Wow...that happened fast...

After my last post, Richard and I sat down and had a look at our household budget.  I needed to take a close look at our expenses and see if I could swing board on two horses - Rusty and Dolly.  I haven't actually purchased Dolly yet, but I expect she will be mine by the end of week.  We decided that we could do it on paper, but it didn't leave alot of extra disposable income for trips or house repairs, both of which are things we like/need.

That left me in a bit of a situation. I didn't really want to sell Rusty, but he just wasn't working for my riding needs anymore. That sounds kind of selfish, but as a boarder with a somewhat limited budget, I have to be realistic about what I spend my money on.   I would love to have my own little farm where I could keep Rusty as a cute pasture ornament, but that just isn't in the cards right now.

(Side note: I just wanted to give RuckusButt a HUGE thank you for letting me talk all of this horse stuff out over the past week.  RB met me twice at work last week and we talked about all of my options.  It is so nice to have a horse person around in real life (as well as all of the great support and advice from everyone online!)

Rusty is still healthy and sound at 19, so I felt he still had a few more years of riding left. I decided to put an ad on our local message boards and see what happened.  I posted the ad Thursday morning and 24 hours later, I had a lady book an appointment to come out and see him.

She wanted to come out with her truck and trailer Friday night and take him on the spot. I told her I needed a couple of days and that Sunday would work better for me.  She is a certified coach and runs the barn/riding program at a barn in the east end of our city.    Her web site and the barn's web site looked really legit.  Selling an older horse to a riding school wouldn't be my first choice, but the more I talked to her, the more I knew it would be a good fit.

This barn:

• has a couple of horses over 20 that they still use for walk/trot classes
• she told me Rusty would be used for beginners only
• they are willing to call me if and when he is ready to retire
  
  and the best part...??
  
• the lady coaches one of Rusty's old owners!  

The former owner (not the girl I bought him from, but one even further back!) saw his ad online and told the riding school about him and how he would be a perfect fit.  Hearing that made me feel better - they were so excited about getting to take care of him again, that I figured he would end up ok.

I am  feeling ok with my decision - on paper, it seems to work well for everyone.    I expected to feel really sad about letting him go, but I'm ok. I think both of us need to move on.   It was a bit hard to see his little spotted face looking out through the bars of the trailer window this afternoon, but I have an open invitation to come out and visit him and even ride if I want to.

We went out for a last short hack this morning when it was nice and cool - it will be a bit strange seeing the world through little bay ears, instead of the white/brown speckled ones I know so well...

So, here I go on to the next chapter in horse ownership...

An update on the trial

I’ve had Dolly at my barn for two weeks now - I really like this little mare and can see her being a great fit for what I am hoping to achieve in my riding. I have one more week to decide what I want to do – I’m leaning heavily towards buying her at this point – she is everything the owner said she was (which is quite surprising) and I can already see her start to improve on that great foundation by being handled and worked on a more regular basis.

Her temperament seems to be great – she is friendly and easy to catch. She seems to like attention and is fine to handle on the ground. She was very nervous the first few days – but most horses are when they are faced with a new barn, new herd and a new human handler. I’m guessing that her current owner is the only handler she has had for quite some time. A boarding environment is probably good for her, as there are a lot of horses and several different people working with her/feeding her every day.

The only negative about her is that she seems to get attached to other horses fairly easily. I haven’t seen any really bad behaviour yet, just some calling to the other mare in the paddock. I’m hoping that will improve when she is out in a bigger herd. I would also do some work with other riders at the barn to get her used to leaving other horses or having horses go past her at a different speed, etc.

I have taken her out on a few hacks, but haven’t really pushed her too much, due to the hoof issue. It has also been killer hot here and it doesn’t seem fair to push an out of shape new horse too much – it wouldn’t really achieve anything. I have had two other ladies at the barn ride her as well and both of them loved her. She was very good on the trails – she walks out nicely and doesn’t seem spooky at all. We even walked her around all the jumps on the front lawn, as well as visiting the track across the road and she just took everything in with her ears forward.

She meets a lot of my needs – good age (9), good size (14.1hh!), good temperament, good to handle on the ground, well-broke and capable of doing 12-25 mile rides. All she really needs is some consistent work to get her back in shape.

My farrier is looking at her on Saturday and if that all goes well, I will probably bite the bullet and buy her! Rusty is still at my barn – the barn owner and I have negotiated a decent deal for now. I have also listed him for sale to see if I can get any hits – if I can’t find a suitable home, he will stay with me at my current barn. I may also try leasing him, if a sale doesn’t work out.

Finally! Some pictures!

Some blogger I am!  LOL  I announce that I have a horse on trial and then I don't post any pictures.  :-)  It was a nice evening tonight so I actually managed to get a few decent ones.

