# Big year a head for Mr. Lestat



## drafts4ever

Before I continue let me appologize for any spelling errors. I cut my finger while making soup tonight and it's not typing well. 

Ok onto my post. warning it will be long. 

Lestat will be 2 years old April 2nd. Time has been flying! He's completely healed from his injury last January 2012 and there is no damage left from his "fun" trailer ride when I brought him home. He's currently a thick 14.3 at the shoulder and 15 hands at the butt. At his most recent check up my main vet (specializing in heavier built warmblood, Drafts, and Baroque breeds) okay'd him to be started lightly undersaddle when he's 2.5 years old. So he's gotten the good to go which is a YAY! never the less we'll still be taking it easy and he won't be put under saddle until he's fluid in the ground driving with a bridle language. So far so good on that too! He's such a good boy. 

So this year he'll be 2 years old and late in the year he'll be slowly started with a little weight on his back. 

This spring time will also be his first introduction to his stallion hormones. He's been consistently dropped with both testicals for about 3 months now. He's a pro at me or anybody else handling his business and just kind of gives a wide eyed look if we don't warm up our hands first. Once in a while he gets a taste of what a stallion is like and prances around, arching his neck, parading by his pasture mate James. James is a 5 year old badass 12 hand welsh and copies Lestats silly boy attitude until Mr. Stallion knocks it off. He's a very gentle boy though! A simple "that's enough" brings him back to earth. 

Spring time next year my vet would like to start training him for collection using a phantom. He said he starts all his colts early and he works with them for a weeks length at a time. Every few days. He covers cleaning, teasing, mounting, manners, everything you'd want to see in a well mannered breeding stallion. This includes bell training which is what I discussed with him when I bought Lestat. I expressed my concern in him relating breeding at home and wanted to separate the two as much as possible. In handling stallions previous we always used a bell on their breeding halter. If they were in their everyday barn wear they were as calm as your next door gelding. When the breeding halter with the bell went on they were trained to understand that meant it was ok to talk and it was ok to prance-with permission of course. They are loaded and taken to the vet with their everyday halter, unloaded the same and stalled. When they are brought to collection they are haltered with their breeding bell halter. This keeps breeding and such ideas at the vets and with a certain cue/halter. I've always handled studs that were trained with this method and my vet is happy to help with Lestat when it's time. 

Now, Lestat will ONLY be collected. Never hand bred or pasture bred. I will be extremely picky to the mares he is bred with and I will be aiming to heighten the sports breeds Friesian studs boost. Sorry, it's late and my vocab is starting to run dry. Anyway, so yes, big years coming up. Along with all of this of course he'll be showing in halter, making name and show record. I have no intention on letting him be a stand in the pasture and look pretty stallion. Oh no. He WILL BE a well mannered prince and he's well on his way to getting there with his ground manners alone. 

So...I wanted to update. I admit I'm not on the board that much anymore, life gets in the way once in a while but I pop in when I can. I know when he had his accident there were a lot of people that expressed interest in knowing his progress and making sure everything was healing well. He had a successful in hand mid summer-winter show season to wrap up last year and so far this year has been to two shows but we got there late and couldn't enter. :-( stupid traffic. 

Anyway, onto the pictures! I don't have any great conformation shots. Every time I think I have some he's all uneven again. So here's some fun stuff. Just for reference I'm wearing 8 inch heels in that orange dress. So that puts me at 5'10. In the last picture with his angry ears there was a mare standing behind him that kept screaming. He tried walking away more than once so I gave a nervous smile when the judges were watching him. At least I know he didn't want anything to do with her more like he couldn't wait to get away from her!


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## soenjer55

He's going to be lovely when he grows up, I hope you plan on updating again when you can!


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## tinyliny

He has grown up SO fast! it's hard to believe. But, he's a stunning stud. it must be thriling just to watch him move.


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## drafts4ever

Thank you! I will try to get some videos when I can! He's a beautiful mover but I might be slightly biased. I've been so busy with the house and visitors and more school stuff but I've been here lurking around. Finally found a bit of time to post an update! String test puts up around 16.1-16.2 but my vet and everybody else says they wouldn't be surprised if he was a hunky 16.3.


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## Roperchick

What. A. Hunk.

Definitely need more pics/videos lol


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## Cacowgirl

So glad he is doing so well. Happy that he recoverd from his injuries & that you will be keeping him a lovely prince that minds his manners. Look forward to updates when you can post them.


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## Copperhead

I'm glad he healed up nicely.

I'm interested in knowing what he actually looks like conformation-wise though.


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## trailhorserider

Which string test did you do?

