Finding Motivation

Since I don't have any upcoming shows on the books I am having a hard time finding motivation to ride.  With Poppy it is more about keeping her fit.  She is pretty broke at this point and sure I know there is always something to improve on but without a goal i.e. a show looming I just feel meh about riding.  

Maybe she feels meh too

Typically I take what I need to work on from a show and focus on that in between each show.  So right now I'm hacking and popping over a few jumps here and there.  But just not very motivated.

You would think the new jumps would motivate me but nah.  There's a thought...maybe I need to make a fun new course.  Ideas?

There are always things to work on with Luxxx.  His next show is in September so this gives us plenty of time to develop him more.  Also he has only been to one horse show venue.  Eventually I do want to introduce him to the world of rated shows.  I'm not sure when that is for him.  We changed his bit at the last show so I made him up a new bridle last night and put the three ring on it with a figure 8 noseband.  I only the second ring so I would prefer a 2 ring happy mouth.  I need to get one of those.  If you have one you want to sell let me know.  I just lunged him in it last night with side reins.  Maybe I will feel motivated to ride him today.  Although with a forecast of 97 today and 98 Saturday maybe not...

Finding Your Unicorn

One of the things I like about working with babies or really any project horse is seeing their development.  It can be tough though to look at that awkward horse and see the potential.  No different than say house shopping.  You look at the foundation.  Is the conformation good (forgiving growth spurts that may have them butt high)?  Are the feet good?  Their mind (forgiving greenness)?  Do they have a nice broad shoulder?  Movement?  Especially the walk.  A horse should have a fantastic walk.  You have to see the potential.

                    Feb 2014

This is Luxxx the day I looked at him as a coming 3yo.  He lived outside in a herd so he was wooly and unkempt looking.  He had great feet and bone structure, a nice wide shoulder, and beautiful movement.  Oh and a walk to die for.  He could also do this.

And he did this with minimal effort.  

Here is a picture of his sire.  He is 17 yo in this photo at an inspection last year.  Photo credit Victoria DeMore Photography.

Buying babies and project horses is never a guarantee.  It is one thing to jump  through a jump chute it is another to jump 15 jumps in a stadium or large arena with distractions.  I felt there was enough things I liked and I took the gamble.  It's horses, it's always a gamble. 

This was April 2014.  A short 2 months after I bought him and you can already see changes.

June 2014.  Filling out and developing muscle.

January 2015.  Is this the same horse?

April 2015. Dapples for days and the big powerhouse booty has arrived.

October 2015.  Just take a look back at the very first picture.  Would you have imagined this?

April 2016.

Sometimes the gamble goes your way...

Planning and Planning to Not Plan

Right now as far as the horses go I don't really have any plans.  The baby horse was not something I had planned for this year.  I have been trying to recoup from a very expensive year and that is simply not a necessity.  When presented with the opportunity to do the embryo transfer with Poppy I thought about it a lot.  I knew my friend wanted a foal for next year and I just figured I would freeze the embryo that would be mine until another year.  Friend then asked if we could implant both embryos in surrogates and I agreed.  Let's face it.  I'm not getting any younger.  I am not sure how much longer I want to be caring for horses and a farm.  I already feel like I am getting too old to be dealing with the shenanigans of baby horses.  I am a year away from these babies being on the ground.  Then 3 years from breaking mine.  So 6 years from now it would be hopefully consistent and showing.  6 years!  So although timing isn't great I am also running out of time.

I don't have any shows on the books right now.  I might take Poppy to a rated show with trainer over the summer.  I might not.  I'm not planning anything for now...we will just see.  I am riding and jumping Poppy so when I do decide to go show she will be ready.  She is doing great.

As for Luxxx he recently did several local shows to add some mileage to his repertoire.  I will continue to work on his training and development this summer and return to the local shows with him this fall.

When a dream becomes a reality

If you have read my blog posts you know I am a bit obsessed with Poppy.

Not only do I feel a strong connection with this horse but I also find her to be pretty talented.

