|
Fenjay Appaloosa & Sports Horses
|
This is a progress page on Spirit of Tobias being broken in.
I travelled all the way to County Durham with a couple of friends and a trailer (8hrs journey) to see Toby. When we got there we where taken to a field where he was out running with 4 broodmares. His previous owner called him and he came running to see us. He allowed us to make a fuss of him and to chase him round the field which was very hilly. We just about managed to see his paces and him move around. We were very impressed by his presence and temperament. I decided to take the chance and have him. Back home with me he will be living a completely different life. I have 2 other up and coming stallions and they are all going to be on the same yard. Toby is stabled in the day and out at night and is in a field on his own but with the other 2 colts in different fields.
Since being with us Toby has learnt alot, he is confident to walk by the side of me now instead of following behind, he comes in each morning to haylage and hard feed, which he absoluetly loves. He has had his feet trimmed, is groomed daily, has a rug on a night, was bathed when we first had him. He looks terrific and is doing really well so I am very hopeful that you will all get the chance to meet such a stunning and kind stallion who has a superb temperament.
My intentions for him is to break him to ride and hopefully get him out competing showjumping like his father and half brother, I will also look to do his school work and do some dressage with him. He has had very little education from what I have seen so far and is very novice and unsure of everything. Just lack of knowledge. He is very spooky looking at everything around, would only follow behind me as he lacked confidence and understanding to walk up by the side of me. He is very intelligent and lovable and that is what makes me persevere with him. It will take some time to break him but I have no intention of rushing him as although he is 7yr he only has the mentality of a 3yr old. He really does like all the attention he is getting and I have a 16yr old girl, Lexi, an exceptional young rider who is also at college working towards her AI and much more. She loves him to bits and she will have the ride on him if we do get him broken. He has tried us out on numerous occasions but hasnt a nasty bone in him. I had a few problems when initially starting to lunge him but I have managed to overcome them. I now have moved on and have started to lunge him in the pessoa which did cause some fun initially, including a fair amount of bucking bronco, rearing and all sorts from him. However I ignored him and carried on as if he weren't doing it and he was fine. We got through it and he was lungeing very nicely so finished the lesson. I am extremely pleased with his progress and have high hope for this young stallion. Today 30th Oct Toby was lunged over his first jump. He did very well and I was very pleased as he was quiet happy to do it without to much fuss. I will report on his progress as we go along.
Since October many things have happened at the stud one being moving yards. Toby has not been doing much with one thing and another especially the horrible weather. Anyway did have sometime so lunged him and the next day put a saddle on him. He took it really well and we didn't have any bucking which did suprise me a bit as I was expecting something from him. Alexa has stood on his hay feeder in the field with no-one holding him and lent across him, he just turned his head to her as if to say what are you doing. The next step is to get up on him.
Toby is at present with my broodmares for his stud duties so is having a break from being broken. He will be back once they have been covered.
Toby being lunged with and without the pessoa, which he has now come to accept and is going round nicely. The above photo was taken today (29th Oct)
Fenjay Stud