When I did the mid-knee to coronet band string test on my young gelding, it also put him at around 16.1.

Currently he is 15.2-15.3 at age 2 1/2. I am wondering if my guy matured early or if he really will make 16.1. I wish I would have kept better records about is height as he grew, then I could have compared him at the same age as Lestat.

I love that photo with him trotting on lead, he looks so baroque and lovely! Gotta love that arched neck and round bum! 

I remember when you first got him and he was just a hairy little guy. He sure has turned into a fine young man.


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## WSArabians

He's quite the man!

I have to know... Was he named after the Vampire Lestat?


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## AnalisaParalyzer

holy moly hes gorgeous! i remember reading about his accident, hes grown so much! i cant wait to see a vid


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## Annanoel

I thought you'd appreciate this Drafts! I live right down the road from where Nanning was, small world. I have this hanging in my cube at work. It's a dream of mine as well to have one of his babies somehow.

He's beautiful! I remember when he was little, definitley maturing and growing up. Can't wait to see a video either. Love him, just stunning.


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## drafts4ever

Thanks! 
Conformation wise he's pretty butt high at the moment but I'll post the best picture of him I have that show something. He's a bit stretched out in it and really fuzzy. You can see how butt high he is in the second one and he likes to stand a bit behind himself if he's not being judged. The recent winter schooling show we went to there was a judge that frequently is hired at local Friesian events and said for a yearling he was incredibly well built and she absolutely loved his movement. She told me with a little practice and the right training he should place top when he goes to a Kuering when he's 3, if I choose to take him. Also in these pictures he also looks ridiculously behind the knee. He's not. I brought it up with the vet when he was adjusted and she pointed out he was leaning back on himself and being lazy. She squared him for me and pointed it out. That's a relief. 

I'll see about loading up a video. I think I got one yesterday but I'm not sure, I'll have to check and see if I caught his extended trot at all. 

It's been a hectic few days. Not a good hectic either. Sick doggy and last night, well I was put in a situation with a now former friend that turned out to be pretty loud and confrontational over me protecting my puppy from serious injury. I'm still recovering from the adrenaline aspect of it so I think today will be a pajama day to get rid of this headache.


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## drafts4ever

Sorry for being so distant! I was going to start a new thread but I didn't want to clog up the new new ones. 
Ok so a lot has been going on with Lestat. His first dose of big boy hormones has kicked in but not in a negative way. He knows he's supposed to feel a certain way sometimes but he also understands through experience that if he attempts to act on these feelings mom gets mad. Not so much angry mad more just like "put it away *flick*" mad.

He's a very smart boy and caught on very fast that talking to the girls wasn't ok when he's being worked, he has to pay attention to mom or whoever else is handling him and ignore the other horses. He also learned that trying to run away on the lunge line means more work and harder lessons so he did a 180 and is working perfectly with his transitions. When I say he's done then he's done and he knows not to try and decide that for me. 

I've ground driven him a lot and worked on turning all sorts of directions, walking over trot poles, stopping, backing straight and at all other angles, and trotting all over the place as well. He has a great stop on him and he's very underneath himself. I've lined him to the mounting block and leaned over him, wagged my legs around, patted his sides while I'm flopped over and he doesn't seem to have any issue at all. He's also been worked with mares riding around him, next to him, cutting him off, sitting on his butt and he's been a perfect boy. As soon as it looks like his attention is going elsewhere he is corrected and has come to learn quickly that other horses don't exist when he's being worked. 

He has a case of the baby warts that are worrying me a bit. He has a show coming up in June and I don't think the bigger one will be gone by then. I'm not sure what to do about it and I was told to leave them alone because they'll go away on their own. I hope they hurry. 



I do have questions though. I was told different things by many different people about riding a 2 year old. I've heard that just sitting on them at the end of a working session is really good for them. I've heard wait until they're 15hh or more to get on them (he's 15.2), and I've also heard don't touch him until he's 3. So what is it? When getting these answers my main question was can I sit on him. I don't want to work him in his transitions but I would like to sit on him and maybe have a friend lead me around for a couple minutes after he gets worked. The sooner I can get him used to someone on his back the easier the rest of his training will be but I also don't want to hurt him or damage his growth at all. 

Suggestions? Would sitting be ok? Walking maybe? 5 minutes?


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## Skyseternalangel

I wouldn't rush it.


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## DuffyDuck

He is a sturdy fella, and is growing in to such a handsome man!

But I wouldn't ride just yet; just a matter of opinion.

