# Three times the money 😂



## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Sky-Risqué-drama
2018 aqha filly 
I bought sky in 2019 a week before I have shoulder surgery. I had not intended to get something i started let alone that young but she grabbed my attention and here we are haha. I started her completely on my own, bareback and she is my dream horse. She has ALL of the personality in the world but is so incredibly trainable. She is a future barrel prospect and my most accident prone.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Shady-mamas-sketch-skitzo-love 
2015 aqha mare 
I bought shady to take the place of zippo initially, she was meant to be something ready to go straight to finishing her pattern. She was not and we have spent the last 8months figuring her out. She is incredibly lacking in confidence(off of the pattern), took a solid 6 months to trust me and can not be sent out to my trainer(we tried it sent her training into a backslide). However over the past couple weeks she has blossomed and we have started cruising the pattern, surprisingly the issue we saw from her sale videos on the pattern are gone, shocker 🙄. She is confident on it and is gaining more and more confidence in her dry work every ride.


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## Palfrey (May 29, 2020)

Cool photos! I'm lost on western, what does 3D/4D mean?


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Palfrey said:


> Cool photos! I'm lost on western, what does 3D/4D mean?


I barrel race so we are separated by divisions 1D being the fastest division, 2D, 3D then 4D and the occasional 5D. He lands currently 3D or 4D dependent on the arena/size of the race


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## 100percenthorses (May 31, 2021)

Wow! Your horses are gorgeous!


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

100percenthorses said:


> Wow! Your horses are gorgeous!


Thank you!


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

We have had a heat wave come through very suddenly upto 109° so not much going on this week.

Sky is on light duty, lots of tie time as she has a soft bump on her inner front cannon bone. Doesn’t bother her, she’s not lame and i can push poke prod it all day long. However she just turned 3 on June 1 so I’m ok with another short break for her.
Shady and Z have just been getting lunged close to sunset when it’s coolest, I was hoping for more long trots over the weekend but we were HOT by 7:30 am.

next week we drop back to low 90s high 80s 🙃 I would greatly appreciate some consistency.Thankfully all of mine are handling the ups and downs very well.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

This morning I had planned to pony sky off Z, just a walk maybe short jog less than 2 miles. He had other ideas and was a total pill the first half of the ride. He turned into a charro dancing horse when we turned for home, hardly moving forward, high knees, etc. In an attempt to save my sanity and keep my filly from learning bad habits from him I swapped his bit onto her and hopped on her bareback.
Smart move? Maybe not lol she’s never been ponied off of, has only been ridden 3 times since she came back from the trainer and he could have been a total pill to her being he’s almost 2 hh taller. He was a pill pushing on her and totally unfocused but she walked on like a total champ, allowed me to correct him without getting a attitude and even walked right by loose dogs and didn’t mind a car coming up behind us. None of this is new to her, they are our normal trails but again normal things become strange things when ponying off a baby haha








photo is from the day i brought her back from my trainers.
This girl has the best brain and takes everything in stride.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

This past week we were ungodly hot 115+ and muggy, I opted to give the horses time off as we were still over 100° at sunset. 
Zippo was not appreciative of the break and lifted his gate off the hinges taking himself on a speedy jaunt around the house atleast twice before we realized he was out.
As I walked upto him I think he realized that wasn’t his best idea in 111°weather 😅.


I am finally taking him and shady to a race this weekend.I am still unsure as to if I will enter shady but this will Z and I’d first actual run back since last July. So we are praying for a clean fun run!
As for shady we will do a time only or two and just get a feel for how she’s taking in the hooplah, if she feels comfortable then we may just go for it and let her cruise, if she feels a bit overwhelmed we will just time only and let her take in the sights.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Last weekend we went to the race.
Shady handled the atmosphere, holding pen and warm up pen well. She did not handle her first entered run as I had hoped and felt she would. We will be sticking with time onlys and getting her more confident before moving forward with her.















Z felt good and ready to roll. I made the decision to put him in a different bit 2 days prior. Going in my hands were off out of the first but he corrected well, his second felt phenomenal, comin into his third I did not hold him quite enough and although he set up to slide around it nicely he hit a lip on the backside and had a pretty bad slip. He’s a bit sore, as to be expected.
















