Back in Black

Leo is doing really well. His winter coat is starting to come in and he's turning a lovely dark black. I am hoping he doesn't fade as much going forward, now that I have him on LMF grain. In my past experience, LMF has a good amount of copper in it and helps keep dark horses from fading. We shall see. Fingers crossed!

Intro to Spanish walk?

Leo officially moved to the farm a couple weeks ago, and we are having so much fun! He really loves his Jolly Mega Ball. I've been try to keep him stimulated with toys, and give him company whenever I can. He's currently been alone at our property, but we will be having a border arrive on Monday and he'll have a nice older gentleman gelding to keep him company soon. More updates coming!

Respecting My Space & Leading

I have been having a great time getting to know Leo. He is kind, calm, curious but not overly so, concerned about new things but not reactive, and an all around solid citizen for a yearling. 

Leo, 16 months - July 1, 2021

Leo, 16 months - July 1, 2021

(As I live and breath, a horse that actually plays with a Jolly Ball!)

Look at that trot!

Honestly I couldn't ask for more from him at the moment. But he is a baby, and there are somethings that we need to tackle during this year so that life is easier for us all later on.

Leo's one big baby issue (and he is a big baby standing at 15.2hh already) is he is a space invader! This was a big issue with Rose, and one that I let go for far too long with her. I am not making that mistake this time around. Leo's second pressing issue is that he stops and plants his feet when being lead. Both of these issues are really common with youngsters. I don't find it fun to feel like I might get run over or squished, by accident of course, because my horse is in my space. Also, he needs to trust me as the leader and walk along as asked, so that we can get somewhere in a somewhat timely fashion.

So, what are we doing then to work on these issues?

#1 General handling, and not letting him invade my space. Using whatever means are at my disposal in the moment. Ie, waving my hands at his face, etc. Leo is not an explosively reactive horse, so this works fine with him. If anything, he is a little to dead to pressure, and is always trying to snuggle me. So, we work on this all the time in all instances.

# 2 Respecting my space, starting with disengaging the hind end and backing from the lead rope. I am doing very short sessions with him, asking him to disengage his hind end. I could do a whole video and walk through like I used to do, but since creating this blog over a decade ago, there have been a million youtube videos posted on how to do this. Rather than reinventing the wheel, here is a video that I found useful and describes the approach that I am taking:

 

Leo has already been making good strides with disengaging, and with backing. I don't expect him to master these skills immediately, but he is getting the idea one small success at a time! He is thoughtful and does a good job of licking his lips when he's figured something out. 

#3 Keeping his feet moving when leading. This is a fairly simple issue (I hope). To fix it, when he stops, I analyze the situation and if he is actually looking at something I let him have a moment. If he's not, or once he's stopped looking, I ask him to walk on. If he doesn't, then I gently pull on the lead rope going from side to side to move his front feet. Once his feet move, he walks on. I've only been taking this approach the past two days, but already he has made big strides. What should be a 2-5 minute walk to the arena has been taking us 20+ minutes. Today it only took close to 5 minutes. I call that a success!

Things are going well and I can't believe that I own this amazing young horse! Leo is truly a dream  come true. He was originally delivered to my trainer's barn, as we thought he might arrive in the middle of the night (that didn't happen), and I've kept him there for the last week and a half while I get my fencing spruced up in a couple spots and await hay delivery. The fencing is done, and this week I am hoping to get him on my trainer's trailer and bring him home (I was silly and sold my trailer when I sold Gentry a couple years ago...word of advise, never sell your horse trailer). Fingers crossed he hops back on the trailer and it is a non-event!

-Renee
Wishing you Happy Trails and Swooshing Tails!

Leo has arrived!

Meet Leo (Leopold), my future dressage partner! I am beyond excited ❤️ After a 21 hour haul, he walked off the shippers big rig calm and happy. He has such a sweet eye, and nice disposition. I am so pleased and can't wait to get out to the barn tomorrow to spend more time with him!

Name Suggestions Needed!

Baby horse needs a new name!

I am not wild about baby horse's current registered name. I can tell the seller put a lot of thought into his registered name based on his pedigree, and I appreciate that, but again I'm not wild about it. So I am planning to change it or at least simply show him under a different name and notify the registry.

Here is his pedigree:

I am still debating names and will wait to finalize my decision until baby horse arrives and I see him in person. The Danish Warmblood registry does not have a naming convention, so from their end anything goes. However, Oak Hill had a tradition of naming the foals starting with the first letter of the Dam's name so I'd like to stick with that. I do have one name in mind, but I'd love to hear other ideas. Baby horse's brothers are named Lager and and Legion. If you have any good one word "L" name ideas, I am open for suggestions!

-Renee

Wishing you Happy Trails and Swooshing Tails!

Baby horse is coming home!

The vet check on Monday went well, and baby horse's temp was normal and they issued him a health certificate, and I finalized the purchase!

Without further adieu, meet my new horse and future dressage partner:

What is he?

He is a Danish Warmblood, bred by Oak Hill Ranch. He's by Sir Gregory out of a really nice Furstenball x Rambo mare that my trainers best friend used to own when she was head trainer at Oak Hill. They sold the Dam while baby horse was in utero in 2019, when the owner of Oak Hill, who's in his 80's, decided to retire.

Given that this was a remote purchase, it was very comforting that everyone in my bubble knew the Dam, her movement and temperament. Also, it helped to know that he has a full brother, Lager, from the year before who is very nice. 

