Quincy is a 4 year old handsome black off track tb. He is about 17h2" and a bit on the lanky side. He has some work under saddle already including some elementary jumping with a solid trainer.

8/30/07 Brought him in and fed him and said goodby and wished him all the best. He goes home for a winter off Saturday. It is the perfect thing for him now.

8/28/07 Brought him in and fed him. Doing fine.

8/27/07 Brought him in and fed him and played with him. He's fine.

8/24-26 Heritage Park HT. He had nice relaxed dressage to earn a 35, 5th in the division. He went a happy double clear in xc, even with bucking after the first fence, knocking his legs doing it hard enough to be momentarily unsound, me getting off to inspect, getting back on and galloping off. Crazy kid. He was 3rd after xc. He did a relaxed showjumping that went will with the exception of the plank that came down. Dropped to 4th, but still a very nice outing. Good boy. He is going to go home in a week and rest and grow up over the winter.

8/21/07 Dressage school. Went quite well. Getting stronger all the time.

8/20/07 Hacked 2.5 miles over to Margaret's for a school. He hacked by himself and was incredibly brave and settled. Past cows, over a bridge, mailboxes, no problem and he had fun. I think the hack really tired him out though as he was a little draggy jumping. But he got sufficient rest while I was coaching others and he did fine. Went through the water well, too. Hacked home no problem.

8/17/07 Several mile conditioning hack on the trail with friends. Did very well.

8/15/07 After a walk warm up and some trot leg yield and shoulder in work, we did some canter work, asking him to do a 12 m circle within the 20 m circle. He said that was hard work, but he tried and did manage to step under himself pretty respectably. We worked hard, but not long today, very hot. Good boy.

8/13/07 Warmed up with a hack around the property, then did some dressage work. He was quite good, producing some nice leg yield, coming back to half halts and nice canter work. Walk work was nice and canter to trot transition is by turns lovely or a train wreck. Ah youth.

8/10/07 Dressage school. Did a lot of flexibility work, spiral in and out on a circle in trot, leg yield, shoulder in, transitions. He did very well.

8/9/07 Day off but brought him in and fed him. Got his shoe replaced today. Ate well and his cut continues to heal nicely.

8/8/07 Indoor arena was filled with children, so went out and did a conditioning hack. Went about 2.5 miles on the soft grass (so no problem for his bare hoof) and he did quite well.

8/6/07 Brought him in and fed him, but day off. Played with him and checked his cut, which is healing nicely, but have to watch it carefully for proud flesh development. Looking good today. He liked his "treat without work". Called the farrier to replace the show he tossed in showjumping.

8/3-5 Catalpa Corner Charity Horse Trial. Settled in well Friday and was unimpressed at our hack out on Friday night. Had two slips in dressage (slick ground) but did well otherwise. I thought the 43 was a bit of a tough judge of the test. It was very slick on xc, and when he slowed down to get a better look at fence 4, he took a good skid and got unbalanced. Had the footing been good I could have stuffed him over the fence with no problem, but as things were, we just re-presented and jumped it the second time. He went clean around the rest of the course just fine. On Sunday in stadium, he popped around with two rails and one flying shoe before fence 4 to end in 5th place. This was very good for a first outing and I made sure he knows how absolutely delighted we are with him. Travelled home just fine.

8/2/07 Beauty shop day. Trimmed the hair on his legs and face, banged tail, shortened mane, trimmed chestnuts and ergots, thorough brushing. He shines up quite nicely. He also got about 10 cookies during the process. He likes beauty shop day... Tack cleaned in the eventing. The leather halter has a tear about 60% of the way across the noseband, so is not useable. I will loan him one of ours. Bridle cleaned up beautifully.

8/1/07 Day off but brought him in and fed him. His cut looks a lot better and I will leave it alone to heal now. Put the biospot on him and turned him out.

7/31/07 Worked in the dressage arena on more of the same as yesterday and it went well. Started treating the proud flesh with proudsoff.

7/30/07 Worked on dressage in the arena, specifically, coming forward in transitions from canter to trot and back to canter. Had some nice stretchy walk and some balanced trot work. Aiming for a steady test this weekend. He is developing some proud flesh in that cut. I will get the proudsoff from home and start treatment tomorrow.

7/28/07 Hauled down to Julie Kuhle's place in Indianola to school her course. He did very well. Did a stone wall, drop fence, T level sized ascending rail, a very bright red coop, drop bank and various logs. Good outing. Proud of himself.

