A tired but always stunning Bold Glitter showing off the sweet #OTTB swag (bonnet and bridle charm) we picked up from the #RetiredRacehorseProject online store!

Today I fell into a classic trainer trap - I got greedy. We were doing a pretty challenging transitions exercise, and to my surprise Glitter executed it nearly perfectly three times in each direction. You should always quit while you’re ahead, stop on a good note and make it clear to the horse that they have succeeded. But her attitude and work ethic have just been so fantastic lately that it was too easy to tell myself “we can do just ooooone more...”

Glitter doesn’t really indicate when her limits are being pressed on, but she sure tells me when we’ve passed them and she’s done. That last go around she tossed her head and squealed in protest, planting her feet and announcing her displeasure. Which is doubly unfortunate, because we can’t end on that note, so now we HAVE to do it one more time even though frankly neither of us wants to.

Apologies for the grainy security cam footage, it’s all I had from today’s ride. Bold Glitter and I had a little misadventure this afternoon where she bolted off a bit and I had to spiral her down to a stop. As a very self critical and analytical rider, I know exactly what went wrong. It was a combination of things…

1) she had just had two days in a row off due to rainy weather

2) a storm is rolling in yet again, and the thunder had just started

3) she was probably still a little bit frustrated from how the end of our last session went

And finally...

4) she has been offering a lovely slower canter here and there, and it is SO tempting to sit back and ask her to continue to balance there even though she doesn’t really have the muscle to do it yet, so I think that was happening a little bit and as a result she ended up tumbling forward and getting too into the bridle. This gave her mixed signals and frustrated her to the point we had this little outburst.

Yesterday when the trainer handled my horse, Savannah was literally twitching and shivering with rage and pent-up baby-energy. She doesn't like to roll or run in the mud, so it's been days since she was able to frolic. The trainer tried to convince me she has Tourette's syndrome, or a hormone imbalance… I said I was pretty sure she just needed to run around.

So today when the trainer wasn't there, I went down to the indoor and unleashed my crazy-horse. She burst into a horsplosion... galloping, hopping, kicking, squeaking. She got it all out of her system, 20 minutes of this, running herself into a sweat.

When she was done, she trotted over to me, panting and exhausted. She had perfect manners, a lovely little angel, while I cooled her out. I put her on the cross ties, and she stood quietly, head low, while I gave her a massage and a brush down. Tired baby is happy baby.