The first year, in summary...

So to summarize, the first year, we didn't really do a whole lot.  I rode him some, but I was also working with my cousin's horse and her kids, so they were more of a priority for me than working my own horse.  I even almost sold Shamrock at one point...since I hadn't done much with him and had moved my older gelding to Texas from Ohio.  I even made a sale video, and sent it to a somewhat local training farm that buys horses, trains and shows them, then sells them for a profit.

I hadn't ridden him for a few months at this point and he went so nicely I decided to keep him.  This was in February 2013, I suspect that he was going so well because the grass wasn't as stressed or as high in sugars and he also wasn't being worked, so his muscles didn't care that they weren't really being fueled properly.

This was the moment that I decided to keep him.  This one, right here.  Seeing what he could look like...

So I kept him, and started trying to work him more...but he was getting worse.  More resistant and spooky.  And his movement quickly started to deteriorate...and I had no idea why.