In the barn - Meadow

Red River Meadow is my giveaway story. I bought my own little farmette in the Summer of 2010, and Brazynska needed a friend. Not really--haha--as Brazynska was as independent as can be, but I needed her to have a friend. :) Since I had just bought the house, I was a bit cash-poor. Luckily--or unluckily--the horse market was doing very poorly and so there were a lot of people looking to give away horses, especially coming into winter. I started to peruse the Giveaway Forum on COTH, the CANTER Mid-Atlantic ads, Craigslist, anything! I went to look at LOTS of free horses, traveling to WV, PA, & NJ even. But I was being picky. I wanted the right free horse.

One day, I started going back through older posts to the Giveaway Forum on COTH. I found one for a yearling sporthorse filly out in the western edge of VA. They had a video of her and she moved nicely, and better still, she was a BIG girl. Erik (my husband--who was my boyfriend at the time) and I took the 3 hour trip to go see her, and I literally just looked at her in the stall & decided that she was the right free horse. Like I said, I had gone to see A LOT of horses, so I had seen the gauntlet of "quality," and I could tell right off the bat that she was going to be a big, pretty girl. The owner was super nice and the only reason she was giving her away was that her husband had lost his job and she just didn't have the time or resources to dedicate to her. She just wanted her to go to a good home instead. They also tried to send us home with a free cat too, but we resisted the urge on that one. :)


Braynska & Meadow, Winter 2010

I made arrangements with Meadow's owners to have her shipped to my house as I didn't have a truck/trailer at the time. She walked off the trailer like a pro and settled into the stall super easily. I kept her and Brazynska separated for a week or so and when I finally put them together, Brazynska was not very happy with me. Meadow had little-to-no manners (she had been out with another yearling), and she had had very minimal handling. I actually have to give Brazynska a lot of credit for Meadow's "training" as she did a lot to whip that little yearling into shape--even though at 1.5 yrs old, Meadow was already taller than Braz!

Over the course of the next 1.5 years, I did lots of groundwork with Meadow. She learned how to pick up her feet, how to lead, how to tie, how to lunge, how to long-line, how to trailer, how to tack up, how to accept weight. By the time it came to backing her, she was already basically "broke." We had absolutely no rodeo moments, everything was calm and collected.



2nd time ever on Meadow's back, Summer 2011

Of course, though, right around the time where I was trying to get her started, everything really started hitting the fan with my mom's illness, so both Brazynska and Meadow actually were boarded for a couple months down in the Norfolk area where Erik was stationed.
We moved everyone back home in December of 2012, and with winter, no "real" riding happened until around February of 2013. With the new year, I really wanted to get back into the swing of things and get serious. I joined MAHA in order to meet some horse-friends, and started trailering out A LOT to different parks and farms to give Meadow exposure. She was coming along great, so I entered her into her first show in April.


Meadow's first show, April 2013

Well, it sucked. Enter bucking, evading, rodeo-style Meadow. It was all so strange coming from my sensible, easy coming 4-year-old, so I had the vet / chiro out to look at her. I had seen her fall while horse-playing in the pasture, so we guessed that maybe she tweaked something in her back & he recommended at least 3 months of rest with regular adjustments. I was heartbroken, because I was just getting back into it, and here was a major set-back. 3 months came and went and Meadow still was not right. Her lower back & hind end were still hurting and there was nothing left to adjust, so at about 6 months in, I took her to Virginia Equine Imaging and had them diagnose her. Without doing a full bone scan, they diagnosed her with an SI injury and we attempted to do injections. Meadow had other ideas... so we ended up trying Shockwave therapy. That helped enough that I could start riding again (slowly), but she still wasn't 100%. We did end up doing SI injections in November, and she seems marginally more comfortable now. I'm hoping that strengthening and stretching will get her the rest of the way.

All ~7 months off were not for naught though, as I was still able to take Meadow to the 2013 RPSI inspection tour and get her branded & entered into Mare Book 1. She did great for that, even not at 100%!

Needless to say, though, since November, we have been in regular work, weather-permitting. Her walk & trot are coming along nicely, but we are still having canter issues. At 4 years old and 16.2hh, she is young & tall--in combination with compensating for an injury for ~7 months--so her balance is just not there yet. We have gotten canter departs both directions though--so it's just a matter of strengthening to maintain!

Two weeks ago, I took her to her basically-first show (2nd show ever, 1st since she's overcome this issue), and we showed Intro A & B. She was calm, level-headed, and overall did great! The judge commented on her quiet temperament and told us that we just need to work on consistency. I think that's pretty awesome for my baby girl, and I'm very excited to watch her progress throughout this coming year... I need to get this canter thing straightened out, and we need her to stay healthy... *Crossing fingers*...