My little boy’s growing up!

So we’ve been riding a lot lately but I just haven’t had anything super significant to write about so pardon our absence.  Tax season is ALMOST over, so soon I’ll be able to do an awful lot more with my boys and this blog, just bear with us a few more weeks!

Though tax season can pretty much kiss my butt, my boss was at least willing to let me off of my mandatory half day on Saturday morning as long as I made up the 4 hours Saturday night or Sunday, so I got to take Reily and Boo to their first show of the season, and Reily’s first show EVER!!  If you’re reading this you probably already knew about it because I’ve been blabbering about how excited I was to anyone who would listen (and even to some who wouldn’t!) for weeks, I know, I’m shameless.  But I was just so EXCITED! Reily’s first ever show, what could even be any more exciting?!  Exactly J

Well I had Reily entered in the tiniest Combined Test (CT) division they offer and that’s “Cross Rails”.  A CT consists of a dressage test and either a stadium jumping round or a cross country run, but not both or it would be considered a Horse Trials (HT) when all three phases are present.  Dressage consists of a preset test for each division where the horse and rider must perform a pattern of movements and actions at certain parts of the ring for a judge who scores each movement from 1-10 where 1 is not completed and 10 is perfect.  The second phase for this particular CT was stadium jumping.  His CT was made up of dressage test “Intro A”, a simple little walk/trot test, and a stadium jumping course of 7 fences which were all cross rails of 18” or less.  Boo was in the CT division called “Beginner Novice” with a walk/trot/canter test and stadium height of 2’6”.

Well thanks to Boo being a butt and running off up the driveway this morning (because he didn’t want to get on the trailer) we were running a wee bit behind and Reily was scheduled to be the 3^rd horse in dressage so his test was at 8:12.  I was totally baffled when we pulled into the horse park at least 15 minutes behind schedule only to find that we were the first people there!   The only other people on the grounds were the show secretary and her daughter.   So we got the boys off the trailer and tied them up and I went over to check in and pick up their numbers and papers.  Reily stomped a superb half circle into the grass as we got tacked up, and I fully admit I was a little bummed that he was already so anxious when there were only a few trailers trickling in and unloading.   Such is life.

I was still memorizing the correct movements for his test as we warmed up for dressage when the secretary came over the loud speaker saying one of the first two horses had some issues so now I was essentially being bumped up.  That was irritating but I knew I had until my originally scheduled time so we just kept warming up.   He wasn’t calming down much so we ended up in the ring 2 minutes early anyways and got through his test, with lot of tension, without any errors (yay, I remembered his pattern correctly!) but it took us an unfortunate 3 tries to get a true halt, and even then it was less then straight since his little booty swung out to the right once we got all four feet stopped.  We left the ring more relaxed then we entered it and that’s really all I could ask for his first time!

After a quick course walk of the jump course for both Reily and Boo we switched his tack and warmed him up for a few minutes on the flat then over some tiny cross rails before entering the ring for his first ever jumping round.   I know I’m biased but I think the video that my boyfriend got of his round is by far one of the absolute cutest things I’ve ever seen!  Decide for yourself (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dfZ8le2eCg).  Even though we took off quite long at jump 5 (the yellow jump) I love that he made his own decision there!  As an event horse I want him to be brave and bold enough to think for himself because we’ll get to jumps funny sometimes and I love that he was confident enough to say “hey I’m pretty close too this and too close to feel comfortable putting in another stride, we’ll just jump it from here” then continue on unfazed!  The last jump had some brick walls out beside the standards that were supposed to go in later for the Novice divisions but for his division had been placed out to the sides of the jump almost like wings.  He got rather distracted looking at the walls for a second and got quite close the cross rail before he was paying attention again but got over it fine.  Considering he could walk over it I wasn’t concerned.  It was more cute because after he finished I wanted him to canter (which we did but on the wrong lead) just to get used to ending that way and as we were finishing that canter circle he was dragging me back toward the last cross rail like “I’m sorry I was looking at the other things, I got it this time, lets jump it again, I’ll show you!” but we would have gotten eliminated for jumping it again after our round was over so I had to pull him right to make sure we didn’t do that.  He finished the day getting to take home his first ever ribbon (6^th) and was a very happy camper.  So proud of my 3yo gangly little (big) baby!!

The voice in the sky...

