Another update

Well things have been good here, Lucas is still not sold but we have had several promising phone calls so our fingers are still crossed.

Max is doing good, he now walks, trots, and canters and halts both directions with very little going wrong. He does occasionally try to stop, but if that's the worse that he does, that's not so bad! We hope to have the saddle on him in another week or two so that we can start ground driving him a bit in December. Once that is done he'll have a bit of a break over the coldest months to grow up a bit more.

And I actually got to ride a little bit on the weekend! Lucy, who gave birth to Chilly last March, is finally over the cut she got to her leg in early August. (Shes been sound on it for 2 months but C and D wanted to play it safe) So C got on her for a few minutes to make sure she wasn't too fresh and then I got on. It was so funny! Lucy is only about 15.1 hands (but old style QH, she wears the same girth as Lucas, on almost the same hole) and short backed. Lucas is too, but it was so different on a smaller horse! It also felt like she had NO neck, but I know she really does, its just not as long as Lucas. I realized that shes the first horse that I've ridden since I bought Lucas that wasn't him. It was just weird (although in a nice way too).

I kept trying to make Lucy trot out, and C kept telling me to slow down, poor Lucy must have been very confused. It was extremely nice to have smooth gaits and the slower speed of a WP horse. Even though I thought Lucas wasn't too rough, my back and joints didn't even bother me the next day after riding Lucy, and they would have if I had ridden Lucas.

Its been a couple of months now but Im sure now Im making the right direction. As much as I love Lucas hes not the right horse for me anymore. If the WP thing works out I might be able to ride for more than an hour without being completely exhausted and sore.

World results

For our Nova Scotia People! (DH)

Top 5 open preformance halter geldings
Top 5 Amature preformance halter geldings
3rd Jr Trail
Jr HUS 9th and 7th (although the 7th place horse is owned localy the horse lives in the USA)

There were also several horses that were out of mares bred by HB that were in the top 10 in several events.

Not to bad for little old Nova Scotia!

Good bye old man,

Another death in the Canadian show jumping world. Beth Underhill's famous horse Monopoly died today.

Unlike Hickstead Monopoly was a horse who had a full and complete life (born in 1979), and had a chance to enjoy retirement and being the 'top' horse as his years stretched on. It was at this point in his life that I got to meet him in 2003. For about a month and a half I lived over top of Beth's stable as a home base while grooming horses in Ont. Monop was the king of the barn. He had a huge 14x14 box stall in the middle of the barn where he could see everything, he was turned out first in the best paddock, and got the benifit of having his stall door open every night (with only a chain across his door) so that he could keep an eye on everything. It was this habbit that had me interacting with him at 3 am. Every night when he ran out of night check hay he would get board and start playing with things. Usualy by 3 am it ended up in him slamming his sliding door back and forth to make noise, which usualy resulted in him getting more hay so that we tired grooms could have another 2 hours of sleep.

Good bye old man, you had a good run.

http://equinecanada.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1322%3Aequine-canada-extends-condolences-on-the-passing-of-monopoly&catid=190&Itemid=413&lang=en

Project Pony, and Congress/World results

Meet Max, the Project Pony. Hes a March 2010 baby so hes just learning how to lunge, showmanship and trail in hand. As of today hes 14.1 in the front and 14.3 and a bit in the hind. (And yes he got used to the scary measuring stick today too!)

In other news we got word that a top trainer/judge about 1.5 hours away was 3rd in Trail at the world show today! And the mare is bred, raised, owned, trained and shown by people from Nova Scotia! This barn still has one more horse waiting for finals in the HUS so we wish them continued sucess.

When you think that our area had 3 finalists, 3 top tens and two top 5's from Congress, and now a top 3 from the world show and another 2 finalist horses, our show horses are extreamly strong in our little area! When our biggest QH show this year brought in only 70 horses it makes for a tough time to even break into the top 2!

CBC.ca | The Sunday Edition | Horse Whisperer

A lovely essay by Michael Enright about horses, and Hickstead;

CBC.ca The Sunday Edition Horse Whisperer


In other horsey news 'Project Pony' aka Max the 2 year old I'm working with is coming along in leaps and bounds! Hes now lunging both directions at all three gaits, although still not very smooth, he is staying out on the circle and not changing directions unless asked! We're also working on setting up for showmanship/halter and that is going well too! (Hes a very smart pony) We started working on teaching him the basics of a showmanship pivot and hes got the correct idea "oh I need to cross my front legs to do this!" but gets tangled up in his own legs at that point.

Its so much fun to TEACH a horse something instead of having a horse just be mad at me because Im not doing it correctly. On that side Lucas is having some fun being a temporary lesson pony while he waits for a new person. Hes likes the work, and the variety of it so I guess hes happy. He looks fitter than he was with me so I think I made the right choice for me at this point.

The RA is ok, the changing temps always do a number on me at this time of year. I would really like to loose some weight but the walking/biking/working outside thing doesn't work when I hurt. Bad cycle of not enough exercises causing weight gain which causes more pain which causes less exercise.

Visit with Lucas

Went up on Friday and had a bit of a vist with Lucas. He looks good, hes lost a touch of weight, but has gained some muscle in its place so its not a bad thing at all. He looks really good. No firm offers on him, but lots of people love him. (no surprise there!)

Went out to the barn today and played with one of the babies (well hes coming two) If he was a larger horse he would seriously be on the 'replacement' list but hes still on the small side. I also brushed a couple of the other horses and cliped a few too. Hopefully I'll take my camera out tomorrow and take a couple of pictures.

My Eric story

So once upon a time I used to be a high level show groom for several summers, in part to pay for college. Horses that I looked after were showing and winning at the Royal Winter Fair (although I never did get to go to the fair!) in the Hunters and the Jumpers.

In 2003 the owners I was working for had a promising up and coming jumper. IM had been courting them, calling them every day, wanting to ride him. So when we got to the first show IM showed up to ride the horse, and everything went fine for the first couple of days until the Horse dumped IM in the show ring in front of everyone. The next day 2 of us had to hold the horse for IM to get on, and then watched in horror as he proceeded to hit the horse several times HARD with his crop (this was the NEXT day! ). If you know anything about Canadian showjumping you will know who IM is, and believe me the niceness that you see on TV is a front.

The next day Eric gets the ride on the Horse. There was no fake attempt at conversation, just a professional and fun conversation about the horse, what he liked and didn't like and what Eric would like us to help with. He was great to work for. Professional, nice, and let us do our jobs because we knew what was best for the Horse.

I hope he doesnt retire, but I can understand why he would want to step down to just coaching and training. Either way the loss of Hickstead was a huge one for Canada and for Eric.

RIP Hickstead

Canada has lost a great horse,



My heart goes out to Eric, the owners and the barn family of Hickstead.

Update

Lucas is good :) And very happy at the old boss's place. Hes being ridden by some of the better riders who are currently horseless. We are still waiting for the final word from a lady that tried Lucas out.

Its been hard, but for the best that Lucas is away from me while this process is going on. Its been easer to say good bye when I dont see him every day. I still miss him but I think its a good transition to his new life.

Everything else is ok, not doing to much on the horsey front. Just playing with the weanlings at the barn and helping out there on the weekends.