The past few weeks have been very busy for me. I was able to attend the “Celebration of the Horse” held at Adrian College in Adrian MI. Gary Stevens, KY Derby winning Jockey gave a great speech on his life and on horse racing and Anna Ford, Program Director for New Vocations, (also my little sister!) spoke on her book, “Beyond The Track” and featured some of the TB’s that have gone through our program. There was also a wonderful lunch and silent auction held for New Vocations and the Adrian College Equestrian Team. In Michigan style the weather was very cold, but having lunch with my sister and Gary Stevens was awesome! Thank you so much to all the wonderful people who worked hard to make this event a success!
I have a great volunteer and horsewoman, Maria, who rides and helps me with our Standardbreds. She has been working really hard the past two weeks in teaching our two older STB we got in, the ropes of being a trail horse! I am proud to say both Willie & Maui have been on 4+ miles of road riding along our dirt roads, filled with dogs, kids, and cows and have mastered it very well. In addition, they had a great time swimming in our flooded fields on a very warm friday. Maria was able to get both geldings in for some fun in the water. They both had past swimming experience so they were pretty game for getting in the water. I took pics along with my very helpful daughter, who also enjoyed playing in the water. After swimming, we worked both horses in the arena. Both are learning to canter and do patterns. Pics will be posted soon as these two guys are about ready to find their new homes.
The first photo is of Nancy’s Nomad, age 24, who raced over 300 times testing the water! The second photo is his friend, Master Maui, age 20, who raced over 250 times testing the water. They are really doing well in their new roles as riding horses!
