In this article Megan Jones introduces us to Kirby Park Irish Stout, a horse that was until recently one of Kirby Park’s young stallions
Stout was bred at Megan’s home, Kirby Park Stud in Hahndorf near Adelaide and was sired by Kirby Park Irish Jordan, full brother to the Olympic silver medal winning event horse Kirby Park Irish Jester. Stout is 7/8th Irish Sport Horse, with his dam Our Twig, herself an A grade show jumper, adding in a dash of thoroughbred.
As Megan explains Stout has recently been sold but Megan is helping out with Stout’s ongoing training and competition in partnership with his new owner but Stout is helping the economy of Kirby Park Stud by contributing to the new truck and new indoor arena that are coming soon!
Stout is a good jumper but Megan needs to keep his attention as she works him on the new grass arena which was created for the marquee where Megan and James were married last year but has handily become a new competition arena. As they warm up and start to jump Stout tends to want to run through the bridle a bit as he gets distracted by other horses being fed or cars passing by.
Megan uses flexion on the inside rein to prevent Stout from taking charge and to bring him back to her. She also uses the halt to regain his attention, just as she did with Kirby Park Invader (Freckles) in our previous article rather than fighting to bring his head carriage back down
Like Freckles, Stout can be a bit spooky so working him in an area which he doesn’t often get ridden in is good preparation for his coming competition in a strange environment. Better to face the gremlins at home first but soon he settles in to the jumping and looks like a star.
Now we're getting the hang of it!
After some jumping, Megan finishes off by using the natural environment to face another of Stout’s ‘gremlins’ – boggy ground. Again, after a couple of leaps when Megan just gives him his head, Stout is soon quite happy to pop over the natural drainage ditch and it’s time to head back up to the stables at the top of the drive and Megan to give some lessons to her pupils
Next time: We find out more about the Kirby Park Riding School and training with Megan Jones
