Just a little late :/

So once again I got caught up with other things and have neglected this blog :(  Let me start out by saying that I am sure I will fall behind on posts again but I will try to keep updating this as often as possible.  With that being said, here at Centennial Acres, we have a lot planned already for the spring and summer :) In the upcoming weeks we will be going down to St. Louis for the MAHA Arabian Horse Show where I hope to earn enough points to qualify for regionals, additionally Lizzie will be coming with us to show Rave in 3 walk trot classes. Also Molly will be joining us as a helper and groom :)
In April we have the possibility of some new shows, and a Saturday trip up to the Midwest Horse Fair.  We are planning on hosting a summer camp at some point this year with instruction available to riders of all skill levels and we are also hoping to start up some meetings to go over different types of training, health care and grooming styles, but alas that is still in the works.   So with that being said let's talk about another horse. 
We might as well start with Trixie.

Trixie came to us the summer of 2006. I had previously been hired to start Trixie undersaddle for a wonderful family a couple of years before this.  At her previous home I was told that Trixie had been given to them as a weanling that just didn't pass for the show horse her breeder had intended her to be.  Supposedly,Trixie was out of an unregistered mare that was bred to a top cutting horse here in Illinois.  While the days went by, working with Trixie turned out to be pretty easy, I had been warned that cutting bred horses were difficult to work with but Trixie was quickly proving them wrong.  We were walking over tarps, through water, learning to do showmanship, and getting pretty close to start undersaddle. 

Trixie running through the field.

The day came for me to ride her for the first time. I had enlisted the help of a friend to lunge Trixie with me on her back. All was going well and the next step was to canter her, as I gave her the all familiar cue Trixie picked up a nice canter and a few laps around I sat back and said WHOA. In a million years I wouldn't have been prepared for what she did, years of chasing cattle in her bloodlines she sat back on her haunches and did a nice sliding stop. Years later she still pulls those out once in awhile, if nothing else to teach us all to sit back and not get too far forward while riding :) The rest of that training time was spent going on trail rides, getting her new riders used to her and working in the arena. 

A couple of years went by and when Trixie's family ran into some health problems, we became her new owners.  Over the past six years we have done quite a bit with her,  she has been on countless trail rides, been in a few shows, has particpated in team penning, jumping, driving and pulling a sled. 

So there you have it,  the story of Trixie :)