Since I love this mare so much I have talked about breeding her one day.  Why?  Well because if I could get a foal that was the replica of her I would be ecstatic. If I could get a foal that was even better....bonus!  Since 60% comes from the mare, she is your most important factor when deciding whether to breed.  She is by Don Alfredo and her sire line has great show jumping and dressage lines.  Her dam side is where she gets her blood. She is out of a Selle Francaise mare who is by Aerobic.  Most importantly I like her rideability.

I was recently given the opportunity to make this a reality.  About 6 weeks ago Poppy went to Ocala to have her eggs flushed and then those were sent to Texas A&M to be fertilized with Darco semen.  The fertilized eggs were then flown back to Ocala.  A month later we have 2 surrogate mares each with a Poppy/Darco baby.  One is mine and one is a friend's.  If you are not familiar with Darco a quick Google search will fill you in.  He is the sire of Maclain Ward's famous horse Sapphire.  He is also the leading show jumping sire (he's kind of a big deal).

I think this is a fabulous cross and I cannot be more excited.  I know a lot can happen with pregnancies in horses so all my fingers and toes are crossed that both foals stick and are healthy.

Hmmmmm

I would love to repost this blog post from 2014 but since I can't figure out how (yup I'm a bit of a moron at this stuff) I am just going to leave the link to it riiiight here...


A Throwback Tuesday post

Horse Show Follow Up

I strung together a video from the show on Saturday.  The first is the first 2'9 jumper class followed by the jump off and then last the speed round.  My videography is terrible so for that I apologize (I was watching and forgot also videoing).

You will notice he still needs to work in his steering.  He is a push ride which makes him that much harder to steer.  What I love most is his willingness.  I really think this arena is spooky with the stands on one side and the rodeo chutes in the other.  Tank used to hate this arena.  He went right around no spooking and did his job.

Baby Goes Horse Showing

Friday I took baby Luxxx to the final local show until fall.  And this weekend was a reminder of why showing in Florida over the summer is brutal.  Think 90s and about 90% humidity.  I don't know what hell feels like but this has to be close.

Luxxx trailered over like a champ.  We unloaded, unpacked, and he settled right in.  This time he even got along with his neighbor.  The down side to having a concrete block barn is that he doesn't have any idea of what having a neighbor is.  I did this to eliminate barn repair but at shows where he can have neighbors on 3 sides, it's a lot to take in.  I always give trainer the option of riding him and she definitely wanted to.  Although I do one day want to show him, it is nice to get a chance to see my own horse go and enjoy watching the hard work I have put into him.

He was fantastic schooling however he has been a little hard mouthed lately.  We opted for a bit and adding a martingale and this was a big help.  I start the babies in a loose ring French link typically then change as they progress.  I was thinking next would be a Waterford loose ring but trainer suggested a 2 ring happy mouth loose ring and running martingale.  She felt a big difference which I also saw. I plan to play around with bits once at home and see what I think.  She felt she was able to compact him better.  He definitely still has a long way to go with his flat work.  He is getting so big he is still learning what to do with this big body and compacting that is hard.  His stride is huge.

After schooling him over some 3 foot jumps we decided to move him up to 2'9.  Woo hoo!  The 2'6 are like speed bumps for the big baby now so we felt confident he would handle the bigger course just fine.  It was also the second division of the day so that bought me time to lunge him.

Due to trainer having other horses doing at the same time we were the last to go in our classes.  This meant the warm up ring was empty thankfully.  He does not appreciate people running into him so this helped provide him with a nice experience before going in the ring.

He jumped all his jumps, got a couple lead changes and ended up first and second!  Trainer even sliced a couple jumps.  He could care less.  He just goes.  He needs to work on steering and smoothing out his changes (he does not like to be asked he just likes to be balanced).  I could not be more proud of him.  His attitude was perfect and the things that need to be improved will come along with more time and training. I am thrilled with him.  Video coming soon when I can get them uploaded.

And last but not least Panda Moo was a perfect puppy at the show too.