OTTB Charm

Charmer is my first straight off the racetrack horse. As such, I got him in race-fit condition. To clarify, he was not  in bad shape. He was in the condition that he was supposed to be in for the sport that he was doing at that time. Charmer was loved, treated well, and cared for. This is not whatsoever a post to say I "rescued" him or whatever. Because I didn't. If you get a horse straight off the track, you did not rescue them, you gave them a place to retire to. Charmer was in a fantastic home and his owners loved  him. Both on and off the racetrack, he was treated like a king. But that said, racehorse fit and sporthorse fit are very, very different things. Ever since the first day I got him, I was fascinated and excited to see how his body would develop as he changed disciplines. As he went from a horse that needed incredibly lean muscle to run as fast as possible, to a horse that needs thicker, different muscles to carry his body in a completely different way. Pl...

I have been so proud of how Charmer is doing these last couple of months. He just feels like he is finally learning how to horse. He is starting to learn that if I point him at a jump, I want him to go over it. Every time. When I ask him to rebalance in the canter and get off his forehand, he is finally learning how to properly respond to that. If I insist on lateral movements, he gets to work with only a few head tosses and angry moments. It blows my mind that somehow we went from this: To this: I also feel like I am learning how to rider again. During the time I have owned him, I have doubted myself innumerable times. Occasionally, I have lost faith in him. And I have often despaired that I am ruining a perfectly good horse. But somehow, in the last few months, things have begun to click. Everything feels like it is falling into place, and I love it. My own confidence is coming back. It is still not perfect, but little by little I am building on it. Now that I am...

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who loved a little bay horse. His name was Diamond Delight, and he was one of the most wonderful souls I have ever met. To this day, he remains incredibly special and dear to my heart. He was an adorable little 14.2hh Morgan horse. He had a beautiful, rich, reddish bay coat, one single white sock on his right hind, a snip on his nose, and a perfect diamond shaped star on his forehead. I'm sure he had flaws, but for the life of me, I cannot think of one. He was quirky, sure, but to me, he was perfect. Yes, he spooked at noises behind him, and absolutely hated going near tarps. He also could not stand the idea of polocrosse, because he hated the balls flying around. In games, he was not for the faint of heart, because he often thought something was going to eat him. He was always on the fairly fast side, and he often bolted. But despite all of these things, I was never afraid of him, and quite honestly found no faults in hi...