More likely a transformation of her coat rather than her condition since she's on a HUGE pasture but ya know, Imma try and whip her butt back into shape. 

For anyone who doesn't know me & the girl. Bella is my Paint/TB mare, she'll be 8 July, 9th (2016). I got her as an unbroken 2 year old and brought her along myself. She's (lightly) schooled up to 3'6" in the ring and she also has schooled exactly one Prelim cross-country fence (thank you to that trainer for not taking my joke as a joke). She's such a sweetheart but also your typical mare so... ya know... whatever. Idk, if you've got questions feel free to ask I really don't know what else there might be to say about my wonderful baby girl.

As of March 10th she'd had roughly 8 to 9 months off with only being ridden once or twice a month (very very lightly) and being lunged a couple of times before I put her back under saddle.

April 1st she got chiropracted and April 2nd she got her shoes back on.

January 10th (Not originally intended for transformation purposes.

Nothing in Feb. as she was still on her break.

March 10th (Bought my new saddle, officially back into full work!)

March 17th (Week 1, so out of shape lol.) 

(hope you enjoyed her silly face)

March 25th 

April 9th (Oops I forgot to do pictures last week.)

She looks wonderful! Parker is still a mangey, shedding mess from his winter coat. Even in January pics, Bella doesn't seem to have much of a winter coat? Do you shave her? She already looks like she has her summer sleek coat in the pictures from today! Lucky, haha.

She's a cutie!!! :D
I second the winter coat thing! she looks so clean and good even then! 
I want jumping photos when you start jumping her again! (if you jump again :p)

Is she technically able to be registered paint? I remember reading something like a Paint was originally a TB or QH that had spots and was rejected from a QH or TB registry for having too much white, so the APHA said"ya know, this is dumb, we making our own club" haha sorry, Just wondering :p

She's been clipped every year I've had her except this one. She doesn't grow much of a winter coat just enough to be a pain to cool out when it's cold, and she hasn't even finished shedding out what little coat she did grow yet! She'll be much darker when she does (it's coming through on her shoulder in the second picture from today)!

Overture, I've actually got pictures of us doing itty bitty like 18" cross-rails from a week or two ago. I'll post one for you tomorrow (with a picture of what we WERE jumping lol). Also she COULD be registered if I had the papers from her breeding. Her original owners bought her dam when she was pregnant and while they had the paperwork they can't seem to locate any of it, so sadly she can't be registered (which is a shame, she's nice enough she should have her papers). I don't have her dam's registered name but this is her sire (at least according to the information I was given) Dun Up Mi Te Grande. I didn't buy her to compete her at breed shows & if I do get the chance to breed her I want to breed her to a warmblood jumper stallion so it's not a huge deal to me. After 6 years I'm at peace with it. lol

awh I love her!

So for an update (and because Overture wanted jumping pictures of miss thing here) we jumped some itty bitty things March 22nd. This was before she got adjusted or before she got her shoes. She did well but the main goal was just to see where she was at as far as listening to me & make sure that I'd kinda covered everything so my Chiropractor could see if the saddle was causing her to be sore. 

Yesterday (April 10th) I took her out and jumped her some but over higher fences. We'd had a few weeks to get into shape, I changed her bit, she got shoes, and of course adjusted so she was on her game and I felt pretty comftorble with what I was asking her to do. she didn't touch anything but she wasn't launching way over things this jump schooling either. Overall she still needs to work on her balance at the canter but I have started to notice shoulder definition coming in again! :D

Also I used pictures of the same jump so you guys can REALLY enjoy the picture updates! This last picture is from the farm I used to work at and us doing 3'.

BEL-LA! BEL-LA! BEL-LA!
-chants and continues to throw confetti around forums-
Loved seeing the pics in succession, as it really shows off the difference!

You & I have kinda just seen them each week but seeing them all lined up is great! I can actually see the differences rather than "well I think she's gotten a little better this week" haha.

Yay!!! :D
She's looking good!

Wow, she's beautiful!! 

Paints since 6-8-14

Aw! Thanks Audi! Just wait until she actually sheds out! I'm proud to report that her face has shedded out and after our jump school on Sunday she's lost quite a bit more on her neck & shoulders. Just about time to throw her back under her fly sheet 24/7!

