I am glowing!

Today I really wish I had taken my tripod and videoed the workout. He did amazingly well. He really was fantastic.

We exercised a full hour non-stop and he did so well. He only had one little temper tantrum which I saw building up and once the main coil was released he did perfectly well the remainder of the time.

What we did was warm up 10 minutes to the left, 10 minutes to the right, both at a hot walk and short bursts of trotting, then working out at easy trot 15 minutes to the left, 15 minutes to the right, then 5 minutes to the left at a long walk to cool down and 5 minutes to the right at a long walk.

He did so well, and I really wish I had videoed. I will do it soon. He is ready I think because he is very good at the voice commands walk, trot, easy, woah, and will come down to a walk from a trot with purely voice commands.

He is so smart, and is picking up everything so fantastically. He is truly an worthy "poster child" for rehabilitation and re-purposing of equines.

His one little "outburst" came during the warm up and the other horses loose in the pasture surrounding the round pen we were working in were reacting to the commands I was giving him and it was a bit too much stimulus for him I believe. One time a sorrel tried to challenge him through the pen I got him stopped, and stepped to the fence which sent the sorrel loping off. Other than that, he only grew tired and needed to be prodded forward after about 12 minutes of trotting it got a bit more of a struggle to keep him moving forward, but he did with a little clicking, some voice command coaxing, and some arm movements. On occasion I used the soft lead rope out behind him underhandedly flicking it gently about 3-4 feet behind him when he still refused. I don't believe it ever touched him, but if it did it barely brushed on him and caused no pain or injury. Mostly a bit of clicking and reminder of the gate I wanted was all I needed.

Did I say I was proud of him. I must add that this was totally at liberty. I walked him on a lead one time in each direction, then took the halter off and did everything using hand/arm signals, body language, voice commands, and sounds.

I am so extremely proud of him! I can't say it enough!

I'm not even going to post the video of when he was in the arena cause he did so much better this time. I just need to make a new video.

Today was simply amazing!

I may not get to go back out there tomorrow, because I need to work on finding some of my equipment in my storage unit. Once I do find it though, I will be going out there daily and keeping up the conditioning training, because he's doing so well.

His feed has been bumped up to grain being a scoop and a half a day and hay. We will keep this up at least another week, when we will possibly bump it up to 2 scoops. More exercise makes the need for more food.

It is time, I think, to begin training him to drive. This will prep him to be ridden soon. His development is coming along. There isn't any physical change yet. I will take pictures in one month to compare.

The swelling on his leg isn't changing yet. I have tried cold water. Next I will try ice on it to see if that helps when I have some time to stay out there with him long enough to really test it. The guy who operates the facility got in and felt it too and said he thought maybe he knocked it getting in or out of the trailer, and since it isn't hurting him now it is just going to take some time to go down. It's pretty close to the right point where a knock would create an "injury" so I think he could be right, but if it was that it has been a couple weeks and it should be down by now.

Well anyway, let me just say I am very proud, very excited, and looking forward to the next training session.

Until then -
Happy Tails!
Lucy Roberts

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Such excitement!

When I started this blog, it was a major part of my goal to provide a place for anyone interested to come and view, follow, and enjoy the adventure that is going to be happening both with the beginning of Stonehaven Stables as well as the horses, and the creation of my business.

Please subscribe if you would like to follow the story of the recovery of Touch Diamond, and his re-training to a new career. I am hoping to get us both active into endurance racing and ride and tie races. I have some personal work to do while I am training and conditioning him, but that is going to be the fun of it. I get to watch his progress from the beginning and see all those wonderful little transitions into what I can see the potential for being a really great horse under the right hands.

I am going to be keeping a daily blog of the care and training. I will be keeping logs of his progress in body condition, weight, and muscle tone. There will be training videos of my unique blend of training methods. There will be photos documenting progress, and enjoyable things - just because.

I have been making plans about evaluating him for training to find what stage he is at. I must admit I am a list fiend, but they kind of keep me focused and help make sure the excitement I feel is not going to get out of control and I forget to do something. Therefore, to help people enjoy these I am going to file them under categories. So far I have thought of Equine Updates, Training and Conditioning, DIY. Then I thought about posting the images and videos under their own category and linked in the blog entries to help the blog load quick and easy.

I may add more categories over time, but I think that is going to be at this time.

The next time I write I should have been to see Touch Diamond/Bravo and have some first hand update on him. I also will hopefully have gotten permission to use the photos of him from the rescue facility to fully document all the efforts that have been put into him.

Until then-
Happy Tails!
Lucy Roberts

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Wonderful News!

We have our first horse. Well, not yet, but we were approved for it. His name is Touch Diamond, and he is a 6-year old dark bay registered Thoroughbred. He has been in a rescue facility, after having been in an abusive situation, rescued, and moved to a facility to take care of him properly.

I don't have permission to post the pictures here yet, I hope to have that by next weekend. It would be great to be able to document the whole transformation including the hard work the rescue facility did.

Until I get that permission, I will use the notes posted on the site where his listing is. When he was deposited at the rescue facility on 3/24/10 by the young couple who had rescued him he was severely underweight, covered in rain rot on his body, ringworm all over his face and neck, and bot-fly eggs all over his legs. His coat was terribly shabby and long. The lady that runs the rescue said even though he was in such a bad shape his eyes still sparkled and he was just looking for someone to help him - and help he received.

They immediately got to bathing him and treating the rain rot and ringworm. They gave him internal antibiotics to fight the infection from within. They began feeding him appropriately, and they gave him a safe proper place to recover.

After a month or so on 4/22/10 on the update online, his hair had just about been replaced and the ringworm and rain rot was almost gone. He had gained quite a bit of weight and was looking like a real horse again.

About a week and a half after the updated pictures, there was an update that they had tried him with wearing a saddle (no rider yet), and tried to lunge him but he didn't seem to know what either was. It seems he is starting over from scratch. Luckily he didn't react poorly to the saddle or the stirrups, so that is a good sign for us in the near future.

A week or two later he was announced as ready to go to a good home.

Enter Lucy Roberts and Stonehaven Stables.

I was looking for a horse to become the flagship of Stonehaven Stables. To represent exactly what Stonehaven Stables was all about - recovery, rebuilding, and reinvention.

I was trolling around the internet as I had been for the last 5-6 months looking for an equestrian project, and I accidentally fell into the rescue center's website. I looked at the horses they had and instantly felt drawn to Bravo. I put out feelers on other horses at other places, and even another horse at this location, but in my heart, I wanted Bravo. Well, pieces started falling into place, and I was approved to take on Bravo.

I am arranging the transport from the rescue center to the boarding facility, but next weekend I am going to go and take some pictures of him to document his progression from the beginning of when I get him if not the beginning of when the rescue center got him.

I will also be documenting the conditioning and training program as well. I will be taking video of the training/conditioning sessions and posting them online. My hope is that all of this will be helpful to someone else in the future. I also hope that people will get to see how much

He still needs work. He is under muscled, and still needs to gain some weight. That and I have work to do with me. I have a bit of physical rehab that is going to be going on as I am conditioning him and training him.

I am very excited about him.

Well that's all the update I have right now. I am going to go to the boarding facility tomorrow, and make sure everything is up to par and that there is a spot for him, and then to go see him the first time next weekend.

Update coming soon, until then -
Happy Tails!
Lucy Roberts

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