Life is Good

Since my last post I have managed to ride Leopold every day without incident. After the one episode of crow hopping with the saddle, he has never offered to do anything remotely silly again. Saturday morning we even progressed to a canter without incident. During the first few rides, I prefer to use the halter or side pull (bitless) but I found it difficult to soften Leopold at the poll for vertical flexion. Yesterday I decided to see how he goes in the mylar bit. Once again Leopold didn't disappoint. He responds nicely to the bit and flexed beautiful through the poll.

Sherri came out to ride Magnum while I was riding Leopold in the round pen. The weather was a balmy 20 above and Leopold was super calm and responsive and so we decided to see how he would do out on the trails and in the back hay field - FANTASTIC! Leopold was relaxed and confident and actually took the lead away from good ole' Magnum who got stuck and didn't want to go into the trees. Nothing is perfect and my only complaint is that the trees on the trails seem much lower when riding taller horses. We did some walk/trot transitions out in the field and we practiced our leg yields while riding down the road.

Hopefully this dry footing continues so we can get a few more rides in before the snow flies.

Tovie and Leopold the Great!

So Much to Be Thankful For

After The Fonz moved along, I hesitated to bring another horse in so soon; primarily because I wanted to spend some time with Dexter and Nevar while the weather is still good.

I am so grateful that I changed my mind about taking beautiful Leo after all. He has been an absolute joy to play with. Even though I sound like a broken record because I feel that about every horse I play with - it is so true. It could be the somewhat unconventional variety of training methods I employ to help horses overcome their issues that makes it all so much fun.

It is hard to know what groundwork exercises Leopold was exposed to before he came to me as the only videos I saw showed traditional lunge work and chute jumping him. Yet, his focus and relaxation make everything I ask of him seem like he has done it a million times before. Yesterday, I put a saddle on him and he stood quietly throughout the process and then quietly walked out to the arena. However, as soon as I sent him out onto the circle - he started to crow hop. His behavior was strangely odd in the sense that he didn't seem scared or mad - just crow hopped a few times and then we carried on with our business without further incident. The TTouch body exploration work indicated no apparent back pain and he wasn't cinchy at all as I gradually tightened the girth. Will be interesting to see how he responds to the saddle today.

Gord took video of Leopold yesterday showing how well he is coming along with the ground work; lateral flexion, parking at the mounting block, and w/t/c transitions up and down. He doesn't mind when I bounce the giant equine ball off his back and around him, nor does he mind my slapping the ground with the stick and string. He actually seems to become more confident every day. Once the video is ready, Gord will download it on You Tube.

Tovie, Gord, and Leopold

Big Mistake...

All my friends at our barn decided that Leo's name wasn't sophisticated enough for such a gorgeous animal and so we now call him Leopold.

Typically when a new horse arrives, I spend several days introducing the new horse to one or two of our geldings at a time. Occasionally we meet a horse that causes nary a ripple amongst our herd and we turn them out sooner. That was Leopold - clearly not challenging any of our "boys" over the fence and so I made the decision, early Saturday morning, to turn Leopold out to the large field with our "boys". Erika had told me that Leopold had been turned out to pasture with wire fencing so I mistakenly assumed he would be OK.

Naturally, Leopold was excited to run. Our 4 laid back "boys" didn't even bother to run with him; and Dexter, Skeeter and Navar ran with him for a short while before giving up. Leopold however, just kept running all by himself - looking like he was having the time of his life. It was glorious to behold until suddenly Leopold started running straight at the 3 strand barb wire fence. As I stood watching in horror, thinking he was going to jump it, he ran straight through it. It didn't even slow him down and now he was running through our hay field where the gates are wide open to our neighbour's field. I stayed calm and tried to call Leopold to me and just when I thought he was heading my way, doesn't he go through the barb wire fence again to get back into the field with the other horses.

Thankfully, our boys come to a call so I quickly put out several piles of hay and Leopold came in with them. I was sickened by the thought of what I would see when he finally came in as I have seen wire fence injuries and they are, more often than not, horrific. I quickly put Leopold back in the rail paddock with a hay bag and was shocked by what I saw. Aside from a couple of minor scrapes of hair missing on his chest, one superficial scrape on a hind leg, and one tiny little drop of blood on his front leg - he was absolutely fine. First I cried with relief and then I pondered how to tell Gord he would be fixing fence that day.

I had so much to be grateful for that morning, including the fact that our lazy stock horses had given up following Leopold because with all that wire down, it could have been catastrophic.

