To Be Loved By Guinness and Jessie: Guinny's Done Getting High

Great news for us and our boy! It turns out that the reason Big G has been acting like a spaz all this time is because he's been getting FOUR QUARTS of GRAIN EVERYDAY! The poor fella can't even think straight with such a ration!

Once we discovered this grave error (it's not the first time we saw he was getting grain and asked them to stop) and put up a giant sign on his stall door, it's been awesome to see how he's quite a gentleman. And now he doesn't really even want to be lunged before a ride! He's consistently great under saddle and has very few freak-outs now that he isn't high as a kite on grain.

Our posts have been sparse lately because we took a week of vacation and flew out to Lexington to spectate at the Rolex CIC-4**** Three Day Event. One of our former trainers qualified her horse to ride in her first 4 star event so we went out to support her and enjoy the sights (since goodness knows neither of US will ever compete at Rolex!). It was a super fun week and we were freshly inspired by the pair that came in second place (only by a slight time penalty on cross country), Allison Springer and her mount Arthur. Artie's personality reminds us both a lot of Guinness -- he's goofy and spooky and can be overly excited. But Allison has believed in this guy forever and it's clear that they're a solid team. Even when Artie is a spaz, she is somehow able to get him to focus on the task at hand -- a 5-minute dressage test or a 12-minute cross-country course. We fell in love with the pair and are eager to figure out how Allison is able to channel Arthur's high-strung moments into brilliance. Because if Artie can fly around a huge stadium course with 4-foot verticals and huge oxers cleanly, despite all the spooks at the in gate and another freak-out on his way out, we can certainly learn to do the same with Big G.

So far our trainer Rachel has been very helpful with getting Guinny to focus, which is sure a lot easier now that he's not amped up on grain. He was settling nicely into his routine at RockMeadow, and we're sure he'll do the same at Rachel's new barn. We moved him just a few days ago to her new facility and he seems very happy there. He's made a strong friendship it seems with his next-door neighbor, Monty. Apparently they're thick as thieves, which is funny because all the rest of the geldings at the former barn strongly disliked Guinny. The feeling was mutual, though he was definitely a ladies' man....

We're sure Guinness will thrive in this smaller, more focused environment. He's definitely the king of the hill with the end stall and the largest paddock. When we first arrived he settled in and ate his lunch (after walking calmly into the trailer like a total rock star) while his humans attended to other matters. We arranged his copious amounts of stuff in the new tack room and then hand walked him around the property. It's lovely this springtime and the creek through the place is flowing strongly. This, of course, was a new opportunity to spook. But no worries -- we'll have him jumping it in no time!

Walking around the indoor arena was also quite exciting as there is a low-hanging anti-bug mesh that surrounds the structure. In order to go in or out the horse must duck slightly and walk under the material. As you might imagine, this was the perfect time to act like a spaz. So we walked in and out, in and out, in and out (more than a dozen times) until he'd do it like a gentleman. He cracks us up.....

Our first show is set for just over 2 weeks from now. It's a tiny little schooling show at Bridle Trails in Redmond, the public-use equestrian venue. Erin and Guinny will be riding in the Introductory Test A and B classes, and it looks like they're the first to go early in the morning. Which will make it tricky for Guinny's entourage, we know. But since it's such an informal event, how about we agree to get it all on film and video and post it here? That way it saves a number of lovely Canadians a lot of hassle. And when we compete in our first actual horse trial/event later in the season we can have a big spectacle and party of it then?

The other good thing about waiting to have visitors is that we just learned this week that the house we put on offer on way back in October (a short sale = lots of paperwork) was accepted and we will close by month's end. Once we get unpacked there will be lots of space for guests to stay, including eventually Big G himself! Our plan is to erect horse fencing and eventually a barn, but for now it's a very good thing that Guinness is at Rachel's so she can ride him a few times a week while we're working.

He's coming along nicely and just in the week we were gone we can see that Rachel's rides have helped increase the muscling in his hind end. He's starting to move a bit straighter (which is good for our centerline trot in the dressage ring!) and he loves to jump. We are really eager to start some cross-country schooling with him soon, too!

Oh, before vacation we took him out on his first "trail ride". We walked down the road from RockMeadow and found a lovely series of wooded trails. It was tense going at a few points for the Big Fella, as he's clearly not used to walking on unlevel ground. He kept picking up all 4 of his feet like a cat in wet grass! But with Momma Shanna walking in front, Momma Erin in the saddle and Uncle Neal walking in back we spent about 30 minutes out in the woods. Guinness did a superb job of staying calm in the face of all sorts of new things, and really his only major upset came with the combination of soft footing that was slipping as he was trying to climb a steep hill while his on-foot buddies were starting to get a little too far away. But we worked through it and despite being completely sweaty after a half-hour at the walk (he soaked through both saddle pads!), he really seemed to enjoy himself. We are eager to get him out on the miles and miles of trails that start at his new barn -- good for his mind and his budding new muscles!

Below are a few photos we took of Guinny's arrival at the new place the other day. He's getting new shoes today as well and we'll post pictures of that soon!