Otherwise known as the speaker system at horse shows, is unfortunately somewhat akin to that same voice in the sky that calls the races at a track.  Why it took my boyfriend blatantly saying that for me to make the connection is a wonder to us both.  But needless to say, Reily made that connection very quickly.  We weren’t actually going to a show, but we did want to take him to the horse park during the local winter fun show yesterday just to see how he would handle the atmosphere.  We were meeting a few friends there and planning to all go cross country schooling out on the hill while the show was going on.  The good news was that the boys loaded up perfect and we were headed down the road ahead of time.  The bad news was that it randomly started raining on/off the whole way to the park.  It wasn’t a hard rain, but it wasn’t a fine mist, it was like a steady little patter of rain.

When we arrived we tried to park by Ring 3 because it’s farther away from the main area.  The rain was still coming down and unfortunately for us, Ring 1 was the main show ring, Ring 2 was the main warm-up ring and Ring 3 had been turned into some sort of Jousting arena… not good.  Don’t get me wrong it was super cool to watch these people gallop their horses through the 3 contraptions that held the “doughnuts” that they try and spear with their lance, but it wasn’t very fun to have to take poor Reily off the trailer to hear the voice in the sky then see horses flat out galloping around this arena.  Poor fella!  He was definitely stressing!  We got Boo off and my boyfriend let him graze a bit while I walked Reily around to try and calm him some and let him figure out where all the noise and commotion was coming from.  It took extra long to get him groomed (if you could call it that… I think I just created more mud then anything) and tacked up because he just couldn’t stand still.  But he’ll have to learn to get over those nerves so I just kept moving with him and told him to suck it up!

By the time we got him and Boo tacked and I climbed on he was still very much on his toes but no longer exploding with energy.  My boyfriend and Boo moseyed on nice and slow the way they like because there was no keeping up with Reily.  I was circling continually so we didn’t leave them too far behind as we headed past all the trailers and ponies to get to the cross country field.  Luckily it finally stopped raining on our way out there.  We met my friends at the top of the cross country course (calm ponies are much easier and quicker to tack up) and started schooling the little stuff.  Reily did almost all of the “Green” level jumps including logs, coops, banks up/down, steps up/down, even the tiny little trakner!  He was such a champ!  We did some individual stuff and then a little course of 3-4 in a row and he was much more under control and listening.

He was obviously having a total blast running and jumping and hanging out with the 7 other riders and horses!  Since he was being so good I got bold and decided to get a lead over the ditch just to see how he would react.  I haven’t really worked him over any “ground pole ditches” so I figured if it was too much for him we would just walk away and come back to it in the future once I’ve had more time to work him over the ground pole practice first.  So my friend used her wonder pony to give us as lead and I kept Reily just a few strides behind her and, I sh*t you not, he trotted right over!!!  Never looked, never spooked, and never balked, nothing!!  He just trotted right over and trotted right away with the happiest little ears you’ve ever seen!  I can’t even use enough exclamation points to express how excited I was.  After riding Boo for so many years and jumping this same ditch a gazillion and one times he still thinks that it’s his mortal enemy and jumps it like a freak EVERY. SINGLE. TIME!  And Reily just went on over it like it was old news.  He’s by far the coolest horse ever!  He was much happier out there on cross country and after just a few more little jumps we headed back to the main park.

When we got back he was totally nonchalant about all the noise and chaos.  I even went ahead and schooled him in the warm-up ring where he was a total star.  There were crazy beginners and crazy horse running around all willy-nilly but he kept it completely together.  After switching ponies and getting Boo ridden as well we packed the boys up and headed home for a well deserved rest.  My boys are the greatest!  Just wish we could have gotten some photos or video but the aforementioned rain made that a no-go.  Next time!

A preview...

Reily's first lesson, Pat was very impressed with the
quality of his walk-canter transitions and gaits

"A preview of what?" you might ask.  Fair question.  A preview of what Reily is really going to be able to do once we get him fit, filled out, and fine tuned.  You're probably thinking, "That's rather random, where did that come from?".  I'm glad you asked!

Reily and I had our first ever lesson on Sunday with my trainer, Pat.  I'll briefly fill you in on Pat.  Pat is the most knowledgeable, sweetest, most positive, and all around most wonderful person ever.  Admittedly she doesn't do or teach eventing, but I could care less.  She's ridden her whole life, did IHSA in college, owned, taught at, and ran a massive hunter/jumper barn right outside of NYC for 30+ years with her husband doing lessons and showing on the A-circuit.  She's a USEF "R" judge and has done everything from breaking babies to perfecting those ridiculously high dollar show hunters and ponies.  I'm so lucky to get to exercise horses for her and she's improved my riding so much!  Pat came with me the first time I went to MD to look at Reily, and I was so happy to have her professional opinion before I handed over a check, and thankfully my instinct and her expertise have proved to be 100% correct, Reily is going to be a really nice horse!

