OTTB Charm

I've got some stuff to blog about with Banner, but for now the spotlight is still on Charmer, so Banner's posts will be coming up later this week. Bringing Charmer back into work has quite honestly been such a joy for me. He's a lot of horse, and there's no denying that, but he is quite athletic and I have a connection with him that I'm not sure I've ever felt with any other horse. His back feels like "home", and I kind of always know what he's going to do even before he does it. It's a very wonderful and unique feeling that I'm appreciating even more after all the time off he got last year. I've been slowing building up his strength (as I mentioned in my last post) and working on getting him to use his body appropriately again. His baseline fitness tends to come back pretty quickly, so I've been really working on making sure he stays soft in the bridle as he gets more fit. Sort of on a whim, but not completely, I picked u...

Sometimes I notice myself forget why I got into this sport in the first place. That pure, unadulterated love of the horse. The grin you get from ear to ear when you see your favorite horse hang his head over the stall door. Those little things. It is so easy to get caught up on your next big goal or how you want to advance in the sport and not be grateful for how far you've come and what you've accomplished. In September of 2018, I took Charmer to his last show of the year (I was bad and didn't blog it - whoops!). Since I first owned him in July of 2015, he has never gotten very much time off. Usually nothing more than a few weeks here and there. With the entrance of Banner into my life last year I finally had another horse to focus on and compete on, so I decided to give Charmer some time off. I actually gave him the better part of 6 months completely off (I think in the course of that 6 months I rode him maybe 3-4 times total?). He definitely lost some topline over...

I'm way late on this post, but better late than never, right? Charmer and I had our 3 year anniversary on July 7th this year. I always get him something for our "gotcha day" anniversary. The first year was a leather halter, the second year was a saddle (which we just desperately needed anyways, but worked out as his "present"), this year we got a PS of Sweden bridle. Also, despite having lots of photos under saddle with Charmer, I have little to no profile photoshoot style pictures. So part 2 of his gift this year was getting a photoshoot taken in his new bridle! He looks so good in his PSoS bridle! Heels, hearts & horses. All I need in life.  Just can't believe how good his body condition is right now! Quiet moments with my best friend. I love how this shot captures how much I love him. New profile picture? I think yes. Charmer is looking so good lately! Also, I'm 5'6" & in 3" heels and I'm b...

Last year, I was a working student at the barn I train at! It was a blast and I learned so much. But one of the best parts about the job is the horses you get to meet and interact with along the way. You tend to get more attached to some of them than you really should. There were a very small percentage of the horses that truly captured my heart. 3 in particular. One was an angry red horse. Big and mean and I loved him. He always made me laugh and we had a special little understanding with each other. I was heartbroken when he passed (I even went to say goodbye to him the day before). The second was one of my trainer's 2* horses, who at the time was on stall rest. He was big and black and goofy as they come. I was constantly wrapping and lasering and hand-walking, but I loved it and his big personality. The third was a client horse who only boarded there for a month, but continued lessons afterwards. An adorable 16hh, dark bay OTTB with 3 white socks. A complete sweetheart and ju...

I have like 4 blog posts that I should be writing, but finals weeks and life got the better of me, and so I have been totally slacking on the blog front. Ponies are both doing great though, and Charmer just got a well-deserved and much-needed chiropractic appointment, following a brief lameness on his RF (now fine). The semester is over, finally! And with it ending, comes a little more time for riding and pony things. In the meantime, I ended up upgrading my boys' ride. Say hello to my new trailer! I've been wanting to upgrade for a while now, but had some pretty specific parameters, and could not for the life of me find what fit. Then I just happened to be driving through the Home Depot parking lot and saw this trailer hooked up, with a for sale sign on it! I couldn't believe my luck! Checked it out and sure enough it is perfect. It just got delivered last night! It is a 2002 Charmac, 3H gooseneck, max height & width, with a small sleeping quarters up front an...

Charmer has officially been in this world for an entire 8 years today! In order to celebrate a very happy birthday to my favorite hunk of a horse, I decided to share 8 of my favorite photos with him! This horse has been such an incredible blessing in my life. He makes me laugh and smile on both my best and my worst days. He makes my life so much better, and I can only hope I do the same for him. Happy 8th Birthday, Charmer! Here's to many, many more together!! 💓