Amanda Meets Allegiant
Amanda and Allegiant hit it off on their first ride!
Elizabeth,
Allegiant meets Amanda's family including Lily the Italian greyhound.
Yesterday was a ton of fun (even if it didn’t look like it on my face, it was)! When I first went into Allegiant’s stall, she was so calm and relaxed. I was expecting something a little more lively for just being two weeks off the track. She was gorgeous and tall. I wasn’t expecting her to be quite so tall, but it’s fine with me since I’m tall too! She stood quietly to be brushed and pick her feet out and to tack her up. She was not girthy in the least, and she put her bit right in. She EVEN put her head down to help you put it in! That was nice.
When we got to the arena, and Elizabeth got on, I was expecting an extremely fast trot. But, she just did exactly what you wanted her to do. If you sat up, she would go slower, and that AMAZED me. I am so used to my old Appy not caring what I do.
Amanda rode Allegiant on a lunge line first.
Then I got on, and we started out slow on the lunge line. She was calm ready to listen to me. After a few lessons on my body position, she really got in tune with me, and we started to click! Then, we went off the lunge line. At first, she wanted to eat the trees, but I got her attention, and we went trotting around the arena, she was GREAT!
Afterwards, we must have rinsed her off 2-3 times, and she stood perfectly still, even for her face!! And, we bathed her and scrubbed her with iodine shampoo, she still stood there.
Getting in the trailer was a little tricky with all the food bags and water buckets, but she did it well, and calmed down soon after that. We stopped about 7-10 times to make sure she was all right. She was a little sweaty, but not bad. And, she was eating her hay. We stopped at Publix for five minutes to get one thing, and she was AWESOME!
Two people came up to the trailer while I was with her and pet her; she liked it! When we got home, she very quickly loaded off the trailer and was pretty nervous. It was dark outside, so that didn’t help. We put her in the pasture, and she went ramming around. It was dark outside, so she couldn’t see the electric fence well. She galloped into the back fence and broke it, letting about five other horses in with her and her pasture buddy. I don’t blame anything on her because it was dark outside and you couldn’t really see the electric fence.
It was our pleasure to have the opportunity to work with Allegiant during her first week off-the-track. We are happy to help any of our buyers with their new purchase. Amanda was on a family vacation and it worked out that Allegiant could come to our farm and get some training while waiting for her new mom to return to Georgia. This gave us the opportunity of watching Amanda’s first ride on her new OTTB. We can tell that this “A Team #2” is going to give us as much pleasure as our #1 “A Team” – Alex and Tucks St. Aly.