 We had a LONG lesson, probably at least an hour and a half, which explains why little Reily was getting quite tired towards the end.  We worked a lot on keeping him in the same steady, working rythym at the trot and canter (something I have to be more concious of at home, even when hacking) and on getting him to yield from my leg aids rather than bulging through them.  Unfortunately he's just so big and strong that until we can get him really responsive to my legs there are times (like when he's on a turn, headed back towards all the other horses and he doesn't want to continue turning away from them so we drift WAYYY out like a race car) when he just steam rolls through my leg aids despite the fact that my little legs are working furiously to try and contain that big body.  We worked him on a nice, extra large circle each way and spent the last 10-20 minutes doing ground poles and eventually setting up a small gymnastic and getting him through both ways.  You wouldn't know he was tired at all if he was heading back towards Boo but he was super sluggish jumping away from Boo.  So we jumped the good way eventually bumping up the second element to a baby vertical, then changed it back to a crossrail and got him over it and cantering away on the hard direction and called it quits on that high note.  He was such a good sport, especially because this was, admittedly, a much more organized session then we typically do at home, no day dreaming allowed.

Boo-man being a champ and letting me work on my own
strength (or lack there of) regimen. Gotta get back in shape!

Boo was a good boy today too!  I don't quite feel stable enough on Reily's big strides to work consistenly without stirrups on him, only short spurts where I drop my stirrups for a minute then pick them back up.  So poor Boo-boo has been having to put up with almost all the no stirrup work lately.  I'm grotesquely out of shape thanks to winter and tax season, but I'm forcing myself to work without stirrups a little longer each time I ride him.  He's such a sweetheart he just keeps moving on.  Unfortunately I'm not the only one out of shape, Boo's rides have definetly not been as regular now that I have Reily, but Reily is just learning and really needs the consistency.  Luckily Boo might not be in great shape but he doesn't forget everything he knows, so we work on knocking a little rust off each ride and try to keep him hacking enough to build his endurance and muscle tone back up to snuff.  Once we have his muscle tone built up it will be much easier to get him off his forehand and balanced back on his hind end.  Then we won't feel like we're going to nose dive into XC jumps like it did on Sunday.  Without that balance and muscle he just wants to get more and more downhill as we approach fences rather then staying up in the front end and balanced for a safe take off.  The great news is that daylight savings has come!!!!  So now I should have enough light to get home and ride BOTH of them almost every day.  That is of course as long as I can go back to dragging myself out of bed in the moonlight, that parts not so easy.  But if I'm going to leave work in time to ride, I've got to get in the office extra early :(

Tax season ends April 18th!

Multi-tasking

I have to do this update, if for no other reason but my sheer admiration for Reily.  Yesterday it was cold, very cold, and not just comparatively because of this freakishly mild winter, I mean it was low 40's with a wind chill in the low 30's.  Now the wind wasn't continuous but it was pretty darn persistent, I'd say it was blowing at least 85% of the time.  So needless to say I wasn't looking forward to riding in this weather, but I couldn't think of a good enough excuse to worm out of getting him worked, we'd used up his "get out of work free" card on Saturday when one of my college friends was back in town.  Unfortunately there just wasn't enough time after having to work a half day in the morning for my friend to come out to the house and meet the ponies/see the property/hang out/catch up and still get the boys ridden before it got dark.  Sadly, Saturday was pretty nice and we got stuck with the weather Sunday but I had to get him ridden regardless.

I figured if we were going to have to ride we should go for a hack on the mountain, hoping the trees would act as a bit of a wind block for us.  But I knew that the last time we went over the mountain poor Reily had a really hard time getting under the vine that hangs down over one part of the trail and through all the saplings and underbrush that have been growing up on another stretch of the trail.  I'd been meaning to take a folding saw with me for ages so I could clear those areas but hadn't had a weekend free to do it, so I decided that yesterday was the day and there's no better way to keep yourself warm than to do manual labor.  Well I bundled up and put my western saddle on Reily and packed a small, folding hand saw and an extra lead rope and off we rode.

