Sweet Hazel

Sweet Little Miss Hazel has managed to find her way into a special place in my heart.  She is a 17 year old 3/4 Thoughbread, 1/4 Paint Mare.  She spent most of her life as a brood mare and has had several foals.  When she first came to Greenmarch at the end of the summer in 2017 she was a little rough around the edges and a bit skiddish, but she has a nice round barrel and is amazingly responsive and super sensitive in nature.  From the first time I rode her I fell in love with her.  A few months later she got bit pretty bad on her back and couldn't be saddled for over a month.  When I tried riding her after that she quickly regressed to a point where most of my lessons were spent working on straightness at the walk.  She couldn't even stand still in the cross ties.  She was super anxious and evasive of aids and managed to throw me off a couple of times.  Yet for some strange reason I still loved her and enjoyed working with her and trying to figure out all of her quirks and sensitivities.  Now coming into the spring of 2018 we are finally back to working on cantering and jumping.  I even managed to take her out cross country in the early spring (I'm not a fan of doing cross country with horses that have spring fever), but Miss Hazel Basil is much calmer in the outdoor area vs the indoor arena and has calmed down so much that we gave it a whirl and she was amazing!

I'm now riding Miss Hazel twice a week and am her most consistent rider.  We have done a couple of clinics with Jennifer Forman and have both come a long way.  This sweet horse has taught me so much and has forced me to become a better rider, and I get the privilege to work on teaching her new things as well.  On top of making me a better rider she has managed to teach me quite a bit about animal psychology and horse behavior as well.  I get so excited every time we finish a hard ride and she hasn't broken out into anxious neck sweats!  I really enjoy trying to figure out how to keep her calm while still working on harder and new things.  She is a worrier and easily gets stuck in her head and worked into a tizzy.  I can't wait to see where we both are at in the next months and years to come.