Man, it's been a while...

So an update. Sammie went lame inexplicably toward the end of my lease. Had the vet out, found an old tendon injury from his stint on the track that had evidently flared up...and that his owner never told us about. Needless to say, we didn't buy him after all, so he went home in mid March when my lease was up.

I just recently bought a ten year old, nearly 17hh TB named Berkshire who is underweight, but otherwise healthy. He showed to 3'9 when he was in shape, and so we are bringing him back into condition. Group lessons start Tuesday, which I am a bit nervous about, but I think we'll do fine.

He is a total point'n'shoot jumper and has no dressage training. He doesn't understand bending, but boy, he can pop off a lead change! Needless to say, we have some work to do. But hey, I have all the time in the world, and he's a sweetheart, so whatever. We've been working long and low to try to stretch his topline out and improve lightness and balance. He banks in nastily at the canter,so we're putting muscle on in trot and doing simple straight-line cantering.