When we got to the top of the mountain and reached the part where the hanging vine was I climbed off and clipped the lead rope through his bit under his chin and walked him over to a small tree just a couple feet behind me and loose tied him while I cut the vine multiple times to get it out of the path and (hopefully) keep it from growing back.  He stood wonderfully for those few minutes (I think he was more than happy to have a minute to catch his breath after the steep climbs) but as I untied him and walked down the path to where the underbrush started I was apprehensive about how much I'd be able to get done.  After all, he's only 3  and just over 4 months off the track, and this wasn't just one or two little things to cut down, this was 0.5-3" saplings growing up in tight quarters over at least a 50 yard stretch of trail.  I really wanted to get a solid 4-5ft wide walkway cut out so neither the horses or I had to worry about getting smacked in the face with limbs and cobwebs anymore.  I resolved to work for as long as Reily could take it and assumed from the start that it was going to take multiple trips to get this done.  Boy was I mistaken.



Simply for your viewing pleasure, pictures
of Reily as a 2yo, sent to me by his former
owner (who's proved to be a real gem!)



You know how everyone says if you assume the worst the outcome can only get better?  Well this was a classic example.  We spent, at the very least, 45 mins on the 50 yard stretch and Reily was the most perfect gentleman, you'd have thought he was an 18yo, life long ranch horse.  He stood tied to small trees about half the time and the other half of the time, when a small tree wasn't close or handy, he stood ground tied right behind me and never put a foot wrong.  WHO IS THIS HORSE?!? I mean seriously, who would ever expect a 3yo of any breed to be so patient, but considering he's a 3yo OTTB, it seems like a physically impossible feat!  Granted there were a couple times he walked around the tree once or twice while he was tied and towards the end he showed his boredom by doing the cutest little nose nudges on my back.  He would softly bump me asking if we could get going, but I couldn't possibly consider either of those a bad behavior.  He was absolutely perfect, despite the cold, the wind, the fact that he hadn't been ridden in a couple days, and even despite the fact that I had my dog with us and she was running around all over the woods making noise where he couldn't see her!!

So, thanks to the perfect gentleman we cleared the entire stretch of the trail that had grown up and we moved on further down the logging road to finish off the last few obstacles (cleaning up the footing around some fallen logs, cutting off problematic limbs, etc. so we could safely use them as jumps) of the day.  When we finished those I remounted and we went on our way, following the neighbors switchback driveway all the way down the mountain until we could cut through the woods and back to our own driveway. We were gone for almost 2 hours.

This TB can do it all!! What a WONDERFUL boy!!

Weather whiplash

I guess I spoke too soon.  On Wednesday it was nice despite the fact that it rained on us the last 5 minutes of our ride.  Thursday was not only stellar weather but a stellar ride because Reily was sound!  We went on a nice, long trail ride climbing over the top of the mountain (see post Horses vs. Mountain Goats) then taking a slow winding ride on the switchbacks down the other side all the way back home.  Needless to say it was a great hour ride, but it was also almost pitch dark by the time we got home.  No matter, Reily not only handled doing the whole thing alone like it was old news, he handled the dark without being the slightest bit fazed.  We heard some deer off in the woods, he looked that way with ears pricked but just kept on walking with those big, rhythmic, swinging steps.  Some neighbors' dog threw a fit about us going past their house, again he looked but totally kept his cool.  I truly cannot praise this horse's brain enough!

Well the nice weather abruptly ended on Friday morning.  I heard that further south it was like a monsoon, but I'm not sure which is worse, because up here it was mid 50's in the morning and clear skies.  Then throughout the day it flip-flopped at least 3-4 times between all out downpours and then clear skies.  In fact, at one point it was perfectly sunny and dropping bucketfuls of rain simultaneously.  Very aggravating and once again the ground was SOAKED through.  Then the wind picked up making it almost impossible to even get their blankets on for an extra layer to ward off the chill before they tried to blow away while attempting to get everyone buckled in!

Reily getting his feet picked while Boo plays the role
of the "run away"

Saturday the wind had slowed only a fraction by morning.  The sun was out but you wouldn't have known it thanks to the wind chill. It continued like that all day.  My boyfriend and I spent the day like couch potatoes except when we had to go out into the tornado winds to check ponies or something else pressing.  It was pretty miserable over all.

