Baby Wins The Weekend

For part one of this adventure click HERE and catch up.

This was going to be a three-part story but due to a minor incident at feeding time on Friday, Bacardi was a tad lame/distracted on Saturday, so that day was a wash.

Sunday was brilliant though. My parental units and The Boy came out to oogle the property since I obviously bragged about it A LOT, and take pictures. Because pictures are everything. The Boy wins all the awards. Prepare yourselves for a deluge of Bacardi spam. Do not make fun of him for his uneven clip *crying laughing emoji*

Sunday taught me 3 things 1) My baby OTTB is a BAMF. 2) My eq is REALLY bad lately 3) Red plaid leggings are the ONLY thing I want to wear form now on, because of obvious reasons.

Bacardi blew me away this weekend. Trailering, being in a new place, pasture boarded alone, awkwardly high temperatures, being ridden more than usual...all pretty high stressful things.

He reacted like you would expect any mildly seasoned show horse; excited but not fractious. Settled into his job like he had been there done that.  I was expecting a fire breathing dragon that would only be controlled with nose chains and basically be unrideable, but he sure showed me.

Stretch like pro

Warm-up was great. We were in the indoor with TWO other horse and a barn tour was being given. Oh and I should mention the other two horses were ridden by teenagers, aka dont know how to share arenas, and were jumping. He literally did not give a fuck. I almost fell out of my saddle. The other part of my brain was like, OK, when is the explosion happening.

But it never came.

It was about a thousand degrees in the indoor, so we migrated outside and he handled the scenery change without  fuss. I was REALLY surprised he didnt have a conniption leaving his 'friends' in the indoor.

Yep. None given.

I wanted to keep the lesson simple, so we schooled 20m circles & 3 loop serpentines. Focusing on geometry, since I am still pretty terrible at it even after high school, and maintaining energy. I am making a point to ride him forward forward forward to avoid him breaking a the 3rd vertebrae, in an attempt to create lift in the shoulders, and drive from behind. Obviously, not 100%, but he's getting the idea.

Very up, many energies. 

I cant stop looking at the action he produces in that big chesnut body. Its so UP. MANY LOFTS. So energy.

Hocks. Knees. Back. SO ROUND. 

Warning: major brag moment. Please keep scrolling if you are sickened by such actions.

I think my caption on insta of this pic was "is this horse really five?" An OTTB at that, five years old, has moments like this one of self carriage, complete connected energy from back to front and is 98% working correctly. I wouldn't have believed you if you had told me when I first brought him home that 6 months later we would have this kind of progress. This guy shows up to WORK. Every damn time.

Love him.

OK, I'm over that now.

His canter work still needs some work but the transitions are coming along nicely and we mostly stay balanced through them all. I'm wondering if all OTTBs have basically flawless canters, because Yankee's was and continues to be his best. Same with B.

Looking like an adult

In these, he's doing well not falling forward and maintaining upward energy. Still needs some strength, but major improvements. I noticed the left lead is worse. Odd, considering thats usually the opposite for OTTBs.

Classic B. Broekn at the 3rd and a little on the forehand. When riding at first it feels amazing because his natural gait is so wonderful, but really, hes curling behind to avoid working properly. Naughty naughty.  As you can see in the photo, I raise my hands a little in coordination with inside hand half halts, deep seat, and inside leg for energy...

Schooling seat is bad. Eq horrible. Look away.

3 strides later, he's a little more active behind and uphill. RF still hits the ground before LH, but this will come with strength!  Doesnt make for pretty pictures since your seat/inside leg works overtime, but whatever, for learning purposes it works.

Overall the red nugget was an angel and more than reached my expectations- he blew them away with the force of mild hurricane.

Prolly the most active hind leg stretchy trot ever

He was also rather good getting in the trailer on the way home. *Only* took a half an hour, but we went molasses slow with it and did not push him at all. Its like he has to think about it for a while and then just accepts it and gets in without a fuss. Literally. He got in and out halfway maybe 27 times before he just looked at me, huffed, and walked in and started munching hay like it was no big deal.

Plus side on him refusing to get OFF once he's on is you can load by yourself and not worry about him backing off before you can get the rear door closed. Yay?

But yeah getting off is another battle royale on its own.

In time.