Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Clown-boy in Training

Ben has been in training for 1 week. He's doing so well! All of our hard work over the past year has paid off- the trainer was able to start working under saddle right away, and by day 3, my boy has started looking like 1 million bucks...well in my opinion. His ride does start out very standardbred-y, but the trainer is working on teaching him to loosen his back, and once that happens, he switches from pacey/cart mode into cute rideable dressage horse mode.

This video was taken at the very end of his ride, so he's a bit tired and taking a bit of effort to keep moving along. I have a bunch of other footage, but its all bouncy and choppy because I apparently suck at holding a camera for any length of time.



The plan is to visit him weekly, on Saturdays, and document his progress. I didn't use the camera for still shots because #1 it was a little dark, and someone was a bit spooky as it was - nevermind adding a flash to the mix, and #2 the photos that require a flash come out crappy anyway.

And...so late in coming...but our Halloween pictures have finally arrived! YAY!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Official Announcement

I know, I know...its been too long without a Ben update. Sorry about that.

I have great BIG news to announce on Ben's behalf.

Drumroll please....

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Ben is going into full training in February!

Why, might you ask?

As you may have seen in previous posts, and even seen in the posted video,  Ben has a heckuva stride on him. His young launch/stop/start movement is very jarring to my body, and 98% of the time, I walk away from our rides in massive pain, and the inability to teach my young horse the finer qualities of being a great riding horse, like trotting nicely. I (mostly) fully believe that with someone to bridge the gap, to teach him how to carry himself and go forward at an even cadence, I will be able to ride him successfully, without shelling out $$$ for hellish massage appointments. Now, there is always a chance (enter reality check) that his movement may always knock my body out of whack. It is out there, like a little rain cloud looming over a distant mountain. But we're not going to worry about that until it comes closer and starts pouring down on us.

And the best part, since I won't be the one riding, I can be armed with my camera to take pictures and video when I get to visit him, which will be 1-2 times a week. So hopefully this blog will get more visually stimulating!