Warming up Boo in the ring

I may not have gone to church to do it, but I was thanking the lord for Sunday by going out and enjoying it!  The wind finally let off and the sun came out and other than the occasional, short but brisk wind gust it was a gorgeous late February day so we took the fellas over to the horse park to play a bit.  I groomed and tacked up the boys and warmed up Boo in the ring (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4jehqyieNQ&context=C385cbe1ADOEgsToPDskLZ7Rss25kqW3FoEnbL-UuO) before helping my boyfriend climb up on Reily and heading up to the XC course to jump a few elements.  Boo was very good, only a couple stops that came from me not sitting up and waiting.  He was tired out when we finished and Reily was a little hot and "just wanted to run" according to my boyfriend so we played musical ponies on top of the XC course and switched saddles so he could cool Boo out and have the slower ride.

Well he really wasn't joking, Reily was feeling great and having a blast being out in the big open field so I trotted him to the far end of the course then turned him around and let him start off trotting and then let him go into a canter and eventually a gallop and we went across the entire top of the hill (a good 1/2 to 3/4 mile) and he was just LOVING IT!  Happy little ears, and when he really opened up his stride and got rolling it was the best feeling ever, he wasn't running away just floating across the turf, eating up the distance.  I foresee us doing a lot of trotting on course at the lower levels or else we'll end up getting penalized for coming home too quick!  I can't wait to get the daylight back and start riding him 5-6 days a week, he's going to be a XC machine!  Since we were up there and plenty warmed up we popped over a few tiny logs on the ground also.  I so wish we'd gotten video of it because it had to be hysterical to watch.  These were so small he could have easily stepped over them but the first two times we trotted up and he deer hopped over the log with such a big thrust he totally jumped me out of the tack.  When we landed he happily cantered away with this adorable little, "Neat mom, I like doing this new stuff!" look on his face and my boyfriend and I were both laughing like crazy.  After that we moved on to a different log on the ground and he was already starting to get better and began jumping across rather then just up, picking up his knees and hind end well.  We even went over to a bank and did a tinsey-tiny step up (which was nothing to him, with those long legs it hardly seemed like he was even changing terrain) and then walked over to the down side and after only a mild hesitation ("Mom, why do you want me to walk off this if we just walked on?") he did the tiniest drop down like it was nothing.  We did that a couple more times until he was happily popping up and straight back down in the happiest little expression ever.  Reily and I both had such a blast out on the XC course!

We took the boys back down and took care of Boo then let him out in the round pen so he could graze for a few while Reily did a few minutes of ring work.  The hardest part about not having a proper ring at home is trying to make progress on his contact.  When we adopted him they warned me he might be a bit hard mouthed at first because his exercise rider at the track used to sort of bully him around a bit and hang on his mouth when he took him out to work him.  So I want to be able to ride him on a looser rein and allow him to reach for the contact himself to learn that I'm never going to yank on his mouth, but without a ring it's very hard to give him this loose of a rein at home without running the risk of him bulging through my leg aids and heading back home whenever he feels like it.  I was very happy to work with him in the ring for a few minutes and see some improvement despite the fact that we can only work on it but so much at home.  I was giving him a very loose rein (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLXpAJAsWGQ&context=C385cbe1ADOEgsToPDskLZ7Rss25kqW3FoEnbL-UuO; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAoMTYfk-zU&feature=related) but he reached down towards the bit several times on his own!  Small victories, yes!!

Happy pony after a fun day!

Daylight savings time ends on March 11, only 13 more days! I mean... not that I'm counting or anything ;)

No hoof, no horse... no kidding

So Reily (and Boo and Scotty) got his little tootsies done on the 11th, but after having stood out in the cold with our farrier for 2+ hours holding the horses it was just too miserable to suit up and ride so the boys got off lucky.  Sunday was worse... even colder and wind like a tornado so they lucked out again.  Monday I worked late and Tuesday was wet.  Wednesday finally rolled around and I was so excited to get home in time to jump on for a few minutes.  I went to get him out of the feild and as I put his halter on and started to turn him towards the gate I saw him take an odd step... something I'd seen him do that morning but written off because there was some gravel under his hoof then and I thought he just caught one sharp edge.

