Spring Has Sprung

After a winter that seemed to drag out far longer than the ground hog told us it should, I think it's safe to say that spring has finally sprung. One of the biggest events thus far for 2013, has been the arrival of our long anticipated first foal. In typical Roze fashion, the little one arrived a bit earlier than we were anticipating. We received a shocking call from out vet early Easter telling us he had just delivered a healthy colt. Roze had a very easy delivery and baby was up and on his feet in no time. Much to Roze's dismay, he is a very active little guy. With a little time and encouragement, mom and baby seem to be happy in their new routine. We are very pleased with the results of our new foal and plans are in place to breed Roze for a 2014 foal.

The New Arrival ~ Mehdi Amir RZ

Caden has been put back to work, with some delays because of poor weather and ill fitting saddles, I think we are getting into a groove. He is entered in a show at the end of April, I hope he will be ready to make his under saddle debut by then. We plan to stick to the Arabian show circuit this year with hopes of making it to Region 15, the East Coast Championships, and Sport Horse Nationals. I think that will be a full schedule for the young man for this year. I have hopes of venturing out into the open circuit with him next year to show others that Arabians can compete with other breeds. Caden continues to show glimpses of his future brilliance, I know with careful training and patience, most of all, he will reach his full potential.

Caden @ Clinic w/Christine Betz

Ty has been begrudgingly recovering for a tear in his tendon from last February. Progress has been slow and steady as is expected in these types of injuries. He is now turned out in a small paddock and working regularly on the lunge line at the walk, trot, and canter. We have one more check up at New Bolton, but I expect him to return to a normal life in about a month. We hope that there will be time to condition and qualify him for Sport Horse Nationals, but most importantly we want him to return healthy and sound when he is ready.

In other news, our home finally sold and we are now farm shopping. We are very excited about the possibility of having our own facility and having the ability to manage our horses at home.

As always, stay tuned, we anticipate lots of exciting things to come in 2013!

Our ad in the first issue of The Arabian Sport Horse:

Open publication - Free publishing - More arabian horse

Mehdi Amir RZ, makes his debut in the April/May 2013 Edition of The Arabian Sport Horse:

Open publication - Free publishing - More arabian

Tonight We Lunged

So tonight I put Ty on the lunge line, he did extremely well for the first time. I worked him for 10 minutes at most. He was really good going to the left, that seems to be his better side. It was hard for him to figure out that he could go to the right, but we eventually got a few circles and then called it a night. When I tell him to whoa he always walks up to me and stops, I guess there are downsides to the join up game, but he's very polite about coming in so we'll work on that a bit later on. Ty's going to be off for a few days, we'll probably get back to work this weekend. My trainer will be up on Sunday to work with us and I'm sure she'll have some new exercises then. Considering Ty has likely been handled more in the last two weeks then his entire life his willingness to please is extraordinary.

I Did Buy a Crazy Arab, Right?

I was back at the barn this afternoon to work with Ty. In the pasture he has good and bad days when I go to catch him. Last night he was determined to not let me catch him and we spent about 20 minutes with him running around the pasture. This evening he thought about running once and then promptly walked up to me, realizing the simplest path.

I took him inside and decided to introduce him to a saddle pad. He stepped sideways about twice and then stood perfectly still while I rubbed and flopped it all over him. Ty continues to impress me as he has taken every new thing in stride and seems very unflappable. Ty has also never been taught to lift his feet. We've been working on his front feet the last couple of days. Today I decided he was being good and I was going to push my luck and try to get him to hold up all four feet today. While he stood perfectly still in the middle of the ring he let me pick up all four feet, hold them for about a minute and tap on them. I worked on getting him to join up a little more and I only had to chase him for a second before he promptly followed me around the ring. We walked all over and changed directions often and he stayed right by my shoulder.

My friends were out today so once I felt he had gotten the join up idea I went to chat with my friends, Ty followed and stood with me for almost an hour while I chatted with my friends. He of course enjoyed the occasional treat and loved the pets and scratches my friends were willing to share. I had to take a close look at him today to make sure that I in fact did purchase an Arab who was only four years old and has had very little handling. Ty seems to not be fazed by much, he's curious but not afraid of much. I hope that it will continue as I continue to introduce him to new things.