#LittleAsshole is Growing Up

My original plan was to send Sullivan to the same trainer who started his sire. I really liked what Roland did for Ritchie and was hopeful for a repeat on my little guy.

Unfortunately Roland is booked almost 16 months in advance. So back in summer of 2015 I booked my then yearling in for 30 days in February of 2017 and 30 days in January of 2018. The plan was to put an initial 30 days on him as a late 2 year old and then another as a late 3 year old with minimal work in the meantime.

And then my yearling grew very very slowly. His joints as still huge and open and he's physically immature. And small. He finally hit 15HH in January (for the record his sire is 16.2, his dam is 15.2 but throws big babies, the last 1/2 warmblood is 17HH). And mentally he's taking his sweet time maturing as well.

He doesn't look small next to the cutting horses

So I decided that sending him for 30 days at this point was not the best value. He's at a point where he can really only handle 15 minutes of work/pressure every few days. So if I sent him he'd likely only end up with 4-5 hours of work over the month.

My mom used to train horses for a living and I've started a few on my own (under her supervision) so we decided that since Sullivan was going to be spending the winter with my mom anyways we would start him ourselves over the winter. This gave us the opportunity to do it very slowly in order to keep with his current abilities.

Since neither one of us was interested in putting the first few rides on my mom called in a favour and got one of her clients, a professional cutting trainer, to put the first few rides on, just to be safe. Sullivan was a star for it all. He bucked when he was first saddled and then hasn't even considered it since.

No longer just a pasture pet!

He's now had 10 rides, spread over the course of 4 months. He's willing, curious and brave. I couldn't ask for a better baby horse. I haven't had a chance to see him go in person yet but the videos make me super excited about his future.

Ride 8, and look at how balanced his canter is

He' going to stay with my mom for the summer and then come home in the fall. He's so happy there and it's very good for him as he has a 40 acre field, on the side of a hill, and a herd of 15 to terrorize. My place is only 4 acres so having one less to graze makes pasture management easier.

I can't wait until I finally get to sit on him. It's a dream that's been in the making for over 5 years.

It's hard to believe this was less than 3 years ago

He Jumps!

William is coming along really well. He's smart and is completely willing to try and figure out what I am asking for.

He's got contact figured out, his walk is fabulous, he's the trot pole master, his canter departs are beginning to come from lift rather than run, he bends reliably to the right (the left is still a struggle for more than a stride or two). He also leg yields both directions at the walk really well and is figuring it out at the trot. He does remarkably solid turns on the forehand. Shoulder in is coming along (he's much better on a circle, a straight line is still a bit dicey).

I let Dee wander while I ride him
He doesn't care and just goes to work like a solid citizen

He hasn't put a foot out of place under saddle. He hasn't spooked, refused to try something or even gotten annoyed. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm sure one day he's going to have a spectacular reaction to something completely unassuming.

I had originally planned to wait until the new year before I started him over fences but he's been such a good kid that I figured it wouldn't hurt to throw that plan out the window.

So on Sunday we set up a little cross pole and away we went.

He didn't even blink. he just trotted over it like it wasn't there, each time.

So we raised it up a bit. And he trotted over it, just picking his knees up higher.

We finally raised it a bit more (the center was maybe 2'3" on a tall day) and he jumped with his front legs, trotting with his back legs.

So we cantered. And he finally jumped! With absolutely no hesitation he just cantered through like he's been doing this his entire life. We came around and did it off the other lead and when he was foot-perfect again I called it quits and got off.

I know I gush about him every time I post but he's just so much fun. And is making this retraining process seem so easy (so far, I have no illusions that we won't hit a wall at some point).

Blurry screen shot for those who don't watch videos
I love everything about this from the standard forward, his knees, his expression!

Bonus? My dressage coach loves him and thinks he'll make a fabulous dressage pony if this jumping thing doesn't work out.

Equinpilot Foal Pool

Because I really love babies and it's fun to imagine what's coming. So here are my guesses for Equinpilot's Foal Pool.

