Tea- Biscuits Tale From The Trail

  Tea- Biscuit has been a hard worker and is beyond far what I ever dreamed of for my next project. After having the weekend off. I rode her for the second time today and felt a great reward would be to explore her new surroundings. Yes, a trail ride was next on my agenda.
 No horse enjoys going round and round a ring 5 to 6 days a week and many riders are fooled into thinking that constant drilling in the ring will produce performance perfection. These riders often fail to see the true benefit of a good trail ride, a day of ground work or just an easy hack.
  The trail is not only a good way to build confidence while enjoying work from a different perspective. It incorporates different muscle groups than ring work and allows the horse and rider team building exercises to begin, It is my hope that Tea- Biscuit will be my next event partner so hopping a log or crossing water should be old hat before we head out to the cross country field.
  Tea was a superstar and was rewarded with a few treats along the way to encourage her to continue her brave no nonsense approach to her new experience. All in all a GREAT day!

                                                 
                                                Happy Trails Until We Meet Again

                                               

Tea-Biscuit Dressage Diva

  Wow! This week has had some super exciting moments with Tea Biscuit. I have continued her ground work with lateral movement from both sides and taught her how to lunge walk, trot, canter both directions with and without vienna reins,stand at the mounting block and ground tie for grooming/bathing.
  She has a great work ethic and readily comes up for her turn to be worked. I have kept the sessions pretty short to keep her interested but she is very eager to do whatever the plan is. I have used clicker training with her to reward good ground work and a longer attention span.  This is a  method I learn some years ago for showing horses in hand but it also works as a building block for starting youngsters. It motivates while  building a true partnership and encourages confidence along the way.
   The most exciting thing about this week was the end result of this ground work and preparation. I was able to walk her up to the mounting block have her stand while I mounted and walked around the ring both directions with good bend and acceptance of the bit. This is proving to be a very fun journey thus far I am very sure I found a very special partner to bring along and am very thankful for the gift god has given me to enjoy these moments.

Lucky Girl!

With Tea settling in at Robin's very quickly I no longer had any questions about bringing her to her new full time home. Merry Go Round Farm is where my training and teaching business Riding-Innovations is located. Tucked back in the rolling hills of beautiful Potomac, MD this equestrian community will take you back to a time when all of Potomac's River Road was lined with beautiful horse farms.
 Upon her arrival at Merry Go Round I put her ground work as my highest priority and designated myself as her handler to expedite her understanding of the new routine and what manners are expected in her new career. She started out in a small paddock but good behavior landed her in a big grassy field by the end of her third day at Merry Go Round. She is now enjoying some down time in a field with 4 other mares. I have been taking her out a couple times a day to spend time teaching ground work, grooming, bathing and small increments of work such as lungeing.
Thus far she is a more than eager participant in her new life and seems to be a great choice to embark on this journey with. The photo below is of her in her new paddock at Merry Go Round Farm. Lucky, Lucky Girl!

 

 

Life After The Track

 When Tea was preparing to leave the track I decided to set her up with the best possible scenerio for let down. So I picked her up at the track and brought her to my good friend Robin Coblyn's farm.There we would be able to see how well she would handle the let down and life off the track before taking her to a busy barn full of seasoned show horses. Upon her arrival she settled in great and we were able to groom and bath her on her third day. She was very social and instantly showed us that she loves people and attention, including grooming and ground work.  The photo below is a photo below is her third day off the track after her first show horse beauty treatment. This lovely girl is truely stunning and I must say I love the big ears.

Meet Tea- Biscuit (AKA Tea)

Meet Tea! Tea is a 16'2 hand 3 year old Thoroughbred filly I purchased from Trainer Jerry and Barbara Burdick. They train out of Bowie race track in Bowie MD. Tea saw a total of five starts and had a total of roughly $3,800 in earnings on the track.When one of Jerry's horses is headed to the end of it's race career he works with TPR {Thoroughbred Placement Resources} to ensure that his horses get the best shot at a career after their time at the track is done. This is what the founder of TPR wrote about Tea. "Tea is an elegant, refined and lady like Thoroughbred filly who has been lucky enough to be bred, owned and trained by a husband and wife team who care very much for the welfare of their horses. She is 3 years old - about to turn 4 and stands 16.2 hands with an uphill build making her a strong candidate for jumping or dressage. This girl is a great mover too!" This attractive filly was nothing short of Kim's discription. One visit with her and her owner made me sure this was the Thoroughbred project for me. and now we will enbark on a journey together .Date Cctober 1st 2013 let the journey begin.
Listed below is more info about Tea for you Thoroughbred breeding and stats junkies.
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http://www.pedigreequery.com/swingin+tea

http://www.equibase.com/profiles/Results.cfm?type=Horse&refno=8901308&registry=T