"Oh, Remy has to eat 'sad' hay" - and a great lesson in long reining

Well, I should have listened to Glenda. She had warned me about the beautiful hay available in Florida. Yes, indeed it is gorgeous, but not what an easy keeping Morgan should eat! My stable mates feed "Valley Green" hay, which is an Orchard/Timothy/AA (Alfalfa) mix. I was told that the AA content was negligible, so I thought OK, no problem. Well, in two weeks Remy managed to get quite the belly, however, in his case not beer but AA. So back to the feed store, this time to order straight Timothy hay. I took one bale back with me (it filled the trunk of my GTI completely), in order to switch Remy over immediately. When I got to the barn I saw Sarah, a very nice young trainer from Minnesota who stables in the courtyard with us. She took a look at the hay and exclaimed "Oh, Remy has to eat 'sad' hay now". Yep, but luckily he doesn't look sad while eating it!

Every day is a new experience here. Remy has found new friends in the form of Egrets (white Herons). These cute guys stay right next to the horses in the paddocks, and neither of them is afraid of the other.

Remy and friends

As Remy was quite naughty under saddle the other day Roz and I decided to change the routine and add long reining to his repertoire. Roz has great experience in long reining and she showed me the ropes, uh, lines. Remy and I have two clinics under our belts but neither approach had really 'clicked' enough for me to continue it  on my own. Roz' system works super for us, and after some fiddling around on my part we got into the swing of things. It helps that we have a wonderful large round pen to work in. It was also good for me to have one web rein and one leather rein so I could keep left and right straight (always a challenge for me).  I really had to use my core and be very precise with my half-halts to keep Remy going correctly.

Last night Paulette and Jota were invited to a dinner party and they brought me along to another beautiful farm. It's just such an interesting crowd here. Many Europeans, South Americans, and of course the Snow Birds from the North. I haven't met a true Floridian yet. A nice Danish man told me that they bought an 'inexpensive horse' - 'inexpensive' meant $75K... So when people asked me what kind of horse I have and I answered "a Morgan" I am sure they thought I am someone's poor relation! ("Where did Paulette and Jota find her??").

Paulette, my lovely landlady, and her sidekick Fargo