7/26/07 Rode in the indoor working on dressage, which went well. When I rinsed him off I offered him a drink out of the hose and he actually held the end of the hose in his mouth and sucked on the water for a bit. It was hilarious. He had water all day, he was just being a goof. What a riot.

7/24/07 Children's horse camp was going on in the arena when I tacked up so I went out on a trail ride to warm up. Went fine. I got him to get right next to the outdoor arena gate so that I could open it from his back, but the gate was too heavy on its hinges to do so. Getting him over there was a bit of a difficulty as he was sure that a monster lived in the grass near it. I tapped lightly and repeatedly with a dressage whip on his butt and he got so annoyed he kicked hard enough at it that I heard his hock snap in extension. (Not in injury, just a very hard kick.) He earned a whap on the butt for that and then a further discussion about who decides when we got forward. I never raised my voice and we came to terms quickly. He did excellently with forward after that. Then we got back and horsecamp was over so we worked in the arena. We had some moments of actual self carriage in trot and some nice canter moments. Worked on lateral work which went well.

7/23/07 Nena and Jocelyn were out to watch him go. He did quite well, with some dressage work and a little jumping.

7/22/07 Checked his cut which is healing well. We will have to be on the lookout for proud flesh developing, but so far so good. Did some dressage work today, focusing on coming through from behind and moving off the leg. He did very well. Smart boy.

7/20/07 Dressage school. His cut is looking better and he is entirely sound. Also, today was the last day of his sulfa drugs. We both think "Yay!" Did a lot of transitions and some lateral work. Got two bucks out of him when I bumped him purposefully on two different occasions with my leg when he was not moving off. When he bucked, I chased him forward in gallop and he got over it very quickly. The bucks are nothing impressive, mostly just a horse editorial comment, and I suppose he didn't appreciate it when I giggled at his efforts. By the end he was doing some very nice trot leg yield and canter departs. Fabulous.

7/19/07 Hacked the 2 miles over to Margaret's with Ryan for a school. Quincy led most of teh way, very bravely past cows and mailboxes and other beasties. He was unsure about the bridge, but when Tilt (Ryan's horse) said it was ok, he believed him. Schooled over a lot of the BN stuff at Margaret's. He had a few "holy cow, what is that?" wobbles, but manged to jump everything asked. Hacked home without incident.

7/17/07 Treated his wound and gave him his sulfa drugs that he is learning to hate. Wah. Then tacked up and rode him outside and he was sound and happy to go. Getting better about his feet, too.

7/10/07 Brought him and warmed up and schooled some dressage did some walk and trot leg yield and some transitions to canter after leg yield from the center line. Went very well. Smart boy.

7/7/07 Schooled at Heritage Park. Got up in the wee hours and hauled down anticipating a very hot afternoon, which did occur. We were out of the park by 1 p.m. though, so missed the worst of it. He did very well, saw many new types of jumps and another water. Did the entire beginner novice course by himself, just like in competition from start box to finish flags at the end of the day. Green, but clear and he had fun and got into the spirit of the thing. Delightful. Much praise.

7/6/07 Worked on dressage in the morning. Had some decent lateral work and a few discussions regarding forward, which he occasionally interprets as optional...

7/5/07 Hauled him to m y house as we are going to leave very early Saturday morning. He was lonely in the (fabulous grass!) paddock, so I put Cielo in with him and it was old home week watching them together. Very cute. He is in a stall overnight, to which he did not object.

7/3/07 Schooled with Nina present. Had some nice trot work and a little lateral work. Did a lot of cantering over a pole which he missed often enough, but also was fairly successful in finding the correct distance.

7/1/07 Led the clinic xc school for the BN group. He was very good and got a little more comfortable with everything and jumped a lot of interesting jumps. Lots of people remarked how very cute he is. Hard for me to imagine a 17h horse being "cute" but, indeed, there is no better word. He's just darling.

6/30/07 Afternoon school over showjumping jumps. He did very well, but has a few funny things: doesn't like to trot fences much, prefers to canter; when he lands, he doesn't naturally go anywhere, sort of just plops. By the end of the session he was landing going somewhere and had jumped a short, small course and some xc jumps. Also went out and experience the water obstacle for the first time, which was alarming to him at first, but he dealt nicely.

6/29/07 Hauled over to Catalpa for the schooling. Did not apreciate shipping wraps and walked like a geek on the way to the trailer, but hauled and settled in well.

