Wednesday, May 26, 2010

A Photographic Glimpse of Progress

Yesterday I took an extended lunch to meet the farrier at the barn to get Granite's second pair of shoes set (and YES, I kept the first pair!! Ideas of what to do with them?). Steve the SuperFarrier is amazing. Everyone (man and beast included) loves this man. He said our upright hoof is looking great as far as angle improvement!
As you can see, my kid is unimpressed (whats new?).

My boss is a pretty laid back fella and told me I didn't have to come back to work is I didn't want to, so when Becky said she had planned to do a training ride, I quickly decided to stay and watch. I've only been able to watch a couple of rides and I usually show up about half way through them, so to watch a whole ride after a little over a month of work was a great opportunity. They are now trotting, steering, going over trotting poles, doing leg yields and turns on the forehand in addition to backing up! Becky keeps telling me that he is a very dull 3 year old (in that he is not very reactive/responsive to aids-- or anything rather). So I wasn't expecting much in the way of refinement. Low expectations are a great thing to have sometimes because I was very impressed with what I saw. I will save you the boring run-down and show you the photos (now that I have a less-than-stellar yet still functional camera). ENJOY!

Trot Poles to remind him where his feet are!







SO? Does anyone else think I have a little 3 year old superstar on my hands? Reactive or not, the kid looked great! He is such a sweetie pie!! I get to ride him TOMORROW!!! Hopefully I can get some pictures to share with you. I know its a day that will go down in history for me too :) I LOVE this horse with everything I am.

16 comments:

  1. Awwwww - he looks wonderful!! I love his black forelock too. I can't wait to hear about your first ride....I know it will be great.

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  2. He looks great! Can't wait to hear about your ride!

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  3. Awww he looks like a good boy! Can't wait to see him under hunter tack. He's super gorgeous. And I bet he will get more responsive as he gets more fit. That's what happened with my boy.

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  4. He is GORGEOUS Rachel!!!! Complete *SUPERSTAR*!

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  5. So exciting!! He looks AMAZING - have fun riding him tomorrow!

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  6. Ummm can I steal him for dressage now? He is so cute! What a nice trot, he is going to steal hearts in the hunter ring!

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  7. You guys are making me feel so good! Thanks for all the fantastic comments :)

    Karen: He is totally going to look like a champ in hunter tack (and after a bath). I hope his responsiveness improves-- I also suspect once mommy gets to riding, we may have more of an understanding off of which to work.

    GPG: i've been contemplating this whole "dressage" thing ;) His grandsire was quite the dressage star in his day (Graf Genius-- google him), so I feel like it may be a destiny of Granite's.

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  8. He is very handsome! I can't wait to hear about your ride.

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  9. He looks soooooooo cute!!! wooohoo!!!

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  10. He looks great. I'm excited for you both, but I'm guessing your biggest problem will be not pushing too fast too soon, since he seems quite compliant.

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  11. Yay! I think I already "liked" most of these on fbook but I'll "like" them again here too! He looks awesome!! Going to be such a fancy man!

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  12. He looks fantastic!! He has such a cute face!

    Personally, I appreciate a little bit of "lazy" in my horses, but I guess that would depend on your preferred discipline. :)

    I hope you have a wonderful ride on Thursday!

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  13. I kept all of my horseshoes (I figured I paid enough) and use them as bookends or paperweights, etc. I've spray painted some and they look cool!
    Your Granite is so damn cute..what a great neck he has! He looks like he's going to be a joy (more so that is) to ride as he learns/grows.

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  14. Granite looks awesome! One of the girls I take lessons with purpose-bred her mare for a super quiet baby and boy is Sydney ever quite! Nothing fazes her and she always has the most perfect rhythm, especially down the lines. It really is hard to not push these great-minded babies too far too fast, but if Granite's happy with what he's doing there certainly isn't any harm in asking him the next question! I've never thought of keeping my shoes, but you could make bridle, blanket, ribbon hangers with them. For the blanket or ribbon hangers you'd just need to weld a bar between the shoes.
    Bridle: http://buildingsandbarns.com/shopping/media/ccp0/prodsm/horseshoe-tack-hook-7125-SM.jpg
    Blanket: http://www.2atmetalworks.com/images/barn_img13.jpg

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