Well, there is still nothing to report because the boy is not working. We had him back in work for a few days and then he started to look a bit stiff again. We have decided to give him a bit more time. It’s hard to do, he is looking great and meant to be leaving for Florida in a few weeks, we wanted to be working him hard on the flat this month. I am a big believer that the dressage schooling is very important. All our young horses do about twice or three times more flat work than anything else.
Solo’s friend Waldo is coming into himself while Solo is out of commission. I put in a photo of Waldo loose jumping.. There is nothing like the superstar being out of the limelight to give the other guy a chance to shine. He is a smaller horse than Solo, about 15.3 with a short compact body and a long graceful neck. He goes back to both Cosy’s Commander and Ramiro – lots of good jumping blood. He and Solo still hang out together when they are in the paddock but the need to always be stabled side by side is now a thing of the past. It seems as though they just grow out of their ‘buddy dependence as they get more experienced.
Actually there are a troupe of nice young horses at the Farm this winter. We have several 3/4/5 year olds from 15hh to 17.2hh. They come in all shapes and sizes and their personalities are as far apart as is possible. The amazing thing is that they all manage to conform to the same training program and get the job done. I have always been somewhat awed by the fact that horses are so amenable to doing what we want, the aforesaid ‘we’ being much smaller and slower than they. Trailering for instance – why do they do it?. They get into that small, dark cramped and very noisy space, are driven down the 401 with 18 wheelers droning by on each side, get off…. and then, believe it or not, they get BACK ON!!! It is against every natural ‘fright and flight’ instinct they possess. I have a lot of patience for a horse that doesn’t want to load, it really only shows intelligence and a sense of self preservation, I find it truly amazing that they allow us to load them at all. And before you ask, yes, all my horses are very good loaders, but I still don’t see why.
