Prep Work

The past few weeks have been about is getting Sully ready for his first endurance experience planned for Fort Valley later in October. This includes the body & dental work, dialing in the tack, working on forward requests under saddle, determining hoof protection, and getting him to gain some weight.

He is scheduled for Easy Care Love Child glue-ons for his fronts on Friday, and I am feeling the pressure to find something that works for the hinds ASAP. I think I will end up gluing on some shells on hinds too – he actually matches up well to a Renegade size… If I can learn how to glue myself, keeping him bare with using boots for training and glue ons for competition rides would be my plan! Unless of course there becomes an issue there and I go back to idea #1 of doing the NGs on front once his hooves have had a good deal of time to come into shape.

We’ve had a few more rides, but still not enough that I feel confident to take him into a tough terrain 30, so we will do the intro ride instead. Still gives him all the experience of camping, vetting, and the ride – while testing our tack etc. And even more bonus, the owner of Stonewall saddles will be there doing fittings and demos of the new Living Bar Saddle – I have signed up for an appointment for us! Will be cool to meet Jackie after talking with her over the last 3 years and about 3 different horses.

Skyler was finally able to return to lessons after a month of weather issues!

And Asher is back at soccer!

We hauled out for the first time in a while in my trailer and he took a little more convincing to get on leaving the barn but not too bad (easy to come home tho). I have the divider removed so I can turn him around and walk off to deal with our unloading issue for the moment (doesn’t know how to back off a step up). But I learned never let your guard down… Sully has been hauled extensively in his previous career, however he is a bit of a paw-er. I didn’t think much of that, until this trip he pawed a hoof into the corner feeder bag at some point. It tore down 2 of the 3 hooks but he was stuck in it when I opened the door. I don’t really know for how long, but he was not panicking, tho a bit sweaty – fortunately it wasn’t a long ride either. He let me extricate the hoof and then walked off with out a misstep. The feeder is no longer there and won’t make that mistake with him again!