I’m taking shady with me to my house sitting job this weekend and considering going the Thursday before so I can time only her at the local night race. We shall see


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Z is a big boy and this is how low he got in the slip  








i fully thought we were going down and all I could think of was to sit centered and hope he caught his footing. He did but definitely scary, this horse usually stands up well in all ground types


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Shady and I will be off to house/horse/pet sit for the weekend a couple hours from home.
I don’t typically stay on site, let alone out of town however this is another barrel racer and it’s her and her dads places and gives me a weekend to solely focus on school and my mare without distractions(my house is a busy place especially on holiday weekends lol)

My boyfriend was going to try and come with me however we could not solidify a plan for our male corso who had a terrible experience with a mortar our neighbor decided to set off a few years ago. We now have him to the point we can give him Benadryl and keep him on lead and he will lay down and hide his head in our laps even outside however we now live right next to the fairgrounds who are putting on a show this year and he is not ok to be left in a kennel alone with a 20-30 minute Ariel firework show less than a mile away. So Shawn will be staying home with the remaining animals.
Anyways here’s to our first weekend away together lol


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Well our trip was good, spent plenty of time riding however the following week we had extreme heat warnings with an excess of 118°F and up so the previous weekend was for not as I decided not to try and navigate the heat. We were not cooling down until we’ll after sunset.
We seem to be leveling out at 109+ but cooling down about 7pm so I am hoping to pick back up soon.

Z managed to open shadys gate to their turn out and helped himself into her stall. I had been keeping him on a solo rotation as he has back shoes but when I came out and found them, all was well. So now they get to be turned out on a paired rotation. 
Im hoping to add sky to the mixture but she’s my bully and is protective of shady. The last time I tried to mix a gelding in he beat the tar out of her and I had to plug a hole 🙅🏼‍♀️
So that will be done slowly over a couple weeks with fingers crossed


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Had a perfect evening ride watching the monsoon roll in, little bit of lightning and the rain started up right after i finished feeding 🙌🏼 We haven’t gotten more then a spit of rain not enough to even wet the ground so this was exciting!








Also don’t mind me obsessing over my 3yr old 😍. She’s growing so nicely. Has been only pulled out a handful of times in the last 2 months and looks like this 😍


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

After the small storm my trainer and I hoped for her ground to hold some moisture for some cruises. It didn’t hold as much as we though it would but enough to get the horses through a time or two.
Mine have just been enjoying being lunged aside from shady lol so Z was happy to get back to work and felt good. 

Shady was a bit scatter brained but we ended up having a nice final cruise. 

Sky came a long for the ride and after the other two were done I decided to toss her loping hack on and ride bareback for a bit. I have been on her maybe 3 times since April and lunged her once a week or so so I had mo expectations except to walk around maybe trot if she wasn’t feeling fresh. Sky has a tendency to be a rough ride as she is still finding her legs but yesterday we were able to walk/trot/lope circles and I never felt her get squirrelly. She even picked up her lope the nicest she ever has. Being that I started her bareback this is my favorite part, she is just so cool.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

We are making progress on Z mans feet.
He managed to set himself loose again but this time mysteriously got his back legs caught up somewhere bad enough I opted to pull his hind shoes as he had an appt 3 days later.
He of course was an absolute jerk to deal with so I’m glad I went with my gut and told my farrier we would just do fronts. Even wrapped he was sensitive on his hind legs and not having it.
Anyway here are some photo updates about a week after his trim/front reset























the girls have been getting worked while he gets to be a bum and heal.


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## Friesians45 (May 18, 2021)

Morgan.taylor said:


> I originally had separate posts for the horses but i figured I’d condense for a regular journal. Last summer I had opted to sell my barrel horse as after 3.5 yrs, tons of wasted entry fees, sweat and tears I felt like we were just not clicking and someone else would better enjoy him. He was wicked on the pattern when we did click but those were very few and far between. Well that lasted all of 8 months and I have since bought him back and gotten back to our roots. I forgot how good it feels to ride one you trained and not worry about the baby shenanigans 😂
> Zman-zippo-parrot-z-jerk
> 2013 TB gelding
> Currently 3D/4D
> ...


