Freddie's First Headline

I think this is the first time that Freddie Mac has made it into the title of the blog. Big day for Fred! I don't want to undermine the progress that he is making since coming to the US now officially 2 months ago from New Zealand; however all Morris is doing right now is hanging out in the stall and paddock getting fat after his 2* and nobody really wants to read about that! Poor Freddie, all he knows is that he is a 17.1h 5 year old and life half way around the world is a little different than what he was used to. Let's start with the fact that he had a fur coat on him that would have gotten him comfortably thru winter in the arctic let alone New Zealand, and today it felt like 1000 degrees in the arena when it was his turn to school. He really has done a remarkable job at getting over his trip and just now I am feeling like every day I know what kind of a horse I am going to step onto at the mounting block (yes, for those of you who know me, this one is actually tall enough that I have to get on every day at the mounting block!). Walk trot and canter today were all smooth, we got our correct leads, we made small circles without bulging into any standards and trying to whack my outside leg off. I have a video clip here (thank you, Richard who spent a good hour of his Fathers Day standing out in the desert today holding up his i-phone to get some footage) of Freddie and his warm up roll tops. I make him trot in and canter out quietly over all sorts of small, spooky, skinny things. If he's going to be a 4* event horse he can't practice skinnies too much! He actually is getting quite brave about all of this at home, so we need to take him down a notch here soon ha ha ha, seriously though I see a field trip in his near future so we can expand those horizons a little bit. Funny thing about sport horses, we expect them to go somewhere foreign, with more than a hundred of their closest friends they've never met, loud speakers, barking dogs, food tents and then perform better than they do in optimal conditions at home. What amazing critters!
Enjoy Freddie's quick clip and know that you will be seeing a lot more of this guy in the future. Big plans for him. A big thank you, on Father's Day to his "father" Chris Ellis for putting him in my barn and giving him a chance to see how great we all can be! After he runs around Rolex we are going to look back at this clip of him trotting a roll top and realize what a ride it has been!