OTTB Charm

Banner has been mine for almost a full 2 months now, and I have been loving every single moment with him. He is incredibly versatile, but so gentle at the same time. He is bringing a joy to riding that I haven't felt in years , if ever. He is easily the most trained horse out of my 3 and is always game for trying new things. Like riding tackless for the first time. And then letting me stand up on him - no big deal. I am definitely still learning how to ride him though. He is a big, huge tattletale on me when I shift or change. He will cruise along at the canter as long as I ask him to, but if I take my leg off, he breaks. We are working on our counter canter (with trainer help), and he swaps leads if I shift my weight by an ounce. He is forgiving and awesome over fences and is teaching me a lot, but he requires a correct ride! *photos are just from a random home ride, not our lesson* In order to try to improve my own riding and give him the ride that he deserves, ...

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 weekend, I went to a local schooling show for the first time this year! I missed several of them with the excuse "it's early in the year, I'll hit the next one". Then all of a sudden we were halfway through the year and I still hadn't gotten out at all! I decided to take Charmer and Banner to the show. Poor Wonder got left at home, but he ended up not seeming too bothered by it. When I signed up for the show, I put Banner in a 2' class & Training 2 dressage test and stuck Charmer in a 2'6" and 2'9" jump rounds, along with a 2'6" derby round on the grass. When the show schedule came out a few days prior to the show I noticed that Banner's dressage test was 8 minutes before we were supposed to do our 2' jump round. I decided that I didn't want to do that, so I texted Trainer and switched our 2' jump round to the morning 2'9" round. The way these shows work is they start at 2'9" in the mor...

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...

It's been a busy last couple of months in the circus my life. The boys and I have gotten into a routine again - a solid 4+ rides per week schedule for both of them. And I finally dragged our sorry butts out to lessons. Wonder has had two lessons, one with each one of our trainers. He won them both over with his brave, cute little movement and good brain. I was a little rusty, and suffering from "rogue left hand syndrome" at first, but I'm getting back to the rhythm of things. Charmer and I had a lesson with S and she changed some of our tack and absolutely revolutionized  our ride. We got back to jumping 2'6"/2'9" comfortably with her help. Good trainers are life changing! The week after all of our lessons, I put all of our training to use at home. Wonder is learning to accept and seek the contact while staying forward on the flat. In the moments where he gets it, I get a fantastic glimpse into the horse he will become in time! I worked with Cha...

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!! 💓