Free Radical, Part II

I am sad to say it seems our Sunday Success Stories have faded out. No submissions for three weeks now, so I guess I will sadly say goodbye to them. Oh well, they went well for a couple of months, I tried!

In more exciting news:


SHE'S FREE!





Or well, kinda. As of yesterday, Gogo is officially getting turnout! It's only in the medical paddock, which is only 20x20, but hey, it's a start! I did sedate her lightly, just because it would have been stupid for me not to, and let her cook on the treadmill for 25 minutes before declaring her sleepy enough to go into turnout. She munched her hay, walked from her haypile back to the waterbucket (she always slurps the entire bucket down in turnout, every single time without fail), walked back to the haypile like a drunken sailor, swatted a front foot at the horse next to her, and went back to eating hay. She was only out for a little over an hour, but she came to stand by the gate near the end and nickered to me when I went to get her. Even with her hay and water and flysheet and flymask and flyspray... she was ready to come in. Damn finicky girls.

She was perfect. Perfect! She followed up her amazing turnout behavior by giving me one last amazing bareback hack around the property. My tall boots are getting repaired AGAIN for the 492175069th time, but I was happy to 'settle' for just a hack. We even trotted on the grass for about 10 steps, and I can honestly say she's never felt so strong and even behind.

Today, back to something resembling an actual dressage ride. Nothing complicated, nothing intense, but I will start to focus my energies on quality versus time, and will start to gently use transitions again to get there. Instead of going for a nonstop 20 minutes of trot, we will do some walk-trot transitions, some circles, some big serpentines... things her legs are strong enough to handle at this point without pushing it too far. It's all a very delicate balance, and it's an art trying to perfect that.

And on Wednesday.... our first 'jump' school, where she will be trotting a pole on the ground. Trotting a pole!!!!!!


I never thought there would be a day when I would be that excited to trot one pole on the ground. It's the simple things in life that make me feel the best, that's for sure.


Her feet are looking great (thanks to Keratex, which I will write about later), her body is getting stronger every day, and September is looking very promising. The leaves are starting to change around here, and I have a feeling we are going to have a magnificent New England fall. Fall is by far my favorite season, and I can't wait to get off the property and go for an autumn trail ride. Soon, so soon!!