Diamonds in the Rough

 Reggie had a lightbulb go off this spring. He put his past behind him and realized he had a job to do and it was one he could do well (and enjoy!). He was doing well, but still really tense and sort of scrambled around. Then, over the course of a month and a couple of horse shows, he just took a deep breath and started to really listen. He is still bright red and sometimes whinnies or gets worried, but we just go back to some of the exercises that comfort him. The nice thing about groundwork is you can replicate it mounted, so when he’s tense, we have some easy things we can do to get his brain back in his body. However, he’s now competitive at 1.10m-1.15m and seems to really like his job (and trail rides too!). It is so incredibly gratifying to see the horse that he has become. He went from being tense to the point of crazed to being a really fun ride.