An Update, and Before/After Pics.

Long time away from the blog....because I've had my hands full with a certain red-head.  Here is a nutshell before/after kind of comparison:

Before:

After 2 months: 

Scarlett has a pretty good quality of life at Arrowhead.  She gets worked-with 5 days a week, special conditioning feed in addition to great quality hay twice a day, and a bucket of mash or soaked beet pulp every workout.  Also, her favorite thing, hand-grazing:

She is now in such good condition that she has decided to come into season and stay in season--she is being quite the floozy.  Raspberry leaves are helping a little but perhaps not enough....hmmmm.

Training-wise she just keeps a smile on my face every day. She lunges like a pro.  She lunges over poles and cavalletti and we have done a little off-line work as well.  We have about 35 rides, including hacking out down the river and crossing water (this was a big, take-20-mintutes-to-step-in deal), riding out in the gallop track arena with its neighbors with flapping tarps and trampolines, and a little over cross poles and cavalletti work here and there.  We are mostly working on freely forward (not asking for contact yet) and straightness and consistent gaits with a long-low headset and moving from the rear.  (That is a fancy way of saying I am working on keeping the horse between my legs and under me.)