That's a really stunning horse, Your lucky to have him! What camera did you use for the last picture of you going around the barrel? I love it! I am wanting a camera for rodeo photography and can't seem to find one, so I was curious to know! Thanks!


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## Friesians45 (May 18, 2021)

Morgan.taylor said:


> Last weekend we went to the race.
> Shady handled the atmosphere, holding pen and warm up pen well. She did not handle her first entered run as I had hoped and felt she would. We will be sticking with time onlys and getting her more confident before moving forward with her.
> View attachment 1115148
> View attachment 1115149
> ...


Wow, what an awesome camera! What camera do you use?


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Friesians45 said:


> Wow, what an awesome camera! What camera do you use?


I am not sure on the barrel photos. Those were taken by two photographers that frequent the races i attend. Mark blakely photography and Shadetree Creators


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## Friesians45 (May 18, 2021)

Morgan.taylor said:


> I am not sure on the barrel photos. Those were taken by two photographers that frequent the races i attend. Mark blakely photography and Shadetree Creators


Thank you! I will have to try and look them up and see if it says what camera and lenses they use. Thank you for giving the names!


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Saturday I had a fantastic ride on Shady, she felt much more confident/soft in the lope. She was a bit of a scatter brain at the trot but we take our small wins. We have simply been lunging with a surcingle set up which seemed to transfer to under saddle very well so far.
I have also been working my nieces mare while she’s on summer vacation. I was planning to tune on her but she needs some work on her top line so we have just been doing the surcingle work as well. Old lady pictured below on our ride 💕


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## Friesians45 (May 18, 2021)

That's a gorgeous horse!! Where did you get her?


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Friesians45 said:


> That's a gorgeous horse!! Where did you get her?


Cali came from a couple hours south of us in CA. Not a rescue but she needed quite a bit of maintenance done to get her comfortable again. She’s the perfect amount of “why” for my beginner niece without allowing her to become just a passenger.


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## Friesians45 (May 18, 2021)

Morgan.taylor said:


> Cali came from a couple hours south of us in CA. Not a rescue but she needed quite a bit of maintenance done to get her comfortable again. She’s the perfect amount of “why” for my beginner niece without allowing her to become just a passenger.


So pretty! She looks really tall.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Friesians45 said:


> So pretty! She looks really tall.


She’s about 15.3 solid built tank of a mare lol definitely pleasure bred and I wish we could track her papers down


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## Friesians45 (May 18, 2021)

Morgan.taylor said:


> She’s about 15.3 solid built tank of a mare lol definitely pleasure bred and I wish we could track her papers down


Wow, she is the most gorgeous mare I've seen!!


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Big guy is not being such a great patient at the moment. He’d much rather act a fool then rest 🤦🏼‍♀️😂








And gracing everyone with Cali’s sweet face again. This girl loves to pose, maybe from her show days. My niece will most likely be learning showmanship with this girl.


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## Friesians45 (May 18, 2021)

Morgan.taylor said:


> Big guy is not being such a great patient at the moment. He’d much rather act a fool then rest 🤦🏼‍♀️😂
> View attachment 1116482
> 
> And gracing everyone with Cali’s sweet face again. This girl loves to pose, maybe from her show days. My niece will most likely be learning showmanship with this girl.
> View attachment 1116483


Gosh... Where do you get these beautiful horses! I'm going to have to come take them off your hands an steal em all!! Lol!


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Friesians45 said:


> Gosh... Where do you get these beautiful horses! I'm going to have to come take them off your hands an steal em all!! Lol!


Haha thank you


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Falling off the routine train is never fun but we are trying to get back to it. The smoke from fires up north has been moving in the last week as well so things have been dependent on this as well.
This weekend I finally got everyone out, lunged and washed/rebraided. Monday I was able to get Sky and Z out but since the wind and smoke played equal parts in air quality being junky







.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Well big changes. 
Shady went off to be a potential momma with acres to cruise with a herd. 
Zippo is off to a nice woman who is teaching him the English ways and may even get to dabble in hunter classes. She bought him to get back into racing but thinks his movement has sparked her to get back to English also lol. She adores his personality and he is learning all about the busier lifestyle she lives with groundwork first.
I hadn’t planned to sell both but the right circumstances for each fell into place easily and quickly. Truthfully I miss them both but I was burnt out and not enjoying riding with no spare money to do what I love. This now gives me the chance to focus on Sky and my getting my niece into a discipline she’ll enjoy as well. We are also potentially relocating so everything falling into place has made that easier as well. 

