compete at Elementary and I felt we spent most of the year playing catch up.

 

He did work well and continued to improve with his strength. We had 6 outings and placed at all, with 2 wins. We also competed in Elementary Freestyles four times, for 3 wins and a second, with an added bonus of winning a wonderful bridle at the State Dressage Championships for having the highest percentage test of the Championships.

 

 

      

 
 

2008 has started positively with Jester and me getting straight into work. He seems much more mature and stronger. Our goal for this year is the Medium tests.

  

 

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