This post is for my hubby, who has been complaining that I hadn’t posted on Ace’s blog in two weeks, and he’s been checking it every day just to be disappointed. So here you go honey!
Horses have the most amazing radars for trouble. We’re always hearing of them sensing a big storm hours before it arrives, knowing when something is wrong with a herdmate, and reacting appropriately to our moods.
Ace is certainly no different.
Yesterday there was small carnival complete with marching band just on the other side of the treeline …

I would be totally remiss if I didn’t wish my handsome, sweet pony a very Happy Birthday. He officially turns 10 today! Doesn’t that sound old? It always seems like such a big leap to me when horses go from single digits to double digits.
I don’t do anything big for horsey birthdays, but I will of course stop out to clean out his foot (abscess is clear and healing nicely, by the way) and spoil him with a few extra cookies than normal.
I’ll also give him some birthday hugs and …

It’s a good thing I like beans (well, green and black ones, but that’s besides the point) – because Ace is completely sound and full of them.
His foot was looking good prior to my long weekend away at Equine Affaire (check out the main site for my review of the clinics and shopping at Equine Affaire 2010). It was so good to see Ace (after I saw my hubby, of course) after a few days away. I got him all groomed, checked out his feet and legs, which were cool …

I am a very happy camper right now because Ace blew an abscess over the weekend. I am not a happy camper because Ace has been a royal pain in the you-know-what about letting me soak said hoof.
If that sounds weird that I’m happy my horse blew an abscess, here’s what happened:
Ace has had some heat in his back left foot off and on for the last month. It was never accompanied by any unsoundness, indication of discomfort, swelling, etc. He’s also been tripping over that foot frequently, which tells …

A while ago we had a big discussion on this blog on what to use for Ace’s show name. After lots of great suggestions from you readers, discussion on which we liked best and why, and a poll to narrow it down, we came up with calling Ace “Ascension.” It’s a great word, and described where we were in our training at that time.
The only problem was that it just never felt quite right. I’d look at Ace and think of Ascension, and it just wasn’t him, as much as …

My boy Ace is doing super wonderfully these days. We have just progressed in leaps and bounds since getting access to a large arena back in November. At that point, we were happy to have forward, straightness, bending, and a little bit of ground pole work.
After three months of consistent, hard work, my handsome boy now:

walk, trot, canters
understands leads … most of the time
does amazing walk to canter transitions, and gets mad if I use more than a little bit of seat and clenching my outside calf muscle to ask …