Uphold: Son of Lentenor Videos

It’s okay, I can always just wash my hair again🤣 #ottb #thoroughbred #equestrianlife #equestrianlife #horsegirlproblems

Yesterday marked 1 month since Up arrived at the farm, so we celebrated with a groundwork session! Groundwork can help you understand so much about your horse, including strengths and weaknesses. I introduced Up to side passing along the fence line, which he picked up very quickly! He’s very comfortable with moving laterally, so now we just need to straighten it up. Adversely, we also tried our hand once again with the exercise that makes him straddle a ground pole to learn how to stand/move with correct posture. And, since conformationally he stands base narrow, he did struggle with it. Patience will be key, but this is an essential skill for him to learn. This exercise is incredible for him specifically to increase his range of motion, to encourage him to move from back to front, and to encourage proper weight distribution to protect his hooves. Of course conquering these skills on the ground will translate well under saddle! That’s a bit of an added bonus 😌 enjoy this clip from his first time side passing!

Yesterday marked a month off the track! We celebrated by trying our hand at side passing, which Up figured out relatively quickly! He is very comfortable with side passing but struggles with straddling a ground pole. This makes sense when you look at his conformation. He stands a bit base narrow, especially in his hind, so we will slowly start incorporating more exercises to encourage him to widen his stance and increase range of motion. This will help him distribute his weight more evenly and protect his joints. And of course, if we can conquer these things in hand, then we have a better foundation for under saddle! Enjoy this clip from our work yesterday! We will work on making this a bit straighter, but such a great starting point.

Let’s talk through yesterdays groundwork session in this video!! We are planning on Uphold’s first post-track ride happening tomorrow under the guidance of our trainer! Since RRP is the goal for Uphold, we will be very intentional when these rides happen (that is until December 1st). Can’t wait to see how he progresses! But first, he is having his introductory appointment with his vet today!

Uphold is on day 3 of his groundwork "training" and has moved over to working in a rope halter! I put the parenthesis in front of training because many thoroughbreds already have these groundwork skills intact, they just need a bit of a refresher. Especially with horses like Uphold who have spent years on the track, these things sessions are usually more like reminders. The video is from our session yesterday, which focused on reintroducing lunging with walk-to-stop transitions on a small circle. When I pulled him out of the stall to head to the arena, I sensed he was a bit unfocused so even before officially beginning our session, I reminded him of our progress with walking, halting, and backing while we waited for another horse to pass. I'm glad we had that moment so we could have the correct mindset when we entered the ring to work on his lunging skills. We worked exclusively on walking and stopping while on a small circle. While it may be tempting to allow him to trot and canter on the longe, I really want him solid on that walk to stop transition out on a medium-sized circle before we go any faster. He surprisingly didn't seem to find this exercise too boring and really tried his hardest to understand what I was asking of him. He had a few solid repetitions in both directions, so I decided to his brain rest and have him do some walking over ground poles and even a cross rail to get his mind thinking about lifting his back and being more aware of his feet. After a couple of nice repetitions, we stopped on a high note. There will be a time for longer sessions and more "exciting" exercises, but for now, I'm enjoying seeing his mind slowly recognize that this is a different world from what he previously knew. I'm waiting for his hind end to loosen a bit more and to have a few more days of cold hosing, but I'm so excited to get on his back soon. We suspect he'll be all business since that is how he seems to approach working as of right now. Stay tuned for a timel

Uphold enjoying his Tuesday afternoon!! As expected, his leg was swollen today so he was cold hosed, got a bath, got to go play in the small pasture, and then had iodine and aquaphor applied to the scrape. He is still rambunctious as ever! #ottb #ottbsoftiktok #equestrian

Uphold began day 1 of his groundwork boot camp yesterday, which you can watch. Since coming off the track, Uphold (or Up as I call him) has been very easy to work with! While he loves kicking up his heels in the pasture and putting on a show, he is very willing to at least try anything you ask of him, even if he is not sure about it. We removed his back shoes this past Friday and the farrier told us he believes Up is actually a great candidate for the barefoot life, so that's what we will be pushing for this next time around. As you all may have noticed with some of the videos being posted, Uphold has a very unique bunny hop gait in the canter and gallop right now. This could be for a myriad of reasons. He just came off the track so he could still be very, very tight in his hind end. He did just have his back shoes removed, so he may be a touch sore. He also scraped his leg up while shipping, so he may still be sore on that leg, but there may be another reason. Let me preface this with what I'm about to tell you is VERY manageable and VERY common for war horses, especially 17-hand high war horses who already have spectacular movement. I personally suspect he may have some sacroiliac joint discomfort. According to Newmarket's Equine Hospital, the sacroiliac joint is the joint or site of articulation between the horse's hind leg and spine and serves as a major point of weight and force transfer between the hind leg and the vertebral column as the leg takes weight during the stance phase of the stride. Once again, this is VERY manageable and VERY treatable if this is the case and since it will be managed properly, it will not have an impact on his second career if he does have it. Who knows, he may loosen up with a bit more time off the track, but I just want to help his transition as much as I can. I am in the process of getting Uphold a massage scheduled, as well as getting his chiro appointment on the books so we can get a good baseline on his body anyway. We wil