Halt at X and Salute

Well the past few weeks have been a whirlwind! I went to Kentucky last week and spent 5 days there. We looked at property (and put an offer in on a house!!), went to Rolex, and just generally had an amazing time! We will hopefully be closing on the new house in the beginning of June, and I will be moving to the beautiful bluegrass state at the end of August. I am thrilled, and excited, and terrified beyond belief. Everything I have ever known is here in New York and I am leaving it all on a whim to follow my dreams of living in Kentucky. I'm a horse person, so what better place to be then in horse country!

Rayna was doing fantastic before I left, and today was my first ride back on her since I got home on Monday, and she was still fantastic! We are now incorporating one short canter in each direction into every ride, she still doesn't turn at the canter yet, but her 20 meter trot circles are improving a lot! I think she'll be ready for an intro A dressage show by the end of summer. Today I even got her to trot off from a halt. I need to get her responding better to my seat and the bridle when I ask for downward transitions, she is kind of voice trained and stops beautifully when I tell her to with my voice, but I can't really do that in the dressage arena.

Her legs are looking good, I need to give her one more round of ivermectin. She is currently in heat so the backs of her hind legs are nasty, and she hates baths because there is no option for warm water on the farm (which is super annoying) so scrubbing her legs is always an adventure. I have been doing all of my riding in my AP saddle because honestly I have gained weight since I bought my new dressage saddle and Im afraid my ass is going to eat it next time I sit in it. Plus I don't have any stirrups for it. But I know I need to start working her in the dressage saddle and bridle. Especially since I just bought an awesome pink camo dressage pad at the KY horse park to use with it.

Heres a quick video of her 3rd canter ever! She's such a super start!

Keep Moving Forward...

Raynas legs are doing wonderfully. If I didn't mention it before, she has mites on her hind legs, they were covered in sores from her biting at them, but now after beginning to treat with ivermectin and a sulfur/lime dip they look worlds better. She has to be in until all of the sores and scabs on her legs have healed and she's stocking up a bit so I need to go up there every day and ride her around to keep her legs down. I had a very lovely ride on her today, we just walked around the farm for about 25 minutes and explored. It was misting out but bearable and she was a saint. Of course as soon as I got off of her it started downpouring! Guess I have good timing!

Once her legs are 100% we're going to start low level dressage training, and start doing a lot of work out in the fields up and down the hills to start building up her top line. Things at the barn are better, I'm still sad about how everything went down with Gus, but after thinking long and hard about it, maybe it is all for the best. It will give me the opportunity to concentrate 100% on Rayna, and she needs the work and she needs my attention. Hopefully when I work the trails for Alana this summer I will be able to work right off of Rayna, I just don't want to get attached to anymore of her horses since I'm leaving in just 5 short months.

Some photos from our ride today!

HeartBroken... Changing the WHOLE blog

I have had the worst couple of days... Ever. First of all I am not taking Gus to Kentucky with me, I no longer have the option of keeping him and it's absolutely breaking my heart. I'm not going to go into details about what happened... but I'm heartbroken, completely and totally heartbroken. So he will no longer be a part of this blog... From now on it will focus mostly on my Clydesdale, Rayna, and my journey with her. 

She's in right now, she had sores on her back legs and after consulting the vet twice and having her take scrapings of Raynas legs we discovered that she has mites. The vet shaved her hind legs to take the scrapings so we need to wait until all open sores are healed before she can go outside in the mud. Once I can take her in the mud I'm going to start getting her back into shape. The plan is long walks (like 45 min to an hour) under saddle over the fields and hills for like a month before we even start trot work. I ordered her a new custom dressage pad which will look so awesome on her. And I will eventually start her dressage training, hopefully by late summer. Just low level stuff, walk/trot, leg yields, bending, etc. And I'm going to do it all on my own, at least until I move, I'm done relying on the people around here at the barn. They are frustrating me to the EXTREME. I used to love that place but now it's like sometimes I just can't wait to leave! 

I also put Rayna on new grain and new supplements. Shes on Purina Enrich Plus to help put on some weight and muscle. I also put her on SmartCombo which is a supplement that focuses on Skin & Coat, Hooves, Joints and Digestion. I love this horse so much, she's really a wonderful horse. I am beyond tired of the bullshit at the barn and from now on I'm just focusing on my horse and not caring about anything else that goes on there. It's not my concern anymore. In 5 months I will be out of new york, in Kentucky, and starting my new life!!!