After Racing: Retraining Thoroughbreds

I'm thrilled to report that She's Got Wings, one of my former fosters, has been adopted!  Congrats to Susan on her adoption of Wings.  Susan recently lost a special horse and in her healing, has grown particularly fond of Wings.  I'm thrilled for them and I know that they will have many good adventures together.  Yay!

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. :)

A big welcome to new foster horse She's Got Wings! We're going to call her Smoke, in honor of being the 10th Tony Stewart horse in the program. She is currently under evaluation. More information to follow!