After Racing: Retraining Thoroughbreds

I am thrilled to announce that my former foster horse Roman is making his USDF competitive debut this weekend under new owner Sarah-Jayne. They will only be competing in Intro, but he I'm thrilled for them none-the-less. I'll definitely take my camera with me, so look for photos!

So its sort of an exciting time here in the midwest because next year, Lexington KY, which is about 3 hours away, is going to play host to the World Equestrian Games. Over 600 horses will be present in pretty much every equine competitive discipline out there. The logistics of the whole thing have got to be completely crazy.

While surfing the web today, I came across an interesting article on the Quarantine location for the games. It looks like they're going to be turning part of the parking lot at the Cincinnati airport into a quarantine facility. Here is a link to the article.

And so discussion of WEG begs the question of whether or not I plan to attend. The best I can do right now is "I'm thinking about it." I looked into what it would take to be one of the many official event photographers, but it appears that in order to get a media pass, one must actually be associated with the media. Hmmm. Go figure! One of the issues everyone will face is where to stay. I suppose the good news is that if I decide on an event (or events) to watch, I live close enough that I could actually drive home and not have to get a hotel. While a round trip in one day to Lexington is not ideal, I've done it before for Rolex. And if it meant the difference between going and not going, I would most likely do it just to say I got to go. :)

I had my first ride on Wings tonight. She was great. We did quite a bit of ground work first. She quickly figured out that moving away from the whip was much better than moving towards it. She also learned to stand still for mounting (and getting over the scary mounting block -- aka kitchen step stool). After I was on, we really just worked at the walk in getting her to relax. She figured it out, stretched downward and out and even learned how to step to the outside (off the inside shoulder). I'm really proud of her. She is definitely a thinker. I like it! :)

Okay...so he didn't leave at midnight, but Magic did head southward to his permanent home in Georgia at around 8AM this morning. Over the last 5 months that he's been here, he has relaxed considerably. He's figured out that trail riding is pretty much the best job ever. I'm really proud of how far he's come. :)

I had a really excellent ride on Flirt today. Instead of having any preconceived hopes of what we would accomplish, I just focused on having a calm ride. It worked! She was great, despite the "dance of the riding lawn mowers" going on across the road. Apparently it was a good day to mow the lawn. ;) Anyhow, Flirt took everything in stride. She had a very nice, relaxed trot. Transitions to walk came easily. Lots of walking on a long rein. She was fabulous. And so different than last weekend. We're definitely going to have to deal with her issues of working with another horse. However, I'm thrilled with how well she did today on her own. This filly is going to make somebody a *really* nice horse. Know anyone who wants a (nearly) 16h 2005 dark bay TB mare? Send them to Friends of Ferdinand. The website link is above. :)

Kim came over this morning and we played with Flirt and Wings. Kim rode Flirt, who was anxious as ever in the outdoor arena. After a good 20 minutes outside, we went back in the indoor because it started raining. Flirt calmed right down. Its quite obviously her comfy place. After about 20 minutes indoors, we went back outside where she stayed quiet and Kim had a couple really nice walk-trot transitions and then finished on that note. Kim's going to come out and ride Flirt as her schedule allows. I think that is a good thing.

Afterwards, we played with Wings for a while. I hadn't done anything with her. We turned her out in the outdoor and got some video of her moving around at liberty. She's a lovely mover. When we went back inside, she was pretty anxious at first and called a lot to her buddies (Darcy). I stuck her on the lunge line and she pretty quickly figured out that she was supposed to go around in a circle. Once she figured out that her buddies weren't going to save her, she settled in and started paying attention to me. We worked both directions on the lunge line. I would have liked to have used the round pen but the footing was pretty mucky. Anyhow, after about 10 minute each direction on the lunge, we did some in hand work, getting her to yield her haunches and shoulders. She picked up on it very quickly. Afterwards, she stood quietly in the cross ties, allowed us to groom her and love on her, pick up her feet, etc. She also stood reasonably well for pictures. All in all, she was really good. She seems to be a very intelligent horse who learns quickly. She also seems to be a thinker rather than a reactor. I like this. :) She's very athletic and I couldn't see any lameness or prior injury that would keep her from doing anything. We'll see what Doc Angie says. :)

Well, it was a bit of an eye opening thing to ride Flirt outside with another horse. To date, I haven't ridden Flirt with another horse. It makes sense that she would be strong and unfocused with another horse cantering towards her, but somehow I didn't think of that when we were riding. I'm hoping that Erica will be out soon to ride Darcy so that I can ride with another horse in the ring. I think using Sara's feedback about the two horses working at opposite ends of the ring and passing each other on figure eights will be useful for Flirt, especially since she tends to have a lot of tension (perhaps from the track) about working around other horses. Her only skill before then was to run with them. So it makes sense for her to not understand that we don't want her to run.

I had a nice ride on Flirt today. I finally got to canter her outside. Even though I had ridden her quite a few times before, the footing and weather outside just never worked out for me to get to ride her out there. So finally, today I did. And while she was distracted and seemed to have forgotten most of what she had learned just 6 short weeks before, she eventually settled into steady, stretching contact and worked well for me. We even got to canter! Her canter is quite stiff, but she really listened to my seat and body position and was pretty quiet.

Hopefully on Sunday after the prospective adopter rides her, we can get some video of her going under saddle.

I was planning to ride Jewel as well, but unfortunately it looks like she got kicked in the belly. She has a nice arc-shaped wound on her belly right in front of her stifle. She has some funky drainage pouch on her leg. I'm not sure if the two are related or not. Regardless, she was kind of stiff and not wanting to move out on the lunge (which is very a-typical of her), so I cleaned up the wound and turned her back out. My guess is that she'll be fine in a few days.

Well someone is coming to look at Flirt this weekend! :) It is a lady who, I'm told, is a dressage rider from the Chicago area. She is going to ride Flirt and Nightwing (one of the other FFI horses). Both horses are quite nice so hopefully she picks one of them!

Just a note to update you all on Magic. He is still hanging out with me, although his owner is planning to have him shipped home around July 21st. We had a wonderful ride the other night. The temperature had dropped and there was a nice breeze. We went out to the outdoor arena and walked, trotted and cantered both directions. He's still pretty sticky with his left lead. He much prefers to canter on his right, which I find amusing (usually its the other way around with track horses). Anyhow, after about 15 minutes, we headed off on the trail. He was a superstar!! He looked around a lot, but just walked. My proudest moment for him was when we came to a mulberry tree and he stood still allow me to pick berries until I had my fill (or at least picked what I could reach from the saddle). Then we headed off to the barn. I'm really pleased with is progress. Will he be a show horse? Nope. But he's perfect for the trail!!

Soothe the Soul "Sully" from S.Pratt on Vimeo.