Meet Grace

This is my filly from the 2018 Southeastern Farriers and Horseowners Association Colt Starting Competition that I participated in last February. She was the only horse in the competition who–up until just before the event–was running wild in the mountains. She wasn’t halter broke, had never had her hooves trimmed, and had never been handled or touched by humans prior to being selected for the competition. During rounds 1 & 2 I couldn’t even catch my filly to even begin working her while the other 2 competitors were leaving us in the dust.

During round 3, they decided to even the playing field because I was the only one with a horse that had been wild and not owned by private parties. The filly was roped for me (I am not a proficient roper which is something I will be remedying in the near future) and then we had 2 rounds left (we started with four 45 min rounds) to see what we could get done. In the remaining hour and a half this little filly learned to lunge and change directions, she accepted tarps and ropes rubbing her all over her body, she learned to navigate over poles, tarps and a wooden bridge and she accepted my bareback pad cinched up around her girth. She also learned to yield her hindquarters and back in hand. Quite a lot for only an hour and a half of work! Just imagine where we would have been with those other two rounds!

I was so impressed with this little girl I decided to take her home and continue our work together. I will be posting photo and video updates of our journey and will make sure we get the first ride on video. After some thought I decided to name her Grace. Stay tuned for Story of Grace: Part 1 coming later this week!

Since arriving home from the competition, we had a lot of rain, so we spent several days doing what I can with her in the barn: brushing out her mane and tail, working on her feet etc. Today I saddled her for the FIRST time and moved her out with the saddle. I took a video of her moving out under saddle for the first time while lungeing her at the same time. She did fantastic!! I only took a video of her going one direction but I did the other direction as well and she handled everything very gracefully (pun intended, lol) with no bucking. I’m so pleased with this little girl!   Watch this video of Grace’s First Saddling and stay tuned to read about her progress in training!