Updates

So I've been very bad at getting updates on this blog. I don't know where the time seems to go. If you would like more frequent updates you can follow us on Facebook.

Ty has continued to progress very well. My trainer rode him for the first time last week and was impressed with his gaits. I've posted a brief video to commemorate Ty's first one hundred days under saddle.

My mare Roze has finally been given some hope, we took a trip to Dr. Shoemaker who diagnosed her with Lyme and made several other suggestions to get her back on the road to work. She's started on antibiotics and we hope to have her back to showing next year.

Rail Classes

I took Ty out to Twin Brooks tonight, they have Wednesday night schooling shows throughout the summer for mostly pleasure classes. It's great schooling for ring classes. I took Ty again tonight in and we showed in a walk/trot class. He placed 3rd out of 7 horses.

Ty's big issue is that he doesn't like horses cantering around him or any horses coming towards him. He gets wigged out by it. So we had some time to warm up before our class and after a couple of laps he settled in pretty well. During our class he was perfect with very few bobbles. He's been getting the hang of it.

We're planning to attend another schooling dressage show in August. I'm also working on getting Roze back into the swing of things. Her right hock is fusing and some days it gives her trouble. I'm hoping to get her back in the HP classes next year.

Progress Continues

So I've been very busy lately riding horses and haven't had much time to blog.

Ty continues to progress very well. We've been working on cantering and getting bend when we circle. His canter is so smooth and big, its a ton of fun to ride. I can't wait until he really begins collecting, it will be even more fun. We went to another schooling show at the Quentin show grounds about two weeks ago. It did not go as smoothly as our first show. There were a lot of horses and also a jumping course and I could sense that Ty was definitely out of his comfort zone. He did ok in the warm up ring, but when we into the show ring he kind of lost his focus and was spooking. He didn't like riding up to the horse trailer where the judge was sitting. The topper of the day was as we came around the far corner and he was about to step out of the ring, I tried to push him back in and instead of moving in, he jumped out and I landed on my head. We did manage to finish our second ride although it wasn't very pretty. Ty had some time off last week and now he's back to work. I'm hoping to take him to Twin Brooks tomorrow night and just school him on the grounds, there's always a ton going on so its good practice for him.

Roze has also been coming along nicely. I've been riding her a few days a week and she seems pretty sound. She has a slight hitch on her right hock where it is fusing, but otherwise seems thrilled to be back to work. I am hoping after a couple good weeks of walk/trot I'll be able to get her back to cantering and then we can look at putting her back in the show ring.

I'm looking forward to July being a productive month with both horses, stay tuned for details.

First Schooling Show

So it's been a little while since my last post. Ty continues to be spectacular. Last weekend in our lesson we cantered for the first time. He smoothly went into the canter in both directions, of course he was unbalanced, but it was very smooth and exciting.

This past week we just took things slowly and worked on steering and work under saddle. Ty also got his ears clipped, which he was not happy about, but we got past it.

Today we went to a dressage schooling show. After getting lost on our way to the show grounds, we arrived a half hour behind schedule but were able to get ready in time for our class.

Ty was well behaved for his first time out. The judges tent at the end of the ring was a little scary and Ty actually showed a little attitude at me having the whip with a kick out. It's good to know there's some fire in there. We received a 63.5% for Intro A and a 66.5% for Intro B. For three weeks under saddle with maybe a dozen rides, I could not be more thrilled at Ty's progress. We're looking at the show schedule to see what else may be available this summer.

First Trail Ride

Well not a long trail ride, but we went out with Pam and her Halflinger, Marcus, around the back fields. You would never know that this was Ty's fourth ride under saddle. He even led for half the ride and only shied once when the tree branches brushed our helmets. Every day he amazes me. He was such a trooper today. I think I now trust him enough to ride him alone at least at the walk and trot without getting killed. He's so different from Roze its been a hard adjustment for me going from a hot tamale to a cool cucumber, but I'm adjusting. We've signed up for a schooling show to ride Intro A and B in two weeks so we're going to start practicing our tests and see how he does.

First Trip

Yesterday I ventured out with Ty to attend a clinic with Judy Westlake at Sarah's place. The day was rather uneventful, which is amazing for a green horse taking his second trailer ride.

Ty was a bit difficult to catch in the morning, but Roze was not helping the cause teasing him from over the fence. Ty loaded very easily, once on the road he was pawing for awhile, we later learned he pulled the mats off my trailer wall, a small price to pay. He did not paw on the ride home.

He hung out in a stall while we waited for our lesson time. He was very calm the entire day. When it was time to work we tacked him up and lunged him for a few minutes in the lower arena. He was so calm I decided to just put him to work.

Judy gave me some great tips for steering and getting Ty around corners. Ty walked and trotted all over the arena and never once spooked. Near the end of our lesson we put Ty back on the lunge line and had our first canter under saddle, we will definately have to work on that one.

Ty was a super star. Considering he was standing in a pasture 6 weeks ago as an intact colt with very little handling, he has come leaps in bounds in such a short time.

Our First Ride

So Sarah came up today for a lesson. I was expecting to work Ty on lunge and get him trotting well, but Sarah had other plans. We did start on the lunge and Ty was great as usual. Less than half way through our lesson Sarah felt it was time to take Ty off the line. So off we went at the walk around the arena and then off we went at the trot. Ty is a super star and has absolutely taken every thing in stride and perfectly in every way. I've posted some pics of our first ride, excuse my position we have some adjustments that need to be made to get the saddle in balance, which Sarah pointed out, I'll work on getting some pads to try on underneath it. Ty still has a lot of growing to do so we'll hold off on the saddle fitter for a bit. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I may be able to take him to an Arab show at the end of June, if not we'll definitely make it out to several schooling shows this summer :D