A blast from my horsey past

Tomorrow is a big day for me - I've sold my gelding Jackson to a great junior rider at my barn. We are meeting tomorrow morning to sign over his registration papers and hopefully get my hands on some cash.

I took a big loss on this horse, both time wise and financially. I won't go into it here, but it was mostly my fault for not knowing enough. I'm very lucky that he is going to stay at my barn with a great little rider. I know he will be loved and well looked after. Money isn't everything.

So, I am technically horse-less at the moment. That may change soon, but I'll get into my horse search in another post.

A few days ago I was digging through some old photo albums and found a few pictures of me with the horses I had when I was young and carefree, so I thought I would post them here for a bit of nostalgia. I loved both horses and have wonderful memories of trail riding through the forest and galloping through corn fields on both of them.

I got my first large pony when I was 12. Her name was Tar - real creative eh? :-) She was a 14.2hh Appaloosa/Welsh pony cross. She was built like a tank and never lame in the six years that I owned her. Luckily I'm quite short, so I never really outgrew her. She was a bit much for me to handle when I first got her, but luckily I worked through it and my parents didn't catch on that she was alot to handle. I went on long trail rides with this girl, through creeks, rivers, giant mud puddles and all sorts of stuff. On some trail rides my friend and I would make our own trails, laughing like maniacs trying not to get knocked off our saddles by tree branches. What a good girl she was. She wasn't fast or particularly pretty, but we also did 4-H shows and parades together for a couple of years as well.

When I was 14, a friend's Mom who coached me a bit decided that I needed a bit fancier horse to do more showing with. My parent's didn't have a lot of money, so a free horse was found for me. It was one of those friend-of-a-friend situations - a lady had bought an arabian gelding and was too inexperienced for him - so he ended up with a horse-crazy 14 year old girl! I was beyond thrilled. This handsome bay was delivered to my house - I thought I was dreaming - and he was free!

His name was Pharley - again not too creative, but it suited him somehow. We went to an english barn and learned to do some basic dressage. We went to a few shows that summer - please ignore my bad posture in the picture! I had a lot of fun that summer, working at a proper barn and learning lots.

I ended up keeping both horses until I was 18. I somewhat foolishly (upon looking back) decided to go away to university and had to sell both horses. That was tough - to this day I'm not sure why I did that. Oh well - it is in the past...

There is a lot more to this story - some of it was too painful to write about, even almost 20 years later... So I'll just wrap up this looonnnnggg post and move on.

Strange things from my office window

So, I'm sitting here at work wishing I was outside.

I work for the government, but our campus is also a public park, so people in the neighbourhood walk by with their dogs all the time.

I have a window right by a sidewalk and see all kinds of interesting things.

So far this year:

• 2 people cross-country skiing down the road outside my window during a snowstorm
• groups of Asian tourists looking in our window and taking pictures (I work on the site of a famous Canadian tourist attraction that may involve horses)
• people's dogs pooping right outside the window. One guy wasn't going to pick up after his dog until he saw me waving.

Today's sighting takes the cake - a lady trying to walk her cat on a leash! He was a very fancy little orange cat - but he didn't seem to like the whole leash thing. She stopped outside my window for 5 minutes talking to him the whole time. Very cute. I was about to grab my camera and get her picture, but she saw me and left! LOL

Retail Therapy

So, I'm feeling a bit better today - trying to just let go of the bad mood vibes from yesterday. I've been thinking more about that appy gelding - even started casually looking for dressage saddles for him - that must mean something! lol

Stephanie made a great suggestion about doing something different to take my mind off of things - so while I'm waiting for the hubby to get home to go for a bike ride, I thought I would do a little pretend online shopping. There are lots of great horsey web sites with cool stuff to buy (someday) so I thought I would create a little wishlist. I feel better already! :-)

Kerritts - I have a pair of their riding tights and they are really comfortable. I noticed that they now have a "green" product line called g.r.a.s.s. - which looks really cool. I hope my local tack shop picks those products up soon! I don't want to have to pay US shipping if I can avoid it...

DVDs on saddle fit - English and Western - something I would love to learn more about instead of just guessing and hoping. (must ignore their 10% off online orders deal...) There is a decent article about saddle fit in my April 08 Perfect Horse magazine - I think I'll just stick with that for now.

Very cool chaps and half chaps - good thing I need to lose a bit of weight first or I'd have about 10 pairs!

