This question was posted to me on Facebook:
My favorite is probably Episode 26…the first three minutes. I love it because Jac is asking questions. That means that he is comfortable asking questions while at the same time he is still being respectful. To me this is a beautiful illustration of how the conversation between a horse and human can be.
The interesting thing is that in this episode many people would have said that Jac was being ‘bad’. I knew the history and I knew what I had been rewarding Jac for doing in previous lessons. I was also willing to see the situation from Jac’s perspective.
It is ok that Jac was making mistakes. Mistakes are part of the learning process. How people react to your mistakes says more about them than it says about the one who made the mistake.
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Favorite episode of mine, but for a very specific reason. I have a 3.5 yr old Portugese cross I’ve owned for 6 months and whom I love dearly, and he has an amazing number of similarities with Jac, including being darn smart, and feeling entitled to the conversation, so he does make that exact same kind of suggestion. I taught him to extend his back and encouraged him to make nice circles with a lowered head recently, and the next day when I hopped on, as soon as I nudged him on he stuck his nose to the ground and jogged about three laps on his own, then stopped and sighed deeply and expected/hoped to be done for the day !! So when I saw that episode of Jac shortly after, it really had me cracking up. My horse is also quite shortbacked and naturally collected, so also “tight” as Stacy has noted about Jac, and so he doesn’t zip around easily, he tends to want to shut his feet off frequently, and is looking for all kind of ways to “be done”.
Overall watching the Jac series is like a crash course in horse behavior, and I find it absolutely invaluable.
Great poster!
I liked the videos on the lunge line best, because I am a ’round penner’ and have a tendency to be a bit lazy with the lunge line. I like the round pen philosophy, but a horse should definitely understand the line. I have been places with young horses where I realized I should have spent more time with the line, because there were no walls to rely on.
Amazing how good a youngster can behave at home, but when you get somewhere with a million distractions, sometimes I think “Mmmm, maybe Just Get On wasn’t the best plan I ever had” 🙂
Yes that’s my pick for a favourite episode, also the swimming pool one where Jac knows what the answer is too.