Spring Cleaning...

New Dude Update.

It's closing in on a month now that I've been blessed with Jake. 

It's certainly been a month of learning.  Both for me and for him.

He came to me about a hundred pounds underweight, with a crappy shoe job.

These pictures are of him the day after I brought him home.  Cutie patootie.  This is also the day that he disappeared from underneath me when I took him out in the fields on a cold, windy, blustery day in a strange place.  Shame on me.  Dear Daughter got a huge laugh out of it though.  Lesson learned.

Since his arrival, he's gotten his feet taken care of, (twice already) his teeth done...thank you equine dentist god who I like to watch :) He had some sharp points in the back of his jaw, and some sores on his cheeks, poor dude.  He now has earned the nickname of Hoover, and has earned some big round rocks in his feed bucket because he eats with such enthusiasm... He's also on the best food/ration balancer on the face of the earth, and gets fabulous care at my wonderful barn, and within a few weeks, he's filling out nicely!  This picture is a week later....

He's proving to be quite the smart dude.  He was a hunter/equitation horse in his earlier years, and then later doing trails with his previous owner...  Me? I'm working with a French Classical dressage trainer with my horses.  Jake "gets" it.  He's very smart and tries his hardest to do what is asked of him.  He's got some pretty stiff muscles, but he's getting it, and he's certainly enjoying it.  (along with his momma) 

He's a pretty "looky" dude, and tells me that there are lots of scary, terrifying, greyhorseeating monsters everywhere.  He's pretty good about letting me know in no uncertain terms that he's scared about something, (in a non-killmeleavemeontheground kind of way), and if I keep his brain occupied constantly he's okay.  He gets lots of praise and hugs during our rides, and has gotten over the mounting block is going to eat me phobia, and that it will stay in the center of the indoor, and not chase him around.  He also now understands that when I take my gloves off at the end of my lesson, that the velcro sound of my gloves is not a mountain lion leaping from the rafters of the indoor to land on his back and eat him.  Bless his heart, he's training me well.

Here's the handsome dude two weeks in....at this point he's outgrown his blankets and his hiney is hanging out...he's filled out from a 78 to an 80.  I just couldn't bear the thought of his little hiney being drafty all winter.

I'm currently in the market for a saddle for him, as the County that we use on the big mare is custom fitted to her, so Mr. Handsome needs on of his own.  I've got another County out on trial for him, and I've just got to get the saddle fitter out to determine if it will work for him.  I'm sure she'll be out on a fairly regular basis as he fills in and muscles up.