Editing this because here's the REAL transformation! 5 years ago today was the first time I ever sat on Bella with full tack...

I don't have any updates. Basically I've been having some issues with the farm she's at right now so we're on the hunt for a new place for her to live. Soon as she moves I can ride again, currently the grass is too tall, another horse has been getting more and more aggressive, and they just put cows out with my horse (not amused). Fingers crossed we find something soon!

Well the barn issue sucks. But how did i miss this thread! I love Bella. She's just such a gorgeous mare and uh. Her magically changing coat just goes to show you never assume a horse's genotype from their phenotype! Her coat color goes all over the place. 

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Found a new barn! She moves tomorrow afternoon (even though it's apparently supposed to be raining, oops)!

Chao, yeah her color changing it pretty awesome. My birth mom was actually confused for the longest time because every time I posted new pictures on FB she thought it was a different horse because her color changes so much! She finally grasped that Bella is basically magical and just changes colors all the time! lol

She's def bleached out some already this year because she didn't have a fly sheet on for about a month but now she's got a sheet back on and should hopefully hold was little of her true color she's retained! She looks great and I'll start riding her consistently at this new barn! This move seems like it's truely going to be good for us. Once he gets the jump standards fixed up I'll be able to school her over fences weekly like I want too! Plus the property is huge so once I figure out where all I can ride I can start conditioning her again and whip her butt back into shape quickly (and my butt too). Trot sets anyone?! ;)

Also, Josh sat on a horse (Bella) for the first time ever. Mare was less amused than I was but she was well mannered (she's always more well mannered with other people than she is with me if we're being honest). Please excuse the fact he was on her with her fly sheet, normally not something I would do but every now and then exceptions get made.

I am glad you found a new barn! I know the pain of having a once awesome place not be so awesome anymore. Glad your girl is safe and happy!
She is super cute! Her color is amazing

Especially with me starting school I just realized that unless they started taking care of some things that I was too anxious with her there and when I approached them about doing some stuff (MOWING for one) they basically were like "oh all your concerns are valid, but we're not going to change anything about how we do things because we don't want to. Is 30 days enough time for you to find a new place to keep her?" I'm glad I had started looking before I even emailed them. My friend also keeps her horse where we're going, he'll feed her for me, and at least text me if something is off (she throws a shoe or whatever) so I can focus on school without worrying about her too much. This makes me very happy. 

I'll get some pictures of her current coloring the next sunny day we get where I can actually ride!

That is the biggest mare face I think I've ever seen omg. 

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That look tho. xD

"Human...get. off."

Her face! Haha "but like, seriously? After all I do for you?"
Paint mares have the best expressions :p

I am glad that you have someone there to watch for her! That is the system we have at my barn. Jackson is in the "main barn" where there is my trainer, her clients, and then three other people who event who have there horses in there, and we always look out for each other.  I can't tell you how many times someone as caught a horse colicing or acting funny/hurt just because they poked their head in every stall before they left for the night. A literal life saver! So glad you have someone like that for your girl! She deserves the best darn it! :p

She'll be on pasture board but there's something like 10 total horses on the property. There's loads of land he doesn't have many horses which is fantastic. He said he'll put her wherever she needs to be to make sure she gets her food daily which is a godsend since I'm unable to make it out every single day to feed her (she doesn't get much, basically 2 handfuls so she can get her supplements) but he'll be able to keep an eye on her so if she destroys her fly sheet it wont go a day or two before I can make it out to pull it off of her. I'm so relieved, I went out there to get my stuff today and they've started doing construction on the barn (which isn't used for the horses but the horses can still get up close to it and the mini-donkey was out, there's tons of wire fencing down on the ground near the barn. OH and they MOWED the area I was parking in which TWO DAYS AGO they told me they COULDN'T mow. 110% over it. I'm moving Bella in like 3 hours and it literally could not come soon enough!

This new place sounds like such a godsend. Gonna miss the pictures of the minidonk on my facebook feed but. LMFAO

How does this work with your training clients? Were they through your old barn or are they more mobile?

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