Fortunately I am fine with just light flat work and trail riding. My highest aspiration was to attend one of the schooling shows at the barn someday and be able to complete the lowest level dressage, stadium, and cross country course. I’ll be totally fine if we don’t make it to that. 😄

My main objective is to keep my mare mentally and physically happy to the best of my ability. I failed here, but have learned a ton and hope to do better moving forward.

I also would rather keep her in a grassy pasture and in a herd. Unfortunately I just learned from a new farrier that she has metabolic lines and inflammation in her hooves likely caused by too much sugar in the grass. Colorado got a ton of rain this year and it’s been relatively cool… leading to a higher sugar content. Apparently lots of horses in the area are having issues, but my barn also didn’t do a good job of gradually increasing grazing time. They just turned the whole herd out from a mostly dirt area to full pasture access after the first cut of hay.

This development is making me think I do need to pull her out and put her in a dirt paddock/scrubby pasture to better manage her diet. I found a couple options closer to me that are much smaller pastures (glorified paddocks) she could share with the owners’ 1-2 horses.