Describe how your first horse is settling in.

When Astrid first arrived at Sempiternal Stables, she was incredibly nervous. Getting her off the trailer was a grueling task, having taken nearly an hour and a ton of treats. As we walked to the stable, she made sure to take in her surroundings, watching some of our other horses in the arenas and pastures. One of my dogs ran out in front of us on the path - as he usually does - resulting in Astrid spooking and dragging me a short distance before I was able to get her to settle down. Once we got to her stall, she seemed to calm down a bit, and eventually fully relaxed. We've made sure to take everything slow with her, and give her as many treats as possible when trying something new. At this point, we've had her for nearly a week and she has become substantially less timid, and has begun to trust us and the horses that she has met in the pasture. She's slowly starting to show her true colors, and I can't wait to see her completely out of her shell!

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Describe how your horse's first show ended OR briefly explain how your horse's training is progressing.

Astrid's first shows went poorly, but it gave us a lot of insight on what we need to work on. Her naturally nervous nature caused her to spook a lot during our in-hand class, so the first thing we did when we got back to our stable was begin desensitizing her. We started off slowly by just walking her around in the pasture like we would during the show, and having other people and horses moving around at the same time. She handled this well, so we brought her into one of the arenas and threw some tarps, pool noodles, and yoga balls in. She didn't really care about the pool noodles, but the yoga balls and tarps absolutely terrified her. We're still working on both, as well as incorporating a few more strange objects while we walk the arena. As for Dressage, I realized she really didn't care for, or maybe feel, my commands. I've started to have stronger contact, which has made a world of difference. I've never competed in dressage on a draft, so I didn't really take into account that she may not be as responsive. I've also been lunging her and giving commands to her while we lunge so I can see exactly what needs changing, so hopefully in the future we'll do better now that I have a bit more understanding of her.