Dexter has spent the past year in the care of Kyle Putnam, who has been fostering him at her barn and working with him under saddle. Dexter is nothing if not a challenge, and Kyle has had her work cut out for her. But we were all amazed at his performance this weekend at the SAFE show…Dexter was well behaved and painted quite a picture in the ring! Here’s a report from Kyle on Dexter’s weekend:

Not only did he win the halter class for rescue horses, he got a 78.75 on his little dressage intro test! Yeah, it was a schooling show and yeah it was intro, but for a 14.3 hand paint rescue horse to get great comments from an FEI trainer is a big win in my book! His behavior all weekend was nearly impeccable. We had a couple brief reviews of The Rules, but he was gobstoppingly well-behaved for his first outing in ten months. I had been planning on doing more of the under-saddle classes today, but his bare feet were getting pretty sore on the rocks to and from the arenas. That, plus the heat, made me decided to end on an obedient note and enjoy the fact he had been so well-mannered. I think he could easily stay barefoot with a pair of barefoot boots for outings. Also, he loaded and trailered like a perfect gentleman both to and from the show. Needless to say, I’m exceedingly proud of the little guy!