6/28/07 Just a lovely day outside, so braved it and went straight from the mounting block to outside. He was shying at some things that were legitimately scary (board on ground and stuff about) and suggested that he turn around and go home. I gave him a soft boot forward and his response was a buck, for which he earned a swat on the butt which made him jump forward in surprise. Thank you, good boy. Then on for a nice trot and canter hack for about 2 miles. He did great and enjoyed himself immensely. He did whinny once when he was cantering along and I had to laugh as his whinny does not suit his body size. It is high and cute like a foals! Just another endearing quality.

6/27/07 Played with his feet again and he did mention that he could kick. He needs to get a lot better about his feet to make me happy and we'll continue working on it. But, when I got in the tack he was very good. Did some walk, trot and canter and in canter at one point I put a leg on him to ask for a little more, and got a squeal, snort and buck, for which he rec'd a free ticket to Boot in the Ribs Land and some cantering on. Not a big deal and my boot really wasn't much, but enough to let him know that the little tiz is not solicited by most riders. After we did some transition work, we worked on sidepassing which went well.

6/26/07 Brought him in and groomed and played with his feet, then tacked up and rode in the indoor. Did a fair amount of trot and canter and lots of bending and transitions and he is green, of course, but coming along and did well. Then out for a one mile trail ride in the 88 degree heat, in mostly trot and canter and he did well cardiovascularly and also in shying much less at things that had been new to him on the last ride. Smart boy.

6/19/07 Yesterday when I checked him he had a cut on his lip. It is fairly deep, but clean and should heal up fine, but just looks a little oogie at the moment. I checked it again today and it is continuing to heal fine. Tacked up and rode after doing some work on picking up feet, which is coming along. Warmed up in the arena and had a very nice, if a bit unbalanced, walk, trot and canter. Then out for a mile trail ride. Had a moment about the stacks of rail road ties, but got over it. Very good day.

6/14/07 Warmed up in the arena with walk, trot and canter and then went for a short trail hack. Very good!

6/13/07 Got on without longeing and worked on the flat. Walk trot and canter, which went well. His canter is remarkably balanced considering his size. Did lots of suppling work and transition things. He has a nice work ethic and good personality.

6/11/07 Worked with picking up his feet and had a discussion about cowkicking. He did better the second time around. It is mostly a balance issue, but he has to try and not just say "Its hard!" and cowkick. Goofball. Then tacked up and lunged which went well, just one buck and then got in the tack and did a lot of slow flexibility work and halting in softness and trotting. Had one buck when he thought he shouldn't have to trot. Got over it and did very well!

6/7/07 Tarp day. Did a lot of desensitization work which went really well. Also worked on picking up feet and moving sideways when asked. Nice boy. Very good.

6/6/07 Worked on picking up feet, moving over in the cross ties when asked politely and then in hand work. On to longeing, where he shared several snorts and bucks. Then on to riding where we walked and trotted and discussed "whoa". Went well.

6/5/07 Did in hand work and he offered to kick me again when I sent him forward. He got over that idea pretty quickly when I growled at him. He is bending a lot better in his body.

6/4/07 Took Quincy to the chiropractor. He loaded well and was very good while there, but he is quite the young horse in all he does. Very good boy, but needs some help with space issues. Bonked me in the head once while hand grazing, for instance. We'll work on that to help him be an aware member of horse society. Unsure about exactly how to unload, but loads great. What a good boy. Anyway, he had his C1 and C2 vertebrae shifted and also had a shifted illium, which resulted in a dropped right hip, which may have been the difficulties he was having in gait. Al did have good success in moving it back, to Quincy's obvious relief. The shift was significant enough that he needs to go back in 3 weeks for a recheck.

5/31/07 Did in hand work. Focused on "whoa", personal space and small circles to introduce flexion and staying between "leg" and hand. He kicked at me once, which happens sometimes. He's sort of sure he gets to decide things like pace and alacrity of response to aids. I'd rather discuss this kind of thing with my feet on the ground than in the stirrups, and I find the ground work is time extremely well spent and pays off in increased speed of training soon enough.

5/30/07 Brought him in and fed him grain in the morning and then brought him in again in the evening and did some in hand work with a saddle on. He was a little cranky about tightening the girth. It was slight. He is banana shaped (when viewed from the top) left, so finds going to the right very difficult. I think chiropractic is a great plan for him and will make the appointment we discussed for Monday if possible. We discussed "whoa", personal space, backing and proper placement of attention during work.

5/29/07 Introduced him to the herd with a remarkable lack of fireworks. I led him around the fenceline and showed him where the water is and he dutifully drank some. I also did some in hand work to get to know him. I bought him some grain, as it is not included in outdoor board. He is such a big, quiet, sweet guy, he reminds me of my Eddie. I am excited to be a part of his development.

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