Lark has been home for a full week and everything has been mostly smooth sailing. It’s very evident that she knows things and wants to be a good bean, but her manners are going to take a bit of polishing up. The former owner was not kidding when he said she likes to nip at farriers - she nailed me in the ribs yesterday, but mostly grabbed t-shirt - so we’re going to be doing a lot of work on leg handling and keeping out of my bubble for a while. An introduction to cross ties is probably in order, too.
Ascensia is working 6 days a week with one of my former trainers and a young teen who absolutely loves her. I’m planning to go up and watch one of their jumping lessons while kiddo is on Christmas break. Hopefully, I can snag some video clips to share.
Sam looks FANTASTIC. He has always been something of a hard keeper, so finding a feeding program that works for him has been a real struggle, even with the help of my vet and a nutritionist. I’ve simplified the program to 8 lbs of Pinnacle 1400, a cup of aloe juice, and 4 oz of rice bran oil, broken out into two meals. He’s also getting a flake of alfalfa hay in with his usual forage ration, since it’s a quality source of protein and has been shown to soothe ulcer prone horses. (I know it doesn’t sound all that simple, but, my dudes, this horse used to get a total of 15 lbs of senior feed per day AND a soaked beet pulp-alfalfa-rice bran concoction for lunch, PLUS 24/7 turnout with all the forage he could stuff in his face.) Between the feeding program and lots of back-to-basics work in a long, low frame, we’re starting to get some really nice topline development, especially for an old man.