I had written a little about Sir Alex on December 6, 2009 when I first acquired him. Since then he was shipped to my house at midnight two weeks ago. I fell in love with this horse the minute I saw him on the trailer. I knew he was special when I watched the video of him from New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Center in Laura, Ohio. Sir Alex is very special indeed. He fit right into the heard without a fuss, has made friends with everyone and has quite a comical personality. He likes to tease the other horses, running up like he is going to chase them away, just to turn and take off again. He gets everyone in the pasture running and chasing and having a ball, then calmly starts grazing while the others look on as if to say,” Hey, I thought we were playing chase.”
I have decided that ex-race horses really don’t like staying in the stall, which is quite alright with me. My other one, Sera, a thoroughbred stresses and walks the stall if I try to keep her in. Sir Alex just chooses to try to crib. There isn’t a place in the stall he can sink his teeth into except the buckets, so out he goes. I don’t need my buckets torn up. Also, one less mess to clean up, you know. As long as he is happy outside, so be it. His coat is thick enough and he is heavy enough that I doubt he will even notice the cold. He is also barefoot, which I like during winter. Ice, snow and mud doesn’t get so clogged up on his soles and I don’t have to worry so much about him getting hurt cavorting out in the pasture.
My daughter rode him two days after he arrived and he was wonderful. Sir Alex raced his second year and won a fair amount, but started to get sore so his conscientious owners decided to retire him rather then risk his getting hurt. After that he went on to being a lesson horse. He trots and paces which makes him perfect since he is so versatile. I finally rode him a few days ago and decided that I needed to work with him on the snaffle bit to see what he would do. In the video he was wearing an eggbut snaffle. I put a full cheek snaffle on him which is my choice in bits when I get a new horse to try out. I have been suppling him and asking him to walk straight without all the chewing. Alex does like to chew, so I think I will try a snaffle with a french link and see how that works for him. Today we had a great day! Obviously he has been very well trained by his previous owners and is a pleasure to ride.
Sir Alex has quite a smooth trot, doesn’t canter, but that is ok, he does pace and is very smooth. That’s all I need anyway. He was a nut today when I was riding him in the ring. My dachshund, Izzy, came out to say hello to me and Sir Alex thought he was going to get attacked. I never dreamed he would be frightened by such a small, unassuming dog, but by golly if he didn’t spin around and try to run. Thankfully, he is very, very well behaved and trusting of humans. He settled down easily and we just kept going. That is a good training technique with a spooky horse. If you can stay on, just ride it out all the time trying to gain control and give the horse something to do that he does well to get his mind back on work and off whatever scared him. They have a one track mind, so stay calm, regain control and keep going.
Anyway, to me Sir Alex is special and I really look forward to giving lessons on him. I think my students will love him too.
Hi, my name is morgan. I took care of Trotter or Sir Alex for the last two years at the voca. He was a very special horse and i loved him like he was my own. Im really happy to see that he went to such a great home. I hope you love him like i did.