Update on the Boys

Cruz is settling in after almost three weeks on my farm.  He has the most wonderful temperament.  Seriously.  I have to confess that I bought him off of a video on Facebook’s Dressage Ponies in the US, from someone I do not know, solely on his movement(9/10), size and coloring.  I thought with his breeding, 1/2 Hanoverian, 1/4 TB, 1/4 Welsh he would probably be sensible and he looked chill on the videos, so I said F it, bought him, and shipped him across the country.  I am a tightwad in RL, combined with a worst case scenario crazy lady, but sometimes you just make the leap.  So much shit can go wrong in such a variety of ways with horses and nothing can be a sure thing.  When I went to catch Cruz the first time in his stall and he stuck his nose into the halter I knew my instincts and video observations were correct.  He is into people, playful but gentle, and learns very quickly.  Besides adapting to being stalled and having abundant pasture when turned out(BIG fan) he is learning more advanced baby horse ground manners, some TRT Method basics, and voice commands for free lunging.  Nothing intense, 5-10 minutes at a time but the base of everything to come.  He has told me NO a couple of times but then folded his tent very quickly and the next day done the request without hesitation.  He loves wither scratches, being groomed, and generally just being close to people.  I’m really enjoying putting the basics on him and hope to sit on him and walk around a bit this fall.  We’ll see how things progress since it is truly no hurry.  He is gaining weight and muscle but still looks like an underdeveloped three year old.  Since he just turned three, you know.

Jet Set is looking glamorous as always.  Always looking for a treat more like!  We were entered in a Dressage show for last Saturday but decided to scratch.  Since I had the Vet out to do some extra shots for Cruz two weeks ago I also decided to do a flexion Test on Jet.  He looked and felt sound in work but was carrying his haunches slightly to the right, stumbling behind once in a while at the free walk,  and also was taking a couple of extra steps on his walk to canter transitions.  Sure enough he flexed positive on the right stifle, the joint that was injected 2 or 3 years ago.  He is 17 so I was pretty pleased he flexed fine everywhere else honestly.  We injected the stifle again but the timeline to go to the show was just too much too quickly for my taste.  He has been having light rides after some rest and is just now getting back to harder work.  There are two DLSC shows left that we could possibly do in September and October but we are going to play it by ear.  I’m not sure if this is a sign that 2nd Level work is a little too much for him at his age and with his build, or if he just needs a little support in that particular joint besides being on a joint supplement.  I’d much rather have him be a functioning 1st Level horse for more years than chase scores at 2nd, so I am going to be careful with workload and play it by ear for a while.  Maybe he’ll be a 1st horse that plays with some 2nd/3rd stuff of maybe we’ll give 2nd a try again and see if the wheels stay on.  To be determined.

What has been your workload/level decision making process with your older performance horses?  Curious to know how other people approach this.