Gracie, A Year Later

One of Gracie's new friends at GRS, fellow OTTB, Charlie

Once again, I've been rather silent around here, and I guess it's primarily because of a horse - my four year old, never-quite-a-racehorse, Gracie.  This time last year, she was recovering from a pretty serious illness that kept me quite worried, but these days, my preoccupation is for better reasons.  In October, thinking it was time to finally get a serious start on her next prospective career, I moved her to a nearby barn with an indoor arena, so I could ride, rain or shine.  No excuses!

I admit it was hard having my girl away from home, but she settled in remarkably well, and seems to endear herself to everyone she meets (either that, or they're all just humouring me!).  It's a rather busy barn, which suits her just fine.  I think I've been far more stressed by the move than she has!  Hopefully I haven't driven poor Lauren too crazy!  Boarders can be such a pain, haha.

Modeling her new-to-her Rambo Rug, Imported from Germany (thanks to Aunt Sheona!).

When it comes to the whole riding bit, Gracie's been rather interesting.  On the one hand, she's very sensible, not your typical chestnut filly, though she does reserve the right to play that card at times.  She is taking some time to deprogram from the racetrack mentality, but that's coming, slowly.  She's still worried about other horses - one of the reasons I moved her to this particular location was because there is an active riding school, so I figured there would be plenty of opportunity to fit her into group lessons so she has a chance to get over that.  The first one was a little bit hairy, but everyone survived!  Now it's just a matter of my life cooperating so that I can continue to work on overcoming that particular issue. 

She is also still dealing with the fallout from an injury she suffered as a weanling - also the reason her racing career never happened.  I've been  trying to do my part in addressing the problems so that hopefully they won't affect her future career.  She's seen a chiropractor, a saddle fitter, and most recently, an Equi-Bow practitioner.  Hopefully I can put all the pieces together!  She's deceiving - she looks big and strong, but being on her, or watching her free longe around the arena, I can see those weaknesses, so I'm hoping by dealing with them now, we'll avoid them becoming more serious.

So, in the past three months, there have been new blankets (she's grown since last winter!), new shoes (for her, not me!) and soon, a new saddle.  Oh well, it's still more fun than last year's big fat vet bill!

 Zoom Zoom!  A little bit of fun in the arena, for a change.