So much chrome! (Photo borrowed from Equinpilot's blog)

Foal #1 (Castleberrys ReFflection x Castleberrys Dyma Hi)
Birthdate: April 13
Gender: Colt
Chrome: 2 high socks, 2 cornet, narrow blaze

Foal #2 (Castleberrys ReFflection x Castleberrys Rosalee)
Birthdate: May 12
Gender: Filly
Chrome: 4 stockings, wide blaze

Foal #3 (Castleberrys ReFflection x Hawkshill-Castleberrys Rosina)
Birthdate:  May 5
Gender: Colt
Chrome: 3 socks, 1 cornet, narrow blaze, belly spot
Colour: Bay

Foal #4 (Castleberrys ReFflection x Nebo Ffion)
Birthdate: May 22
Gender: Colt
Chrome: 4 stockings, wide blaze, belly spot

Foal #5 (Castleberrys ReFflection x Rhosyr Ebony)
Birthdate: May 30
Gender: Filly
Chrome: Star, snip, 2 socks
Colour: Black

I'm not sure if it's my love of chrome that wants 4 out of the 5 to come out with all white feet and white faces. But hey, it's all a bit of a crap-shoot, especially with a first foal crop.

Ritchie also has 2 babies hitting the ground this year. I can't wait to see what he produces this year. So far, each year has been an improvement.

Still my favourite Ritchie baby (even if he's currently a homely #littleasshole)

Not So Wild Anymore

*No horses or humans were injured during the following events, despite many dark thoughts by both*

We've been working with Sullivan at least once a day for the past 6 weeks now. For the first 4 weeks I vacillated between "Oh god, he's awful and he'll need to find a new home" and "He's just a baby, a super smart baby with a mile-wide stubborn streak, he'll come around". And then at the beginning of week 5 he got his feet trimmed...

Wide-eyed, but he stood quietly for 2 hours

I love my farrier. Sullivan, despite having had all 4 feet picked up every day for well over a week, decided he wasn't having any of this farrier nonsense. He would pick up his foot and promptly jerk it back. When that didn't work well, he reared up, backed up, threw himself into the wall, whatever he could think of. He knocked my farrier on his ass and managed to catch me in the chest with one of his front legs during a time when he reared and tried to run me over. After that he got quite a thrashing. It seemed to give him the clarity required. After that he stood like a perfect gentleman for all 4 feet. He's also been super good for his feet since.

My mom worked him in the round pen (She used to train and her timing is so much better than mine)

He then spent a few hours in a stall (for the first time) while Dee was hot shod. He handled the smoke and banging much better than I anticipated. The next day I borrowed a western saddle from my mom and he learned to pony, once again, it went much better than expected. I'm not sure if it was the clarity instilled by the farrier or just something clicking but he's been super since that day.

Notice his legs are basically the same length as Dee's?

In the last two weeks he's learned about fly spray, blankets, baths, trot poles, going down the road, and trailer rides just for the sake of it. He's even jumped cross rails in hand! He's been super about all of it.  He may object at the very beginning of something new but it doesn't take him long to figure out what I want.

So clean and soft now

I feel confident in kicking him out to pasture now.  Sure he may be a little wild when he comes back in but the foundation is now there.

Exercise sheet works perfectly as a training blanket

He loads solidly now, ramp, no ramp, back out, turn around, it's all good

Wordless Wednesday

Because Who Doesn't Love Baby Photos

Recently I had Natural Dynamic Photography out to do photos of Sullivan.  I'm really happy with how they turned out.  It's always a bit of a crap shoot if babies are going to cooperate. He's 8 weeks old in these.

This one's my favourite

Look Ma, No feet!

Yes, I'm a little stinker!

Sullivan's First Road Trip

I've had a ton of things happen I need to catch up on.

Sullivan is officially inspected and registered RPSI.  We took him, Jasper, their mamas and Ritchie down to Okotoks for their inspection.  I  hauled the mare and foal pairs (I LOVE MY TRAILER!) and Shimmer-E followed in her rig with the stallion.

Considering the boys aren't halter broke and neither mare has been on a trailer in years it went surprisingly well.  Mares loaded like champs and we basically just lifted the boys in.  All 4 hauled and unloaded beautifully.

Fresh off our first trailer ride (which was 5 hours)

We got everyone settled in and ran into town to have dinner with my friend DM.  It was lovely to see her and the food was awesome.  The menu had 7(!!) pages of hamburgers.  Talk about hard to choose.

The weather forecast was calling for light snow but we weren't too concerned, in the first week of September it is very unusual for the temps to be low enough to be concerned about ice.  Well Mother Nature apparently likes to mix things up, just for shits and giggles.

The driveway at the barn.  The poor trees were crippled by the weight of leaves and snow.

We woke up to well over 8 inches of heavy, wet snow, no power and terrible roads.  Thankfully I had my winter riding boots and a scarf with me, but we definitely were not prepared for winter conditions.  The trip to the barn took twice as long as the evening before and once we got there we were slogging through over a foot of the white stuff.  Poor horses (who had overnighted in big beautiful paddocks) were wet and shivering.  There was also no power at the barn, which meant no heat or power doors.  Thankfully they had a small generator that powered the lights.


