Our Featured Horse of the Month is Jake!

Jake is well into his twenties which makes him our oldest and our smallest pony at just 12 hands high. He is a black Newfoundland pony cross who has been a fixture in our lesson program as well as in HALTR since well before his time here. Jake came to replace another “Jake” who looked suspiciously the same! His show name is “Child’s Play” and he has just the right amount of naughtiness to teach children how to handle a pony but is otherwise practically perfect in every way. He is a character being turned out with the rest of the big horses. He may be small but he thinks he is just as big as they are and likes to show it off!

Jake does it all. He has mastered the beginner course program and beginner camps and HALTR couldn’t live without him. Many riders have had their first canter, jump, and many other firsts on Jake! He is an amazing confidence builder. Jake is often the first horse that children learn to body clip on because he is so good. In past years, he has always been the caboose, bringing up the rear of our Musical Ride!  He still jumps around a 2-foot course with ease and took our first group of Pony Clubbers to their Prince Philip Games and acted like he had been doing it his whole life. The old Jake used to pull a cart with Santa in it to visit the Saint Vincent nursing home every Christmas; the new Jake no longer pulls a cart but he still makes his rounds as our Christmas Pony!