Pleasant Surprise

My new mare Missy's vacation ended today with her introduction to ground work and lunging and she was a star!  She's a bit sassy so I sort of expected her to give me a fair amount of the typical OTTB grief, but instead I was very pleasantly surprised as to how she responded.  She was obviously well started for the track and at least knew how to run around in circles BOTH directions.  I've found that if my OTTBs know how to lunge at all, they were only asked to go to the left just to get the bucks out and then the rider got on.  She's very smart and was to quick to pick up things like "whoa" when asked and to eventually slow the pace down and trot in a civilized manner as opposed to tearing around like an idiot.  I was even able to use very loose side reins, which she played with, but accepted quite well.  She is very well balanced, supple, and super cute!  I think as long as I'm positive with her and lead her to believe that each new thing we do is her idea she'll progress quickly.  Patience will definitely be key with this one!  More updates on Missy and a video in the coming weeks.  Until then here's a pic of her in the roundpen the day she arrived.

Until next time....

Sporting Days-Feb. 2012: Snoop Gone Wild!!!

Wow, what a whirlwind of a weekend!  After galloping my race horses Thursday morning, our crew consisting of myself, Scott, Snoopy, and Dougie departed for Aiken to the Sporting Days Horse Trials.  This has always been on of my favorite events and I was very excited to be back this year and with a horse that is actually going places (literally!)  The trip was uneventful except for a 30 minute hold-up on I-40 due to some rock blasting.  The horses handled it well and we arrived at about 8 Thursday night.  Snoopy was there to compete in his final training level event before moving up to Prelim in March (yay!!!!) and Dougie just came along for the experience and to keep Snoop sane in the trailer.  We put them to bed and then put ourselves to bed after a long day of travelling!  

We arrived at the barn early Friday morning and that's when things started to get really interesting.  Snoopy was beyond obnoxious, both on the ground and under saddle.  I'm not quite sure what got into him this weekend, but he was very much a fire-breathing dragon from the get-go!  He spent more time in the air than on the ground and was just super strong and keyed-up as I've ever seen him.  I chalked it up to the beautiful weather, his fitness, and the fact that he was actually out of the mud and on good footing for the first time in awhile.   He could not quite seem to contain his enthusiasm and I think he was very aware of why he was there and was excited to get to the running and jumping for the first time since October.  Needless to say I was not feeling very confident about the dressage on Saturday and boy was I right!  He was very naughty to say the least!  If I could've bottled up his tension and excitement during that test I probably could've used it to power my house for a week!  He barely stayed in the ring and while it was disappointing considering he's been working so well at home, I'm gonna give him a free pass THIS TIME.  Just spring fever, right?

He jumped fantastic and was very brave in both show jumping and cross country, although still borderline rideable and very, very strong.  He skipped  around with ease and I think he is more than ready for the big move up to prelim next month!  That's all I really wanted from this trip-to see if he had the confidence and skills to move up and he does.  I knew there would be kinks in the dressage, but I think he was just really excited to be back in action after 3mos away from showing!

I leave you with some sights and sounds from the weekend.  Go Eventing!