I am a retired (YAY!) teacher from CT. After losing my old retired Morgan to colic 4 years ago, I thought I was done. But my former BO dragged me back and did some major enabling. Looking for a school horse for her turned into me buying a new Morgan 3 years ago.
Alfie is now 9 yo. He is a 15 h sooty palomino. I bought him as a green 6 yo (trainer did not even canter him under saddle) BO has helped me with the basics and my dressage instructor usually comes from out of state about monthly in the summer. It has been challenging as the boy has discovered his power and had definite opinions about how things should be done! Then after about a year he was going well, WTC, some leg yield, etc and he went lame. (Just for a couple of days, but the vet was coming out for another horse) My horse with the beautiful well-shaped bare feet that everyone admired was diagnosed with "mild navicular changes". We went for an MRI which showed some disruption (but no tear) in the DDFT at the coffin bone as well as inflammation consistent with Navicular Syndrome. So he was restricted to a hospital paddock for 6 months and we needed chemical help to keep him reasonable and start hand walking (a bored Morgan is a naughty Morgan!) A repeat MRI showed "profound improvement" . We survived rehab and (knocking wood) he has been sound since with his orthopedic horseshoes.
Covid certainly affected our plans this year. I wanted to get him off the farm and see how he reacted, but that didnt happen. And my instructor came yesterday for the first time since last Thanksgiving (and probably wont be back until next Spring!) Of course Alfie had to throw a shoe and cut and bruise his leg last week. Between that and some really nasty weather he got way less work and turnout than usual. I ended up lunging him first (which I don't usually do) so he could settle down a bit. We worked on his (and my) balance and he showed off his collected trot and even did a little passagey trot. His shoulder in is pretty good but we both have trouble with HI and discussed some new approaches. His trot-canter-trot transitions are balanced until we practice walk-canter-walk and then he only wants to do those. Just have to keep changing up. Overall a very positive lesson. My instructor absolutely loves him and thinks he has "major talent" which is always nice to hear!
His registered named is "Illicit Affair".