Meanwhile, over on the COTH

I was alerted to the fact that there was an old discussion going on regarding Riley's conformation/potential as a 3 year old (with old photos) on The Chronicle of the Horse Eventing Forum. We thought it would be fun if I posted an update, so if you're bored and wanna check it out, here's the link.

COTH -- hone your eye

*My update is on the 4th page, but I thought you guys might get a kick out of the comments people had to say about him and just how different he looked back then!

Spring fever!

View from the passenger seat didn't change much all day!

 You guys... taking care of two barns and 30 horses is a lot of work...

We were farm sitting over the weekend for a friend who has a lovely place about 35 minutes from our farm so we made the most of the opportunity by shipping Riley down and back twice for some real rides!

Road trip update

Here's an update of our projected route!

Let me know if you are along the way!

**Also, I am driving to Florida this weekend and back up here next week if you happen to be along the East Coast get in touch with me!!!!

Weekend recap -- progress made?

Muddy Mudskipper (click for weird hairiness)

Phew! A bit of a whirlwind weekend there! I have to go out of town this upcoming weekend to take care of my Mom while she undergoes neck surgery (in Florida), so I wanted to get the most out of this weekend as possible. The forecast promised two beautiful spring days and with 4 new horses showing up in the last week, I was needed as an extra hand around the farm to help get the sales horses ready for clients! We were up early Saturday morning, as my trainer was taking a sales horse over to Philly Dutton's for a client. I was attending to the farm chores and putting a couple of our guys on the Equiciser to warm them up. Though it was a beautiful day with temps nearing 60, the wind was HOWLING. We are essentially out in the countryside/woods and when the wind picks up it can be downright daunting (think haunted woods). Gusts of 40 mph meant that our scheduled hack to the indoor was going to be interesting.

Brooklawn Double, Brody.

 Through a series of serendipitous connections, my trainer was going to be showing two of her sales horses to Suzanne of Confessions of an AA Rider, I was secretly more excited about meeting a fellow blogger in person, but also happy to help get the horses ready and hack them over to the indoor. I would be riding Brody who is a 6 year old, 16.2+ TB. it's amazing how those few inches can make a huge difference to someone my size. Riley is a big bodied 16 hh horse, but he's a very smooth, fluid mover and is truly, just the right size for me. Anything bigger and I feel like I'm a little kid! Brody is not only tall, but he's also a really big mover, it's pretty amazing. The effort needed to post his trot is exponentially higher than riding my pony! But, in the crazy wind and the 2 mile hack over, we mostly trotted (to escape the wind) and I was actually able to keep up with his movement! The two boys were both so great in the decidedly spooky weather... it's easy to forget you are riding thoroughbreds when they are just so level-headed.