Enjoy him on the ground at the moment, and take your time. I live on the Dutch boarder, and between his breed and the Spanish imports we constantly get around here, a lot are moved too soon to fast. 

And it later years, it REALLY shows. Arthritic joints, stiffness etc. 

Go with your gut instinct, you know the horse. Don't let people rush you in to things because they _think_ they know. 

I personally would wait till three minimum to start light activities.


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## thesilverspear

Lovely horse, but still looking very immature. I wouldn't sit on him. It will do him no harm doing more groundwork now and waiting 'till he is three and a lot more developed to even ride him for five minutes.


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## xxdanioo

re: warts. My colt had warts around his nose and eyes. The day we gelded him, the vet cut most of them off, and the rest cleared up. He had heard somewhere that cutting them would clear them up. None came back either.


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## drafts4ever

Sounds good with the riding. I am thinking of setting up obstacles in the arena and doing a bunch of fun games that I can do through ground driving. He's also going to start learning fun que stuff like holding things and Spanish walk and what not. Things that'll make him think. I was also going to take him swimming and get him used to going to the lake.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## TheLastUnicorn

I like to leave riding horses of any breed until they are about 4... And have never noticed that they are any harder to start for it, often there is more ability to focus and training seems to fly along. They are more physically capable of finding balance under a rider at 4, and less likely to go through a really large growth spurt mid training. 

Up until 4ish the horse will do in hand work, long lining, and sometimes learning to work in harness so that riding just becomes the next thing we do. 

That's just what I do, for what it's worth.


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## drafts4ever

The main thing I keep hearing is wait until the end of the year to get on and walk him but for now work with putting weight on his back and taking it off again. He'll stand quietly while I slump over him and he doesn't try to rebalance himself out afterwards. I do it gently of course and only take my feet of the block for about a minute if that. Today when I leaned over him he signed and started to fall asleep. We do this after each ground work session. As I said before I'm working on building an obstacle course to ground drive him around with and on both the lunge and on the driving lines I've been working on his transitions up and down and back and forth as well as back up, side pass. We play games and stretch and park and then gently step out. I'm thinking of taking him to a skill clinic in about a month that will help with the spanish walk, pivots, spots and blocks for point work and standing and a bunch of other things that I could add to our list of ground work. 

I have no problem waiting, there's a ton of stuff I can do before getting on him. I've also decided to hold off breeding him until he's started under saddle and had a year on him so that puts him at 4. 

I had an friend come over today that hasn't seen him since he was 9 months old and she looked at him with her eyes almost falling out of her head. I had her pull mane hairs for me and when I tried I just felt like I was slowly ripping them. Anyway, she's used to working with 2 year olds that are all over the place, not focused, ****ants.... you get the picture. She stepped back when I walked him down to the barn and she commented on how calm he was, very focused on me and she told me I've done a great job so far. When she got on the step stool to pull the hairs she told me he had a beautiful back with great muscling. From the side he looks way more narrow than he is from an aerial view. Not overweight but perfect for his age and work load. I'm very pleased with how he's turning out. 

One of my friends who's riding and showing Caleigh my Clydesdale this year told me she has a friend with a gorgeous Friesian mare that lives about 30 minutes from us. She wanted to breed the mare to Nanning (Lestats sire) but Nanning passed away right before her mare was to come into heat. KK had mentioned I had a Nanning colt and the lady just melted. She said she'd love to breed to him if I approved and 
let her know my terms with a contract. I told her I would love to meet her mare and when he's trained to breed I would let her know. Through images her mare looks amazing but I'd like to meet her in person as well.


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## thesilverspear

Are you going to do the whole grading, 70 day stallion testing thing with him?


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## drafts4ever

No I don't have 20k+ to throw away if he doesn't make it. It also locks him down to only FHANA and I don't want to do that. I want to be able to out cross to breeds outside of the Friesian breed to promote different breeds that utilize the Friesian blood. I know that's a controversial topic but I also know a lot of Friesian owners that wish they hadn't sent their studs to the stallion testing. The ones that made it are under ridiculously close watch by the registry and the ones that didn't, well that's not pocket change for many of us.


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## thesilverspear

Yikes! For $20k I wouldn't do it either.


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## drafts4ever

If it was more local, cost the high price of a 4 day event and not so limiting if he did make it I would consider having him go for the testing but now the 20k is staying in my emergency fund. Now if I were to win the lotto......sure why not?! Then I'll have the extra to send him to tip top training and then down to Cali for his testing and more training and hopefully he would get his number. At that point though I think it would be purely ego just so I could say "I own Lestat Le Roi 932" or whatever number he might get. ;-)
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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