Diagnosis

Weiser has been diagnosed with a tear in his right front suspensory and a highly inflamed left suspensory. There is no way to know if he was prone to this because of the malnutrition in his past, or if it was a completely new injury. Weiser--poor baby--will spend the next 6 months on stall rest with minimal hand-grazing. I am taking him this coming Wednesday (December 7, 2011) to have ACP injections on both front legs. We will follow up the treatment with shockwave. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers for a complete recovery.

Small setback

Weiser is currently lame in both front legs and is currently on stall rest :( I am waiting on an ultrasound (scheduled for the Monday after Thanksgiving) to learn specifics, but the culprit appears to be in the high suspensory area for both his left and right leg. Fingers crossed that this will prove to be something minor and only a temporary setback.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...

Good Moment

November 16
Our scores last weekend were a little disappointing (52, 55 and 58), but we did manage to achieve some major training goals. By Sunday, Weiser picked up both canter leads correctly, and our scores did increase slightly as Weiser's submission improved. It was a weekend of both good and bad moments (see photo').

Less than ideal moment

Is in Charleston...

 Weiser and I are competing this weekend at Mullet Hall on Johns Island in South Carolina for our last show of the year! We arrived late last night to allow for an easy day of settling in and schooling today. Weiser settled in well and I am looking forward to a relaxed weekend for schooling, exposure, and hopefully some good scores! We will be showing Training 1 and 2 on Saturday and Sunday--I will post results late Sunday/ early next week.

Pictures for a good cause!

Last Sunday (October 30th) Weiser and I had photos taken by the talented Kensie Sears as she works hard to raise funds and cover an expensive surgery. Her puppy, Echo, has severe hip dysplasia that disqualified her from the Guide Dog program and she is hoping to adopt and give her a chance to live a happy life.






These are just a few of the amazing pictures we received! Check out all her albums on Facebook at "Bewitched Me Body and Soul" and support her cause!

So the work continues...

Side Note:
For those of you who were wondering, the verdict is in...Weiser weighs 1130 lbs!

I was surprised when I put him on the scale on Friday. I seriously thought he would weigh almost 1300 lbs by now. Just further illustration demonstrating how drastically underweight he really was :(

This Week's Training:
I had a small training breakthrough on Tuesday in our lesson as I began to feel how dramatically Weiser likes to sit on my left leg and fall through his shoulder. With the lovely Cindy Thaxton on vacation half of last week, Weiser and I were mostly left to our own devices. Upon Cindy's request, I rode Weiser with draw-reins run through the flash to help him develop proper muscle memory for submission to the bit, without putting too much pressure on the bit itself. He was less than pleased, but we got some good training out of it!

Small steps in developing a more manageable canter!

Saturday, we took a field trip to Christine Felker's beautiful home, High Shoals Farm. This was the fourth time Weiser and I have been able to go, and we are so grateful for the opportunity to run through her stunning fields! Weiser, however, was feeling a little too good, and threw many good-natured bucks in as I let him run through the field. Cantering him up and down the hills has proven an excellent opportunity for me to check his straightness (when you are trying to hand-gallop a straight line and drift drastically left, it becomes clear he is not straight), as well as continue our work with submission. The field is also an excellent place for us to work on Weiser's canter. He has a massive, ground-covering stride, that he is slowly gaining the strength to carry in a more controlled and collected manner. (He thinks that is hard work!)  Outside, I like to ride in a half-seat, making sure he is really coming forward off my leg, and then sit and establish a few more gathered steps. When we are farther along in our training, my hope is to use Christine's amazing hills to build strength and power in our collected and extended canter.

Serious lack of submission

How it all begins...

"Budweiser Select" is a very special horse whose story deserves to be shared. I will apologize in advance for the length of this first post, but it was only a recent idea to create "Budweiser's Blog", so in as few words as possible I will try to tell Weiser's story thus far...

Weiser in March

New shoes to fix broken feet

He came into my life in March of 2011, a scraggly, underweight boy  in need of much TLC! To keep the details short, I was tipped off by a client of my mom that there was a nice horse starving in a sandlot in Ocala. My mom is a real estate agent, who at that time was helping her to purchase a horse farm, so I guess somewhere along the way my love of horses came up :) Sitting in my dorm one night, I received a late phone call from my mother informing me that she had found me my next horse! I was mildly confused. While my parents are amazingly supportive of my riding, the last discussion we'd had on THAT subject had encouraged me to continue free leasing/ catch riding ("Honey, I'm sorry, but a horse is not really an option right now"). My interest piqued that my motm was encouraging me to buy a horse--and a young one at that--I found out as much as I could about him. Knowledge was limited as whatever registration papers he once had were lost, but I learned that he was a warmblood cross, with at least a quarter Clydesdale. His name "Weiser" (yes, like the beer) came from that little bit of Clydesdale. He was born sometime in 2006, and at 5 years old was 17-ish hands high. From what I understood, the only training he had received in those years was his initial 90 days as an 18 month old.  With nothing to lose, then, at the start of my spring break in March, my mom and I made the 10 hour drive to Ocala (with trailer in tow, of course). We found Weiser to be sweet and easy to catch, despite the 2 years of hardships and starvation he had faced. As I went in the stall to meet him I was horrified by his condition: his feet were unshod and cracked, his coat quality was awful (at that time he was a dull chocolatey brown color, with curly, thin, and falling out hair due malnutrition), and he was at least 300lbs underweight, if not more! But, as I dug my fingers into his fur and gave him a pat, he reached his neck around to give me a hug and began licking me everywhere! I just knew then I couldn't leave him behind, and I promised him I would do everything in my power to provide him a great home. Therefore, with Weiser untried and underweight, and I with no idea what I was doing, he was loaded onto my trailer the very next day.

May at Elysian Equine

Weiser spent his first few months with me at Elysian Equine, in Advance, North Carolina, while I was finishing my semester at Wake Forest University. During that time I witnessed immense changes! His curly hair fell out and he was bald for a week before anything new grew in, his feet were done and shoes were put on (see above), his teeth were floated, and his vaccinations were updated. I began to work with him, first in the round pen, then lounging, then riding. He seemed to enjoy having a job to do! His stamina improved greatly, initially he was unable to even trot a 20 meter circle without huffing & puffing! Fitness is still a daily problem for him, although he has improved greatly, and he is often quite tuckered out at the end of a ride! In those first few months though, the best change by far was the trust that began to develop between us.

Now in much better condition! (Oct 2011)

 On August 15th, the next chapter of our time together began as I headed down to Watkinsville, GA to join High Point's amazing facility as Cindy Thaxton's working student. Under Cindy's skilled tutelage, Weiser and I have been making tremendous strides in our training! Since arrival already he has gone from an un-steerable and unbalanced baby (all legs and no coordination!) to a "maturing adolescent". His loving personality and sweet temperament combined with naturally impressive, ground covering gaits, mark him with potential to become a true Dressage star!

Currently, his canter is still a major "work in progress" as he continues to gain muscle tone, mass, and overall coordination to carry himself. Even so, we have been taking him out to school at shows for experience, and as recently as October 15th, I took him to the GDCTA "Putting on the Pink" schooling show to debut him at Training Level. I went out with the goal to get a measure on his developing trot work, and give him experience showing. He could not have performed better! With an 8 on gaits, consistent 6's and 7's in the trot work, and--canter balance and submission issues aside-- even breaking 60% in our last test Weiser has begun to show his true colors!

8 Months under saddle & already a star

Follow us as I will track Weiser's training progress, shows, and other important life events! Fingers crossed, and together we will find out what this little diamond in the rough is capable of!