It's been a VERY exciting day for me today. The excitement started when Richard approached me about Cricket. Cricket is the APHA mare that belongs to a friend of ours, who's been staying with us for the past 8 weeks or so, fattening up on our nice pasture. Anyway, Richard said he'd talked to Cricket's owner, who's DESPARATELY trying to find her a home, and that it was mentioned that if I wanted her, I could HAVE her for FREE. So...exciting news. I have a new horse! I'll probably develop her up and try to find her a home with someone just starting PNH. She's a very nice horse with a huge heart, and I feel like someone could really go far with her. She's so quiet and sweet, she's SO deserving of that wonderful home, and I'd love to help her find it, and in the mean time (however long that takes, I really am not wearing a watch here) I'll provide it.
I would say her only big downfall right now is her horribly atrophied topline. She's been undereweight, and now she's just sadly undermuscled. We started a hill therapy program tonight, and got through the first 5 minutes of circling, and then I realized that she really had NO CLUE how to pick her feet up when she moved. She'd stumble over some tall grass, or a small stick, etc. So instead of the second round, I pulled out some cavalettis about 6" high, and set 4 in a row up along the fence line. She started out REALLY clumsy, as I expected, but as we kept going along, (I kept the same time scale as if we were using a hill) her eyes got brighter, he feet got higher, and she started to REALLY use herself. I've NEVER seen something have that drastic an impact in one session physically before. It was remarkable. The last 30 seconds or so, she was prancing over those cavalettis like she owned them, and she was rounding her topline even on the rest of the circle. At the rate she's going, she'll have a topline like Remmer before the month is out-haha!
My second piece of exciting news is slightly less heartfelt, but I'm still PSYCHED! Parelli Collection called me this afternoon to let me know that my saddle is READY TO SHIP, and will be going out either today or tomorrow. OMG! It'll be here in A WEEK! Maybe in time for Farrah's clinic? I HOPE SO! God that would be PERFECT. EEEEEKK! I can't wait to have it :D This'll be wonderful. I felt giddy today after I got the call, I actually drove down to Winona and pathetically invested in a saddle stand especially for it to sit on. I'm silly. Anyway, REALLY excited, it should be here by Tuesday or Wednesday next week!
Okay, bedtime, I have to get up and water flowers tomorrow, oh joy.
PS, trimmed feet today, Crest's are like BLACK GRANITE...Need like, robotic limbs to pull that off!
Photo by Margaret Chant and edited by Jessica Metropulos
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Aww!! Cricket! That is so cool.. you should post the HT progress as you go.. it would be really interesting. I love before and after pictures!
Also... make sure you post pictures of Prin modeling the saddle.. yay!
Hey Fran...I'll be looking for a good "beginner" type horse next spring (around March) so keep me in mind unless you sell her before that, okay? Emily will be able to tell you more specifically what I would/would not be able to handle. Of course, she'd be here, too, so I can defer to her if I'd have problems...anyway, just to put that bug in your ear, I thought I'd mention the possibility.
So glad you found a way to get her to engage her body so soon! Yea you!
Jen
Jen,
What I think I'll do is put however much time is needed to get her tuned up for a PNHer onto her, and then I'll advertise her on the forum. With the horse market the way it is right now, I don't anticipate her getting sold right away anyway, and I'd of course love to see her go to someone I know.
She's a very easy going, willing to please mare, well broke enough right now that if she were 100 lbs heavier and had some topline, she'd be good to go for anyone.
So for now, I'll just keep playing it up with her, and we'll see where it goes. I'll keep you in mind for sure, that would be a wonderful situation.
Fran
Post a Comment