John Lyons videos and books - I have a few, but you can never have too much horse stuff, right?

Cool stretch riding jeans - the low-ride boot cuts look pretty comfy!

I have a ton more links at work, but I'm at home today, so that is probably enough. My credit card would go up in a puff of smoke if I started ordering stuff, so I'll just worry about getting the horse first! lol

One of those days..

I feel a bit defeated today - I'm tired and frustrated with things in general. I'm on my 4th pair of shoes today - each pair kills my feet. My co-workers must think I'm nuts as the pile of shoes under my desk grows and grows - barefoot is next. I wore a new red vest today over my white shirt and my white shirt is now pink because the material of the vest rubbed off. *sigh* It's just one of those days.

I'm really second-guessing myself and worrying about my next horse purchase. I do love horses and riding and want to stick with it. The gelding I tried last night met alot of my criteria, with a couple of minor exceptions. I'm just so hesitant to buy again in case I'm stuck with a horse I don't like/can't ride in a few months like last time. The owner and her daughter seem really up front and honest though, so I think I'm getting the real story on him at least.

So, feeling all grumpy, I decided to check out a few blogs for inspiration - I read Callie's post about why she loves her life and it made me realize I was worrying about all of the small things. I do have a great life and lots of things to be grateful for - so chin up, Laura and move on.

I'm going to ride that gelding again on the weekend - maybe test him out in my western saddle and see if it fits him ok. He has high withers, so it'll be a bit trickier to fit saddles on him, I'm guessing. I'm also going to ask to take him out for a short hack, to see how he does.

Hawk goes home

So I decided yesterday that Hawk just isn't the right horse for me. *Sigh*

He is pretty, affectionate and easy to catch, but he just doesn't have enough experience for me. I've realized that I need an older 'been there, done that' sort of horse. I really need to rebuild confidence and get more miles in the saddle before I can work with a younger horse.

I'm going to see a 16 yr old appy gelding tonight - an 8yr old is currently riding him, so I should be able to handle that. LOL. Maybe he will work out for me - if not, back to square one. There aren't many older, well-trained healthy horses around. I guess people are holding on to those ones the most. :-)

Anyone want to send me a pretty, very well-trained horse???

Hawk's Trial - Day 5

Day 1 was good, days 2, 3 and 4 were very bad and now day 5 has brought alot of improvement in him!

He is alone in a paddock (we didn't want someone else's horse getting all kicked up) and is getting used to electric fence for the first time. I think the electric fence "biting" him was what put him on edge so much the past few days. He was very worried that everything else was going to "bite" him as well.

The barn owner and I decided to ride him today (I even took the day off work). We brought him into the barn and he was a little nervous at first. He was dancing around in the cross ties, but quickly settled down when I started grooming him. He was a breeze to tack up.

Once in the ring, we worked on leading him and getting him to stop when I stop. After a couple of laps around the ring he picked it up quickly. The barn owner then got on and started working him. He did really well - he isn't a spooky horse - he was looking around a bit but that was all. She rode him for about 20 mins, walk trot and canter.

Then it was my turn to get on. YIKES!!

I tend to be a nervous person, but I knew he was a steady guy. I took a few deep breaths and then climbed on! He was very good for me. His head was up a bit, but as we worked more he relaxed and settled down. There is lots to look at around the riding ring - other horses, cars coming in, traffic on the road - but he didn't try anything bad. He really seems like the kind of horse that won't explode if things get a little hairy - which is what I need. I even cantered a few circles - they weren't very pretty, but it was a canter. I've had my other gelding at that barn since last September and haven't felt good enough to canter him...

He doesn't have a lot of experience - but his temperament seems to be making up for it. I'll need to spend some time doing alot of ground work with him to get him where I would like him to be. Luckily my barn owner is a gem and is willing to teach me skills that I'm missing.

Tomorrow we are going out on a trail ride - the barn owner's hubby is going to ride Hawk for me (he is fearless) and I'm going to ride a school pony. We'll see how Hawk does and if he isn't too spooky we may switch horses part way through.

Soooo, if we get a few more good rides out of him over the coming week and a bit, I'm thinking I just might buy him! I'm guessing that today was probably his worst ride and that he will only improve as he gets used to me and the new barn.

The junior rider has until the end of the week to decide about buying my other gelding - I'm pretty sure that she is totally in love with him, so it shouldn't be a problem!

The new man in my life...

