The chiropractor has been working on Ghost and it has worked very well. Both the chiro and the vet think Ghost is alot OLDER than we all think <grin> but, oh well, who cares. He is a handy old man, takes care of the younger horses, patrols the farm on a regularly hourly basis, and is generally the supervisor around here <grin> I have finally convinced the old bird that going out at night and staying in during the day IS ALOT nicer. He is very set in his ways and doesn't take change well, but he is now on the nightshift like the rest of the gang.
Patti

Ghost is doing very well. We refer to him as the "The Walmart greeter"...he has to know what is going on all the time around the farm. If David is working a new horse in the round pen, off goes the Ghost to watch....any new horse comes in, he has to be the first to say hello.

Ghost had a complete acupuncture treatment on Wed and he appears to feel a lot better. It appears that Ghost had been a some sort of bad wreck last year right before he ended up in the feedlot. His hip was out of place, a neck vertebrae out of whack, severe lower back pain, oh the list goes on and on, not to mention all the muscle atrophy on his shoulders. But the horse is a doll, and we ride all the time and he was used in cross country jumping....since he doesn't bat an eye at any of our jumps.....sails over everything. Kewl.

We got some nice pictures of me riding the Ghost yesterday. Hopefully my friend will get them processed and then scanned and sent to me via email next week.  Ghost is doing wonderful. I can't say enough good things about the boy. I have a friend Peter who lives in FL. He used to ride at Temple Farms in ILL.......the big Lippizan dressage horse place. Peter is was a Grand Prix level dressage rider. He thinks Ghost knows even more than I think he knows. He thinks he is a grand prix level horse.!! I don't have the expertise to ask for anything above 2nd or 3rd level. Peter is going to try to make a trip up here in the next 60 days. Peter will know exactly what to ask for .  It still amazes me HOW OR WHY this horse ended up where he is.....?? Why why why ! Well, we finally cantered yesterday. Ghost was finally strong enough to do it. He just rolled right into the prettiest collected canter you could want !  So now my hope show hopes are back up and Ghost will probably be competing come next summer if all goes well and he enjoys it. If he hates showing, well, that's ok with me too. I will just let him tell me........yes , he talks to me now !! <grin> Patti

The ghost has been gaining weight steadily...he was really thin when he got here, probably lot thinner than even I realized., because now that he is gaining, you realize how much he does need to fill in that big frame of a body !!

Well, I did it. I rode the boy today. It took some padding to do it, but my saddle fit him pretty good. I have ordered several pads from Dover so hopefully they will be here on Monday.

This horse knows a lot of stuff......my bet is he was once an upper level dressage horse, all kidding aside. I just used a plain old snaffle bit. He is extremely sensitive, very responsive to leg aids so this tells me he has NOT been hot dogged around, or used at a riding camp or rental barn. He has very good manners, on the ground and in the saddle. He listens to me very carefully. He is still a touch nervous but in a good way....he is just waiting for me to ask him to do something and he wants to be able to respond immediately. !! He bends very well in the corners, tracks up nicely, backs, half passes and turns on the forehand. I didn't ask him to do much more than that at the moment as I didn't want to overwhelm him at all.

We only trotted around the arena a little bit, like 10 mins.....I didn't want to stress him too much. I felt he was very fearful when I first went to mount up, he got nervous, but after I rode him a bit, he totally relaxed and was ok.