After spending almost 3 months at home, dealing with the fun VA unemployment system, submitting many online applications & taking phone calls, then finally a few local interviews later, I returned to work on April 8th. I’m still doing a quality/regulatory/compliance thing, but now in a shipbuilding industry! I’ll be creating a QMS to ISO 9001 compliance in an Additive Manufacturing facility. The Advanced Technologies division of Austal is small, but growing, and is a heavily Navy funded program. It was pretty neat on my second week to sit in on a visit from a prior Secretary of the Navy who’s been very supportive of the program.

What did I do doing that 3 months off? Well, when the weather was good I was able to meet people to ride on weekdays! It was really great for Breeze and I to go out with different folks and a few different spots working on his brain. He did great overall with the smaller groups… The next part of this spring will hopefully be getting us back to riding with some of the larger groups in prep to compete… My goal is to be ready for the Old Dominion ride in June. Hoping to try our hand at the 55, but will be just fine with an LD too!

One of things I came to realize during that time is that Breeze was unhappy with *something(s)*. It turned out his back muscles had grown bigger and the wide Nexus we started with (Sully’s) was not working anymore. After talking with a balance consultant in Ohio and a few pics and videos, she felt he should really try an Equinox. By the grace of G*d, there was one in the right size used at a semi-local tack shop. I drove out to grab it on trial and hauled to a ring to test it out and a little ride on trail another day. He was happily moving out in it, and seemed to like the wool panels as well which was one question we had since the Nexus was foam. I snatched it up, sold my Nexus to a friend who needed the wide, had a few d-rings added and refreshed the flocking. We’ve had no more head throwing around after 5 miles or displeasure at the trot after a remount.

We’ve been making the switch to bitless as well – as he really didn’t like the O-ring snaffle we were trying. I think he likes the ported style of the HBT better, but we were moving away from a shanked bit after the Nov clinic with Tom. Unfortunately 2 of the 3 bitless bridles I have are too snug for his head! (different styles in beta & leather on loan to try, plus his Vudu Tack custom rope one) He has a horse length head, but the heavy build jowl and face structure that is more typical of an STB and “oversized.” A tough fit for standard bridles. He’s surprised me with going bitless – though we need to work on the snatching grass and the backup some – he really does pretty well. Now there are a few times I’m glad I opted for a bit instead, like our mountain ride at Graves Mill. He was majorly disturbed by the loud creek behind the trailer parking, and the cows that would appear through the trees. I had no interest in getting on him in that state and we hand walked a mile down the road before I hopped on and then he was more settled. The things that worry him still catch me off-guard; I’m so used to Sully who would go anywhere and past anything with minimal worries (OK, we did have one bird from the bushes incident where I landed on my hip from his spin), where as Breeze looks at tree stumps funny many times. I guess I’m thankful Breeze’s mode is slow when worried, but frustrating to keep him moving at a decent pace when he gets like that.

We’re definitely in the mode of go slow to go fast…we will work through things until I feel comfortable that he/we are ready to compete.

Scooby and Prophecy are doing well too. Prophecy is now in 24/7 muzzle time while I have grass areas open off the track. He quickly goes from “pregnant gelding” look from the winter hay to a reasonable body score but not muscled look as the retired horse that he is. Scooby kept weight on well this winter and is looking good this spring; all of them are still shedding and weather is bouncing from 50s to 80s 😛

The spring has already been busy with soccer for both, and the horse show season kicked off too! She rode Sally this time in 6 classes (now in the next age group) and brought home a 3rd place, 2 fourths, and a fifth! Skyler is still doing Challenge level for soccer and was selected for the All Star team, where a group of girls from various teams are selected by scouts – they got to practice twice together, then play against a Travel team. They played hard and won 4-3! Asher is on the high-school rec soccer team and is trying out for a Travel team for the fall (we finally gave in). Both of their games are exciting to watch!

Going back to work I was finally able to do a few things on the list too -the trailer had some welding work done and the truck radio was upgraded 🙂

This coming weekend is another Tom clinic! I’m excited to see what kind of things Breeze and I work on next to continue to get his mind centered on me, and less worried about “out there” when we are riding.