In hindsight, it may have helped to put hay piles out in the field first and then taken Leopold in hand around the perimeter of the entire field so he had an awareness of the fence line.

Needless to say, Leopold will be staying in the rail paddock for the time being. Not sure if I will ever be comfortable putting him out to the pasture again. It is a lot more work to have him in but he is definitely worth the extra effort.

Tovie, Leopold and Leopold's Angels

Leopold the Great

July 10th I received the following message from Page Campbell of Westwood Warmbloods up at Spruce Grove, AB.:

I have been asked to help rehome a very special horse. (And this is an essay, so I apologize):
Leo is a 2008 Chestnut Warmblood Gelding, 16.2 (and we think he's still growing), with a ridiculously nice pedigree; by Der Lord (Hanoverian), out of a Hanoverian-Approved, Lord Vancouver (Thoroughbred) daughter. He is one of the last breedings by Rudiger Dupierry before he retired.
He is a friendly boy, first to greet you in the field. Reasonably easy keeper, he’s lived both inside and out, always kept on a regular farrier schedule, and has had regular handling. He loads and trailers well.
He is extremely athletic and talented, with very nice movement, free jumps four feet with ease.
That said, he is not an easy horse, and circumstances have not been in his favour.
He was born here at Westwood Warmbloods, but as I mentioned, is not of our breeding program - his mother (who is lovely) was purchased in foal. As a five year old, he was sent out to be started, and they had no issues with him. When he came back, he was added to a very long list of horses in training - and unfortunately, as it so often is in this business, triage is the name of the game - client horses first, maintenance on school horses, prospects with interested buyers, not to mention teaching ground manners to younger stock, and our trainer's personal horses. Leo tends to need more persuasion than most, and a steadier, consistent hand, so even among his very small group of age-mates, he was not the first in line.
Then he bucked under saddle a couple of times, and moved even further down the list - our trainer no longer felt comfortable letting assistant trainers ride him, and he had never progressed to being ridden by advanced students. Then, he was cut from the list altogether last winter due to lack of time.
He had a chiropractor look at him, had his saddle adjusted, and a new girth, but honestly, we think it was just high spirits. He has come back into work again this spring, and he hasn't bucked since, but his work has been very limited - he's been lunged in tack at all three gaits and over poles, but so far just walking under saddle working on promoting relaxation. The trainer who started him suggested we move him back into a western saddle because that is how he was started, but our trainer doesn't ride western. From what we've done, he seems to be much more mature than he was at five, or even six.
Here at Westwood, we practice Classical Dressage in the style of Legerete, which means we have not used side reins, draw reins, or a flash noseband on Leo. We focus on getting the horse to soften, move lightly and forward. We try to reward even the smallest amount of try, so that next time the horse tries harder. Leo tends to approach all sessions the same way;
1) OMG you want me to do what?
2) Yeah, I don't think so.
3) Okay, fine, if you insist, that's really not that awful.
Leo would very much benefit from someone who had time to earn his trust; he's naturally suspicious and takes care of himself.
Sitting in a field at the bottom of the training list is no good for Leo. Our priority still has to be our clients and their horses, fiscally, we can't afford to invest in Leo as much time as he needs. However, we've found it very difficult to market Leo; he may have ten thousand dollars of breeding, and ten thousand dollars of talent, but he needs five thousand dollars of training. And not only that, he needs to sell soon; being green at seven is acceptable, being green at ten is totally unmarketable. We've priced him ridiculously low, and have spent a long time weeding out homes that are just well, inappropriate. We're willing to keep him forever if the alternative is the meat truck, but Leo deserves better.
We've also done the worst thing you can do when selling a horse - we've been completely honest about him to everyone who has contacted us.
Let's be totally honest; we are willing give Leo away to a quality home. I would love to do a Dollar, or Fonzi deal with you; but would also appreciate any help, advice, suggestions or recommendations you can provide.
Anyone reading Page's message can feel how much Westwood cares about the horses in their care and while I was completely ignorant about Leo's breeding and warmbloods in general, I felt compelled to help. At the time I explained to Page that I couldn't take Leo until I had found Fonzi's perfect person. However, once Fonzi left, I decided to spend more time with Dexter and Navar and so I sent Page a message saying I couldn't take Leo after all. Only thing is, I forgot to hit send. The following week, Page emailed asking if it was still OK to bring Leo the end of September. After discussing with Gord (who has been as neglected as Dexter and Navar), we made the decision to take him to give him a chance. Leo was delivered by the owner of Westwood Warmbloods, Erika and her brother Colin, Thursday, October 1st.