This Way to Heaven

Ben, USEA reg name of Ben'Jammin, JC name This Way to Heaven, is a 2010 thoroughbred, more specifically March 21, 2010. He was bred in Texas. He raced 9 times in 2013, coming in third once, with a total earnings of $1764. He retired that same year.

Online reading, which pretty much makes me an expert, tells me that the Giant's Causeway stamps his offspring with floaty, beautiful trots and balanced canters and tends to throw tall, lanky offspring. The other name that caught my eye on his pedigree is Pleasant Colony. According to a chronicle article "(he) was a big, leggy horse with a tendency to pass that on." Ben fits with those descriptions, being mostly legs and clocking in at 16.3 and 1/4. He's also a down right gorgeous mover. 

I am so excited to see what the future holds for us. He is on a brief respite right now because he has a bruise on his right front foot. Just once I'd like to buy a horse and not immediately have it go lame... but he's got a good reason, he accidentally had his shoes pulled and then reset midway through the cycle due to some confusion about what farrier was doing him. He then pulled his right front shoe in the pasture a few days later. We put it back on and he made it through his PPE just fine, but the day I signed his contract went lame on it with a strong pulse in that foot. But, like I said, he's got a good reason, so he's just getting some time off. He got shoes with pads on Friday, which I'm hoping will help. 

We're going to finish out the spring season at JT's barn, but I'll be moving him to the GY's in mid-June. If he doesn't acclimate right to the herd he'll go back to JT's. She adores him so he always has an open stall there. 

Tall, leggy, and handsome. Also totally adorable