It's been a while!

Alright, so things have gotten busy around here with nice weather, horses to work and lots and lots of chores to do and keep up on. I have neglected to keep up with my blog posts - sorry!

Some updates -

Hula! Man, this little mare is coming around. She probably has about 20-25 rides on her now and is really rounding into a great horse. She is working in the snaffle, is getting very soft and responsive. I have worked hard on getting her to think "forward" and its really starting to come through. I am trying to conform her into a little pretzel that I can bend and mold around my aids. Its getting fun! She is also doing just stellar out on the trail! She has been going out alone and with another buddy horse - either way she is cool with and doesn't seem to get worried if shes alone or not. I have a few people coming to look at her next week, but I wouldn't be sad if she stuck around a while longer :)

Lacy is making some nice steady, slow progress. We have taken almost a month and a half to slowly get her back to where she left off last fall. And this week in particular, she took some huge leaps towards softness, and is starting to relax. Something still isn't quite fitting right with this sweet girl though, and we have a vet apt in a couple weeks to get her re-scoped for ulcers to see whats going on. We have already ruled out some genetic diseases and have been working with an equine chiropractor as well. Hoping we will find an answer for her soon.

Bella is also coming along slowly. She had and abscess that took two weeks to rupture - so that alone did set us back a bit with training. Consistency is key, so the first few days this week were like catch up days, getting her back up to speed where we left off before she went lame. Bella came around though, but she is still not as responsive as I would like. I believe she has some deep rooted fear/trust issues that could take months or years to unravel. But for now, I take it day by day with her. You only have the horse you have that day to work with. Nothing more or less, and I go at her speed.

New horses are coming into training as well!

Lilly is a very adorable Haflinger mare that will be in for a tune up. I will start on the ground with her and see what she shows me. From what I can tell from talking with the owner, she sounds a little lazy and pushy, can lunge her some days, other days she does not want to, and she will not canter undersaddle. I am excited to get going with her and start gluing the pieces together. Pictures of her to come!

Captain America! I will call him Captain for short - He is a recently gelded stud colt that was rescued by his owner from the kill pen out of North Carolina! He has been in Washington only for the last 8 weeks and was gelded and given some groceries to put on some weight and get healthy. I was able to meet him last week and boy is he is a cutie! Captain is only three years old, and due to his stunted growth, I will be working with him strictly on ground work this summer. Being a stud colt, with not a lot of handling, I have some new rules to set in place with him to help him be more safe and manageable to handle. I will start him with in the ground work exercise program to get him willing, confident, respectful and calm. He will have the winter off to grow and develop, then come spring we will look at getting him started undersaddle.