Hi Everyone!!
Welcome to the new website! I hope you enjoy looking around and find it easy to use. My hopes for the website, news page, newsletter and blog are to keep people informed as to what we are doing at the farm, shows and in general life. I enjoy being able to meet and speak to people everywhere I go in this business, so this will be a great way to stay connected to those that I am already friends with but also those that will become new friends along the way! I hope that everyone out there in cyberspace feels as if they can be a part of our little world and maybe learn something along the way and get a feeling of friendlyness (is that a word?) and know that I am a normal person (my husband might challenge this) just doing what I love and trying to get better at it all the time!
So I lead off this first blog entry by filling everyone in on what I have been doing so far in 2009. Devon, my 12yr old FEI horse, is now at Scott’s for training. He has been there for a little over a month now and we have made a lot of progress. This time of year, I like to try and fit in some time for myself and my horses since it is usually a little slower (usually…..). Devon has always been and continues to be a very challenging horse to train. He is very strong and willful but reactive and sensitive all at the same time. I sometimes feel as if I have 5 different horses to deal with during one ride. We have had a lot of ups and downs along the way (way too many to list here!), but a couple of the main ones have been him being laid off for a year with an injury and me having 2 back surgeries…. so needless to say, it has been a long road, but I would not trade in a second of it (well, I might trade in the back surgeries!). I always say that when I finally make it to the top with this horse, I will really have made it. Might I add that he is incredibly talented!
My main focus for the training with Scott was to get the flying changes easy and calm (always a challenge with Devon!) and we are on our way. I have been driving up daily to work with Scott, I must say that being there in the atmosphere of Hassler Dressage is amazing to say the least! Everyone is happy and on the same page every day and things work like a well oiled machine. I am thoroughly enjoying it! It is also nice to see my friend Eliza Sydnor every day while she is there, she and I certainly have a little too much fun sometimes!
My other horse Windsor is also doing great. What a fun horse to train! I have to remind myself to not go too quickly with him as the work comes so easily. Its funny how I would always hear people say that, but now I know that it really does exist! I just have to go slow now and give him the time to get strong. I am a firm believer in doing some fun work with the horses. They all get to go on hacks and get to gallop on the farm roads (sometimes a little ‘exciting’ with the young ones!).
I will try to keep this blog updated as much as possible. I would like to talk about some of the other horses in the barn, their training, their good times and then also the challenging times. Sometimes it is the challenging times that really help us learn! I really love nothing more than to talk about the ins and outs of training…. and the little differences in each horse that make a huge difference in the way you train them etc etc… I could go on and on!!!
Please know that if you read these blogs, that I am not the best speller and don’t always give a lot of thought to grammar etc… So consider this the disclaimer and please don’t hold it against me!!
Cheers,
Kelly