The inspection was a little smaller than planned, due to the poor road conditions, but went very well. Sullivan scored a Silver Premium!  I'm very happy with my little half Arab colt.  I think if he had been a little older (and warmer) he likely could have even scored better but he was still within striking distance of the top scoring colt.

Silver Premium

The plan was to brand him but since he was so wet we had to microchip instead.  He can be branded next year if I want to take him back.  I'm not sure what I'll do.  I think I will re-assess when it's closer since it's a long way to go (5 hours).

I had to leave as soon as we were done because I couldn't take anymore time off work. Both colts jumped right in the trailer.  Here's hoping this is a life-long skill. I checked the road reports and it was looking like it was completely fine after the first 45 min.  Thankfully the plows had been out, so once I was off the back roads it was smooth sailing.  I made it home, to where there was no snow, in decent time and proceeded to go school XC in a T-Shirt.  Gotta love Alberta weather.

All The Cuteness!!

So I have become quite apathetic about blogging due to continued issues with the red mare.  At some point I will update on her but today I'd rather focus on the happy.  So without further ado I introduce to you Le Premieur SE (Sullivan), a 2014 RPSI colt out of La Bamba SE (Ritchie)

About 4 hours old!

 Sullivan is one of the first foals from Shimmer-E's lovely 4 year old stallion out of an Arab mare.  I'm very excited to announce he's all mine!  I was there shortly after his birth and signed the papers then and there.

He's going to the RPSI inspection on Sept 10th and there he will be fully branded.  He will also be dual registered half Arab.  I'm not sure I have any interest in showing on the Arab circuit but you can win blankets of roses so I'm not ruling it out yet!

My hopes are that he will prove to have the same attitude and work ethic of his sire.  The talent would be awesome as well!  For now he's just going to have to get used to being loved (read: pestered).

3 weeks old

3 weeks old

All the sleepies.

Pony Filled Weekend

Friday was my day off so I headed down to Red Deer for the Gold Dressage show where Shimmer-E was showing her lovely 4-year-old RPSI stallion in their first Gold show.

I'm a braiding machine! (And Ritchie was convinced his water belonged on the floor, hence the Captain Jack pose)

Her weekend started off with a bumpy start, her Thursday hack was tense, distracted and Ritchie threw in a buck. Friday morning she was feeling nervous and discouraged and like she may have over-faced her horse.  After another tense warm up she elected to dismount because she was not feeling confident or safe.  After a quick discussion with the steward it was decided that I could in fact warm him up.  So I grabbed my boots and breeches out of the car, borrowed her helmet and mounted up. Studly Pants was a little behind my leg, and a lot tense but I said "go forward, and go forward NOW" and since Shimmer-E has installed all the right buttons he responded with "Yes, Ma'am".  We went on to have a solid warm up.  He was no where near as relaxed as he can be, nor as forward but he was willing and obedient.  For a baby stallion at his first really big atmosphere I think we can call that a win.  They went in to take a 67.7% in First Level-1, good enough for a first!

Saturday I got up early to go and ride Ritchie again since Shimmer-E was teaching a first-aid course.  He schooled just lovely and then I settled him in for the day and booked it home.  I loaded up my mare, went and grabbed a couple of friends and their horses and made the trek to Minds Eye Ranch for our first cross-country school of the year.  It deserves a post of it's own, so stay tuned!

Most handsomest baby pony

Sunday I headed back to Red Deer to help out Shimmer-E again.  I got him braided and all groomed up (she had let him roll in the arena-this is me publicly shaming her for not bathing him after!) and hoped on to warm him up again.  He warmed up fabulously!!!!  I couldn't have asked for anything better.  There was a small jump set up (read 12", maybe) and he even got his first experience going over a fence with a rider.  Once those massive joints of his fuse I'm totally stealing him and he's going to make a fabulous jumper.

Amanda got on and was having a great warm up until a gelding walked by in a scrim sheet.  The sheet for some reason caused a baby meltdown.  They had to go in and ride their test and Shimmer-E kept it together and rode the very distracted and tense horse that showed up and managed to pull off a ride that was good enough for 3rd.  We just couldn't get his brain back so after a few 'discussions' about acceptable behaviour we ended on a decent note and put him back in his stall to hopefully let him settle.

We pulled him out for his last test of the day and he was back to being a very good boy.  A few bobbles left them slightly behind their first First Level score but it was still good enough to win the class.  It was a really good place to end his show weekend (after a brief photo shoot with his handsome ribbons).

Thanks to Natural Expressions Photography for this lovely photo of a most handsome boy.