Hawk arrived at noon today, amidst cold, windy and rainy weather. He didn't seem to be phased by the weather at all, which is nice to see.

I have him for a 2 week trial, so we'll see how we get along together. Enjoy the photos!

Now I'm Really in Trouble!!!!

So, my experienced friend and I went to try the paint gelding again last night.

He was a very good boy, despite being taunted by a herd of yearlings (on the other side of a fence) and practically being devoured by mosquitoes!

The owner/trainer rode him, then my friend rode him and finally I got on. I had a really good ride, wak, trot, canter without any problems. The canter was the key for me - my friend and I agreed ahead of time that if I was too nervous to canter or if his canter was too wild, then we would know for sure that he wasn't the right horse. I was able to get a nice smooth rocking-horse canter from this guy! It wasn't a slow western lope, but it was a nice calm canter. I was pretty excited. I've been having confidence problems while cantering and as a result haven't cantered much while riding since last summer.

So, the owner offered me a two week off-property trial just to make sure he was a good fit. Apparently he rarely lets people do that, so that is encouraging. I think he can tell that I'm really looking for a steady horse and if he lets me take him for 2 weeks I'll probably end up buying him - as long as he is steady on the trails.

After running it by the hubby, we agreed that a 2 week no-risk trial was a great situation for us. I'm going to call the trainer today and work out a time to have him brought over to my current barn. The trainer is away for the weekend, but maybe he will have time on Monday!

I had a girl at my barn try out my current gelding - she is a fearless junior rider. After 15 minutes she had Jackson bending and putting his head down. He could have done well in a HUS class with the way she had him going! She was even able to canter him on a loose rein, which no one else has been able to do! Sooo - best case scenario is that she convinces her parents to buy him, worst case scenario she leases him for a year and covers my expenses. I could try and re-sell him next year, with a year of good solid riding under his belt... Here's hoping that works out!!

All of the above combined with the fact that the weather here has been gorgeous, has me in a pretty good mood for the weekend coming up! :-)

RCMP Musical Ride

Well, yesterday was a good day for me. I had the privilege of seeing one of my most favourite things - the RCMP Musical Ride!!! I had the opportunity to take a lot of pictures and speak to a few of the riders after the performance. All of the riders are police officers and go through a rigourous testing process to become part of the ride.

I happen to work at the same site as their stables - sadly I don't work IN the stables, but it is just one building over. I see the riders out on hacks almost every day.

Yesterday was the annual inspection of the ride, before they go out on tour. The horses are beautiful - and the riders in their red serge make for a fantastic picture.

Here are a few of my pictures - I was only a few feet away from the fence. More pictures can be seen on my flickr page.

Dilemma...with a capital "D"

So, I went to try out a new horse tonight. Might have been a mistake, because I kinda like him.

He's a bay paint, just under 15hh. Sweet and quiet and sensible. Just what I need.

Oh, why can't I have just a bit more money???

I have the money to buy him - he is very reasonably priced, it's paying board for two horses that has me all choked up. I pay a very reasonable price, but when you start multiplying everything by 2, it adds up.

My current horse, Jackson, is for sale, but in this over-saturated market, it could take a few months to sell.

The "almost-funny-but-not-quite" thing about this whole situation is that in 2 weeks from now we will know about my husband's job situation. If it's good news, I buy 2 horses, no problem, if it's bad news, it's an easy decision to not buy the 2nd horse.

Maybe I'll get lucky and the new guy - Hawk (cool name even) won't sell before then and I'll have a bit of time to work things out...

Has anyone else bought a new horse recently? How do you know for sure if it's the right match???

*sigh*

Maybe I should take up knitting instead...

Trying to write, yet again

I've stopped and started this blog many times - never knowing exactly what to write...

Sometimes I think I need to write just for myself, others I think it would be nice to have a few people stop by and visit...

We'll see what happens this time around.

I'm probably going to be posting about horses alot, as that is my hobby and my passion. I'm getting back into the horse world after a 12 year absence, so it's taking me a while to get rolling again.

I bought my first horse as an adult last summer and had some ups and downs with him. I might try and write out all of my experiences for posterity.

My current horse, a paint gelding named Jackson is currently up for sale. He and I just aren't getting along that well. He needs a confident rider and I'm just not there yet. I have a girl coming out to see him tonight, so hopefully all goes well there. I would like to get him a new home, so I can start looking for a new ride.