He's a yearling gelding (2020) and currently stands 15.2hh, so I expect he'll mature 16.2-17hh, and hopefully not bigger! He's really leggy at the moment, so he's definitely going to be tall. He's solid black with the star and stripe plus snip. I love to look of white socks, but I am very stoked to not have to clean them on show mornings!

More waiting...

Now I wait a couple more week for him to get picked up and transported to Montana. He should be here June 25!

-Renee

Wishing you Happy Trails and Swooshing Tails!

PPE was a success!...mostly

Baby Horse's pre-purchase exam was last Friday. As basic physical exams go, all was well. He's a healthy happy flexible little guy, and there was nothing that indicated anything to prevent him from being able to physically have the potential to achieve my dressage goals in the future. All good, right?

Not so fast...

Despite looking and acting 100% healthy, he had a fever of 103. Normal body temperature for a horse is 101.5. He had no other symptoms, not even swollen lymph nodes. So where does this leave us? After talking to the PPE vet, my vet, and my trainer, the consensus was that most likely he was having an immune reaction to being exposed to something he's been vaccinated against (due to lack of any other symptoms). Like children, baby horses often get sick and we don't necessarily know it because we don't randomly take our healthy looking horses temperatures. Not a big deal in all reality.

The plan moving forward was to have the seller take his temp every day, and once it was normal for three days in a row, call the vet in to officially take his temp and then issue the Health Certificate (needed to transport a horse to Montana). That is were we are at now. His temp is back to normal and now we wait for the vet appointment, which is scheduled this coming Monday.

Given that everything else during the PPE looked fine, I have signed a bill of sales pending the health certificate, and once he is in the clear, funds will be exchanged and he will officially be mine. At that point I'll put my superstitions to the side and post photos and tell you all about him!

-Renee

Wishing you Happy Trails and Swooshing Tails!

Waiting is torture!

Waiting for the PPE to happen has been torture! 

Luckily, I live in a "Zoom Town" and my industry is going gang busters ever since the entire world shut down and decided to move here. Keeping myself focused on my business and my mind occupied on things other than baby horse, has never been easier.

At long last though, I received the paperwork from the vet doing the PPE this week, and got that sent off to his office on Friday. And now I wait...five more days!

-Renee

Wishing you Happy Trails and Swooshing Tails!

Pre Purchase Exam is Scheduled!

I spent most of Monday trying to find a vet in the gelding's area that #1 wasn't the sellers vet, and #2 would be willing to make a farm call for the PPE. Literally no vets in this area do farm calls. I am dumfounded about this! Is this normal in other areas? Eventually I found a vet, that is an hour away, and was still willing to do a farm call. I can only imagine what the farm call fee is going to be. I didn't want to ask. However, the PPE is scheduled for May 28. An now I try to patiently wait...

So, why am I insistent on a farm call? The gelding, being a yearling, has only been on a trailer twice in his life. I don't want him fussing in a trailer and then tweaking something and coming up lame in the PPE when he's actually perfectly sound. I've been there, done that, and won't go there again!

A New Chapter

It's been a while blogger community. I hope you are all doing well! 

(TL;DR: I am buying a yearling & the blog is back!)

Quick update for those of you who were with us in the early years and are still hanging aground (thank you and I am impressed you are still here):

This blog abruptly went silent when I sold Gentry and Pixel, September 2019. I apologize for the lack of closure at the time. In august 2019, our house was undergoing major renovations (i.e. daylight coming through the walls) and we moved from our farm to a rental in town. This meant boarding both of the horses. That coupled with my other responsibilities as a mom and my career, I simply didn't have time to work with Gentry frequently enough to justify board and keeping him in training. I recall riding once a week at that time. Also, as much as I always adored Gentry's personality and worth ethic, he was not bred for upper level dressage (I purchased him as a husband horse if you recall), and it had become apparent that we would be lucky to get to second level, and third level was unlikely. As far as Pixel went, JR had no interest (read: no horse bug) in riding Pixel, so he chose for us to find him a new home as well. Both horses went to wonderful homes. Gentry is being doted on and adored by a wonderful older armature rider in his new home in Washington, and Pixel is now adored by a little girl in our small town. We still see Pixel from time to time, and I get periodic photos of Gentry living his best life! Check him out:

 

As you all know, Covid shut down the USA in March 2020. We ended up promptly moving back out to the farm and remote schooling JR for the rest of that school year. Our local small rural k-8 school opened up full time this past September, and we've been lucky enough for him to be in school full time this entire school year. Although there was a level of anxiety with in person schooling (we had no remote option) the small school has done a great job following CDC precautions and we've had no issues! The only issue I've really had this entire year is staring at an empty pasture. If ever there is a time to have a horse at home, it is during a global pandemic!

That brings us up to speed to today...

I have some very exciting news to share. I am in the process of purchasing an extremely exciting upper level yearling dressage prospect. I don't' want to share too much before the sale is final, but I'll drop this hint: cough, cough "Sir Gregory". 

With the help of my trainer (and her trainer), I began the purchase process this past week, and I am anxiously waiting for Monday morning to arrive. Why? To schedule a Pre Purchase Exam (PPE) with a local vet in the horse's area. This will be my first long distance domestic purchase, so I am learning a bit as I go along and will be happy to share the process with you all! I have been on the other end of this process as a seller, so it's not all new to me. Just a different side of the coin. This also means, that this blog is alive again and getting back to its roots. 

*Adventures in Colt Starting is back*

Welcome, and I hope you enjoy this journey with me! 

PS: For all the mammas out there, human and equine, Happy Mothers Day!