2018 begins......

Hello.....it's been awhile since I've updated our blog.  Lots of things happening at the farm in the last 6 months.  This update will be about our black Arabian mare, V, that we purchased last spring.  As you'll remember, she was a difficult horse!  Bad handling had made her scared and untrusting of humans and borderline dangerous to work with.  It took a LOT of time and a lot of patience, but she has turned into a safe mare to handle from the ground.  She has very good ground manners now, she has learned to trust humans (for the most part), her striking and rearing in defense seems to be a thing of the past now and she has finally gained weight and is healthy.

She came home for the summer and for the first time in her life, learned what it was like to be in a big pasture with other horses!  She immediately developed a deep friendship with our yearling, Pearl.  Pearl showed V how to drink out of the pond, where the best grazing was at, the best path to come up to the barn for shelter, etc.  I credit a lot of V's mental growth with Pearl.  Pearl is a laid back, no nonsense type of gal, even with being just a yearling.  This was the perfect buddy for V.

Then in the fall, V went back to her trainer.  It was time to start her under saddle work.  The trainer has spent a lot of time on desensitization.  V was very reactionary to begin with.  She now has a very solid base to build upon.  She wears the full western saddle with no issues, has accepted things flapping and hanging off the saddle, she thinks through a situation most of the time now instead of just reacting first, she's had a couple of rides with a bosal, etc.  We cannot believe how much she has changed in the last 10 months!!  We're so happy we took the chance and went down this road with her.

She'll be bred to Klint Black this spring, for a guaranteed homozygous black Arabian foal next year.  We're hoping for a filly.  If a filly, she'll stay on with our family.  We're also hoping that foal will be an outstanding western pleasure show horse in the future!

Until the next update, stay warm and rest up, as spring will be here before we know it!

Photo of V during a work session in January 2018.