Freddie from BronxThursday, September 4, 2008Freddie and I had some quality time together last night. I decided that really I should work my own horse who has been giving me the stink-eye for the last week because I have not been working with him so... I just spent some time with Freddie in his paddock. I have found out that he is a total carrot hound...and I do mean hound. He will follow you all over the place if you will feed him carrots. So we worked on learning how to do some carrot stretches. Down to the ground is really great. Stretch forward well...Freddie really thinks it is easier to just step forward rather than really really stretch his neck out. Oh yes and then there is bending his neck sideways....Freddie really would have rather just backed up to get to the carrot rather than turn his head around and get the carrot from his girth area. Once he finally figured it out in both directions he really had it. Such a smart boy!!This weekend is hop on the cute boy for the first time. Hopefully Sunday the ring won't be terribly sloppy from the rain we are expecting from Tropical Storm Hanna.
Freddie From Bronx
Thursday, August 21, 2008 - Day 1 of Back to Work - Intro to Freddie
Freddie From Bronx, who is affectionately called Half-Dead-Fred around the barn because of his laid back personality, this gelding is a bunch of bay handsomeness. I mean, really, could that look be any more handsome? (Except for my own OTTB Splash. He would be insanely jealous if he knew I was writing about another boy!)
Freddie came to live at Empty Pocket Acres as a 3 year old colt last December (??) when Tina and Steve brought him home from a not so fabulous life at the track. He was thin and not in great shape. After some adjustment time Freddie really begun to enjoy farm life. As you can see he is verging on being chubbie look at that butt!!!! Now it is time to figure out what Fred wants as a second career.
He has been ridden several times over the last few months but not training intensively, so today we just took some time to get to know each other, especially since the hard ground is bothering his feet. OUCH!!! While he is a complete love it does not seem, from today's little bit of work, that he craves people attention.
Overall today was pretty good for a 4 year old OTTB who hasn't worked in several months. We walked out to the ring and did some in-hand work including walk-halt-walk transitions and circles. Fred can get bored quick and when he does he gives me the "Do I really have to walk around this end of the ring again? We have already been here." look and proceeds to walk slower and slower.
Then we did a little work on the lunch line - just a little while walking and a couple of times trotting. He is very good at halting on the lunge line and when he gets scared he runs around the circle like his tail is on fire for one round and then halts and looks at you. He really thought the lounge whip was a purple pony eater when I insisted that he continued walking or trotting.
I am really looking forward to doing more work with Fred and hope to have him in a good place ride before too long.
The Yard Sale was a big success. We met a lot of people who wanted to know more about what Forgotten Thoroughbreds is all about. We have the best volunteers in the world - we can't tell you how hard they worked, how much they did, and what great teamwork they demonstrated. We are very blessed.
Next is the Howard County Fair, which runs from August 2nd-9th at the Howard County Fairgrounds in West Friendship, MD. Forgotten Thoroughbreds has a booth in the Main Exhibition Hall. We will have photos of our horses (we'd smuggle them in if we thought we could get away with it), information, and raffles for adults and children. We also will have some children's activities. We hope you will come and visit us each day. Our wonderful volunteers will be manning the booth.