With knitted brows I took him out of the feild and trotted him in hand on the grass, nothing.  Ok, maybe I was seeing things.  We walked across the driveway and I didn't see any more off steps but I could see, and hear, that his stride was just the very tiniest bit shorter.  Hmm, now what?  I tried pulling him in tight circles in both directions, nothing.  Well, I figured the only way to find out if I was crazy or I'd actually seen something was to get on and try him under tack.  So we tacked up and walked in the yard just fine, ok so lets try the trot... still normal.  Moment of truth, we started down the driveway and everything seemed fine walking straigh across, but once we got a little ways down on the shoulder we had a 10 yard stretch of all gravel to go across.  Sure enough, that's when I got my answer, he was off.  Granted it wasn't bad, it was just there, ever so slightly, but it was there.  So right around we turned and back home we went with a big :'( face for me.  Bless his heart he was trying to do everything I asked but he was trying so hard I couldn't even figure out where it was coming from.  No heat, no hot nails, nothing.  So I called my farrier and after explaining everything, he figured that he must have cut his soles just a little too close.  So we went through a bute regimen for 5 days to give him some time for his soles to harden up.  Lucky, lucky Boo, he got to take up all the slack and carry me around for both of them!

Reily has great feet but I guess we're still figuring out what his feet need, it was only his second time after all.  But we got a little lucky between rain and snow (did winter finally come... and go again already? Calling for 67 DEGREES TOMORROW!!) the ground stayed soft for him and when I finally got to ride him yesterday he was 99% sound.  We went for a hack down off the road and had just a couple off steps (none on the gravel, but a couple on the pavement) in that whole time.  Tonight we hacked up the mountain (he'll have those buns of steel in no time!) and did two easy laps around the loop.  We w/t/c and even jumped some tiny logs, all sound.  I even trotted him on the gravel driveway on the way back home and he felt smooth.  Hopefully tomorrow he'll be absolutely 100%... I'll let you know!

Ready for the red carpet?

So I know I've told a lot of different people already but at this point I can't remember who has heard and who hasn't so I figured it'd be easier to just share with the five people who read this world that Reily is going to be a film star... again!  Only this time it's going to be on national TV rather than an OTTB promotional DVD.  For those of you in horses you've probably at least heard of HRTV, also known as Horse Racing Television, and maybe even heard of the show Unbridled.  And if you're not familiar with any of the above I'll explain.  Unbridled is a show featured on HRTV that is self described as:

"An all-access pass for equine enthusiasts to sit in on intimate conversations with high-profile industry insiders, and go behind-the-scenes to learn from the worlds most accomplished and fascinating horse people. The award-winning series is contracted to broadcast its 10th season on HRTV in 2012."

Well Unbridled is featuring an in-series segment called "Thoro'Talent" which is going to showcase OTTBs and show all the things they can excel at after retiring from racing.  That includes everything from trail riding and western competition to show jumping and three day eventing.  Us eventers, we have a soft spot in our hearts for OTTBs.  They're big, bold, beautiful athletes who give their riders their whole heart and would, quite literally, jump off a cliff (read 6-8' drop banks such as those found at the Rolex grand slam events) for you if you asked them to.  Shout out to paulickreport.com and eventingnation.com where I first saw the call for submissions!  So just a couple days before the deadline I sent in a quick email about Reily, what we've done so far and what we hope to accomplish one day.  Amazingly, just two days later I received this email:

"Dear Celeste,

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to share Reily's story with us. We are looking forward to formatting your piece for distribution on Unbridled. We will be sending you a release form and questionnaire in the next few weeks. In the meantime, please feel free to keep in touch, update us on any details, and keep loving your thoroughbred!

 

If you have any additional video or pictures, please email. 

 

We are in the process of setting up a THORO'TALENT website to connect the ThoroTalent Community. In the meantime, please join us on FaceBook: www.facebook.com/ThoroTalent

 

May we have your permission to add you to our email list to send show updates and THORO'TALENT news? 

 

Our twitter is www.twitter.com/ThoroTalent

 

Please connect with us and help us show the world how wonderful it is to own a thoroughbred.

 

With sincere thanks,

 

Susan Kayne

Executive Producer, Unbridled TV

1.877.WINS.BIG | 518.537.7223"

 

 

So that's super exciting for both of us!  I told Reily, but luckily he's not letting it go to his head ;)  Now all we can do is pray for the weather to stay decent.  We rode every day from Jan 28- Feb 1, then he had two days off due to bad weather and me having to work late.  We got to ride again Sunday, Monday, and tonight though!  On Sunday it was cold and windy but we decided to take the boys over to Green Hill anyways.  Boo was splendid and did some great jump work at the end of his ride.  Reily was a little ball of fury and just had tons of energy to blow off so let's just say my calves have been on fire for the last 3 days.  He settled some towards the end (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVfXeldsESw&context=C35061a8ADOEgsToPDskLo1KjclQijzNr2YfvGSkId) and we even jumped (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLlBqp87ddQ&feature=related) some cross rails!  What a good baby :)