As far as new goals, Sky is 4 next June and we are hoping to be showcasing by end of summer possibly stepping into futurities if she is physically and mentally ready for it. If not we will just keep hauling until she is.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

just some bonus pictures of my golden girl


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## Friesians45 (May 18, 2021)

Dang she's beautiful!!!


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

She is. You got the heat that I usually get down here, it was one of the coolest summers I have had down here.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

whisperbaby22 said:


> She is. You got the heat that I usually get down here, it was one of the coolest summers I have had down here.


We are almost always upwards of 110+ through most of summer. It’s rough. We have had an extremely unfortunate dry year also.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Yea, I'm not sure exactly where your are, I'm in So Cal and we can get that real hot weather. I was able to ride all summer when usually there are weeks I can't. 

Your horse is really nice, she looks like a lot of fun.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

whisperbaby22 said:


> Yea, I'm not sure exactly where your are, I'm in So Cal and we can get that real hot weather. I was able to ride all summer when usually there are weeks I can't.
> 
> Your horse is really nice, she looks like a lot of fun.


I’m about 2 hours south of bishop! The only weather i don’t ride in is wind if i can help it haha. Having helped trainers throughout summer months both here and in Texas the heat is manageable with good timing and short workouts for me.
Thank you she’s turning into my dream horse 🥰


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

We have been focusin on getting sweet girls feet caught back up after my poor farrier had a bout of covid and took longer than expected to get back in the swing of things. Second trim back on schedule and looking much better! She has a club so routine is incredibly important for staying ahead of it.

She is set to go off with the trainer in December and in the mean time we are set to hit a couple races for exposure and maybe some time only views again. I’m so excited to finally be moving forward with our plans.The vet all cleared her to go forward on training and hopefully she is on the pattern by spring time!


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Well she’s off to school! 
She will be there for atleast 60 days to solidify those basics before we venture to the barrel








in the mean time I hadn’t planned to have any more but my nieces mare already seemed lonely even though she prefers to hang out on the far end near the neighbors horses. So i posted to see if anyone had anything they wanted some basic miles on, no dice BUT it seems I’ll be starting atleast one filly. Lol I do love the babies so it should be fun.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Great, things are going well.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

While Sky is away, new babies get their training wheels!
This sweet girl is short but thick and we’ve officially had 2 rides with her having 2 prior rides already. She has some things I want to address before we move forward but overall she’s super smart and quite fun


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Miss 47 is gaining confidence daily!
I got to go see how my girl is doing with her trainer also. She adores her and where I thought I was just thinking highly of my girl (cause she’s mine 😅) her trainer told me I sent her with a great start. They’ve been focusing on no more drunk baby straights lol and getting more movement within her shoulders. I’m super excited to see how she looks in another 30 days!


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

It’s been a little while.
Miss 47 is riding in the big pens, catching her leads, starting really figure out how each body part comes into play etc. we aren’t as determined to kill the trailer at tie time either lol. Really enjoying her in general, 60 days in.

sky-well this girl has her first estimated show
Date in March for ranch riding. I can not wait to see how she does. Yes she is destined for the barrel pen but I want to give her the best chance at versatility as possible. Her trainer seems to believe she has a natural ability towards reining/ranch riding and I’m ok with her experimenting with it! When she comes home she’ll start pattern work, but for now all the exposure. She also got to go have her first experience working the flag and did very well. I get to go see her for her 60 day follow up next weekend!


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Went and saw my girl yesterday for her 60 day check and she is seriously just the best. Her trainer is doing a fantastic job with her and I love that she adores her as much as I do. Everyone there seems to have a horse crush on my girl lol


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

90 day check in with my girl. Actually was able to do more of a lesson vs just tootling around on her and I will most likely continue monthly lessons with her lol. However she felt so good and looks great. My farrier will need to do some clean up on her feet, but I have yet to find another farrier who is to my standards out here. Sky will be coming home the end of next month completing 120 days! She will then get a short break and be off to my barrel trainer for 30 days on the pattern before we start hauling 🤩 
Im getting so excited to start doing all the things!

Also Ive slowly adjusted her diet, she’s currently on free choice grass, a Flake of alfalfa am/pm
Blue bonnet omega force, mvp in sync, electrolytes and gastroElm.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Sky had her first show a couple weeks ago and did very well, no outstanding placings but she handled the atmosphere very well.
This is her final week at the trainer, she will be coming home Friday. I plan to just enjoy her a couple weeks, trail ride etc give her a break from the arena as she’s been in training since December, for two weeks and then she’ll go to my barrel trainer for a start on the pattern before we start summer hauling!
We still plan to do barrels and play around at shows to finish out this year and start her “futurity” year. I have not decided if I want to futurity her, most likely i won’t due to time and money constraints, but it will be her first year in the barrel/competition scene.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

The Queen has returned 🤩🤩


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

She looks great, ready to go.


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## Ruth McClure (10 mo ago)

Morgan.taylor said:


> I originally had separate posts for the horses but i figured I’d condense for a regular journal. Last summer I had opted to sell my barrel horse as after 3.5 yrs, tons of wasted entry fees, sweat and tears I felt like we were just not clicking and someone else would better enjoy him. He was wicked on the pattern when we did click but those were very few and far between. Well that lasted all of 8 months and I have since bought him back and gotten back to our roots. I forgot how good it feels to ride one you trained and not worry about the baby shenanigans 😂
> Zman-zippo-parrot-z-jerk
> 2013 TB gelding
> Currently 3D/4D
> ...


 Out of curiosity, how many hands is this beautiful boy? He looks pretty tall, but then I suppose photos can be deceiving.


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Ruth McClure said:


> Out of curiosity, how many hands is this beautiful boy? He looks pretty tall, but then I suppose photos can be deceiving.


 Zippo i believe is about 16.1 if i remember correctly. He’s all legs, now being cross trained into the English world with his new mom!


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

First ride home went fantastic. I can’t wait for the future with this girl


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## Morgan.taylor (Sep 1, 2020)

Potentially long update
I had noticed that I wasn't particularly happy with her trainers farrier back in march. I had mentioned the corrections I preferred to see as we had put in a ton of work to get her club in check prior to her leaving. Instead when I picked her up it looked worse. Being that she had only been done 3 weeks prior I thought I would let her grow some before asking my farrier to start working on her. 
However she helped that schedule along by yanking on of her shoes for us the night before we were to go out of town. I opted to have my friends husband pull the other and just clean her up so she didn't chip but I was even more appalled by her feet without the shoes. It appears she may have pulled them prior as her wall is crumbling ( never had an issue with her regular guy) or maybe he was just consistently really consciously placing those nails that badly, he was just allowing the heel to grow, wacking the toes off and not taking the time to properly fit a shoe to her. 

She moved alright barefoot out of town the next day but this am when my farrier was working on her she refused to give her hind legs( uncommon) and then began to give me the beginning signs of tying up, which she has only ever done with a drastic weather change coupled with a change or lack of exercise from more than a day. We left her barefoot to give her feet a rest, she is already on the schedule to be adjusted this week and have my trainer do some body work. 

The amount of times I've come across junk work on performance horses just blows my mind. How can you expect a horse to give you there all if their feet aren't there? 
This will be the third horse my farrier has fixed after leaving and coming back, one from a college program lease, another was zippo a buy back horse and now one from a performance trainer. 

Lesson learned if she leaves for training, I will be going to pick her up and bring her home for the weekend to have my guy do her feet -_-. I think I officially have PTSD and will never allow someone else to touch my horses feet . Beyond thankful for my farrier

On the positive though!! 
We tagged along on a show day with my friend, sky needs some more confidence in horses moving off around her hip/ behind her and this was perfect. I decided to see how she handled their trail course after the class ended and she handled the bridge/gravel pit combo like a dream and then even went up and over their huge/skinny elevated white bridge like it was just another day. She will just have a week of light lunging to keep her moving and we will see if she seems up to going to my barrel trainer or if I need to post pone that as well.


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