It is hard to get pictures of horses sometimes, especially when they find it fun to follow you around... Every time I got a shot lined up, there was this cute nose in the way...

At least this one is in focus! She has a cute little face...

I had to walk way out in the paddock for the horses to lose interest in what I was doing. I was finally able to get a shot without them getting too close.  She is a bit chubby right now - she hasn't done any real work in a year or more...

And one last one - she was watching two riders come up the laneway - a perfect opportunity to get one last picture with her ears forward.

Another horse on trial

So, I have the bay mare here on a trial. Her name is Dolly and she is very cute.  I’m hesitant to write too much at this point, but I’m guardedly optimistic that she might work out.  (Note - I will add a picture later this afternoon - I don't have many at this point.)  On a side note - I think trials are the best thing ever - it really gives you a chance to get to know the horse before you have to commit - I've been lucky with Hank and now with this mare to have a chance to think about things before I end up with the wrong horse.

I took into consideration the advice left in the comments of my last post – and have been approaching this horse with as much objectivity as I can.  No horse is perfect and there is bound to be something that may or may not be a problem long-term.

She is a 9yr old registered half-arab (other half is QH).  She arrived last Wednesday night and I’ve been waiting to do a post about her, since the first 48 hours didn’t go so well. She was very nervous and unsettled when she arrived – which isn’t a huge surprise really…  My friend and the barn owner have been great about helping me with her.  By Friday night/ Saturday morning, she was much more relaxed and we were able to see more of her true temperament - which is quite nice - she is very willing to work.

We are able to confirm that she is very well broke, but we believe that she hasn’t been worked regularly for well over a year.   Dolly showed up pretty out of shape – she is on the chubby side and her hooves aren’t the greatest at the moment. I don’t see anything wrong with them, but they have the look of not having been trimmed regularly, which is totally easy to fix with regular farrier work.  She was trimmed for the first time in a while (12 weeks or so, by my guess) just before arriving at my barn. 

So far, the only minor problem that we have found is the fact that the horse hadn’t been ridden regularly in a long time. The owner was a bit vague about the last time she was worked regularly – which is ok – riding a horse regularly is an easy fix. She is solid w/tc/ and I think she will be capable of a decent western jog when she is in shape.  She has the basics of lateral work and will sidepass and turn on the fore/haunches.  She is responsive, without being hyper-sensitive or totally dull, which is just what I am looking for.

We haven’t tried her out on a hack yet, I’m hoping to get to that this week. That will be the big test for this mare – I need a horse that will walk out well and not spook at every little sound. 

Horse Shopping and Unplanned Dismounts

I have had a couple of nice rides on Rusty this past week and I had my first unplanned dismount yesterday!  We are both fine – so that is the good part. I was riding on a part of a trail with lots of mud and cedar trees. Rusty got stuck in the mud and when he pulled his foot out, he then got caught in a cedar branch. He calmly tried to get out, but did a little rear in the process.  I slipped back behind my saddle and found myself sitting on his rump and still holding the reins.  He turned to the side and sort of backed up into the trees. I couldn’t haul myself back into the saddle, so I just slipped off over his bum and landed on the ground. He just stood there calmly waiting for me to get myself sorted out.  All in all, it took about 5 seconds to happen…kinda funny really.  We walked a few feet down the trail and I found a tree stump to help me get back on.  We then trotted off and enjoyed the rest of the ride!

************

Thanks so much to everyone for their words of wisdom on my last post. I agree that Hank isn’t the best choice for me right now but I think I just needed to talk it out.  It’s too bad, because he is such a neat horse.  I also love the idea of owning a retired racehorse, but I think that will have to go back on my horse bucket list for now.

That realization puts me back to square one in the horse department. I can still ride Rusty, of course, but I really think I’m ready for something with a bit more “get up and go”.  I’m going to make an appointment to visit the retirement farm that I found in the next week or two and I’m going to post poor Rusty on our local message boards and see if I can get any hits on a really good home for him.  I’m going to be super picky about where he goes, if he goes anywhere. Who knows, I might keep him around for another year, if I can’t find the right home.

So, horse shopping... I have to admit that I don’t like “real” horse shopping.  Window shopping for horses is great – you can look at all of the nice pictures, dream about breeds that you would like to own, not worry about budgets, etc.…  Real horse shopping is kind of stressful for me – probably because I worry about how to spend the little extra money I have saved up! 

I did a quick scan of our local horse for sale ads and didn’t find much that interested me. I’m actually looking for arabs, or arab crosses this time around.  My friend suggested that I email a well-known local endurance lady to see if she had any horses for sale or knew of any.  So, I sent her a facebook message last week with a long list of requirements, half expecting to not hear anything back.  She messaged me back within a few hours and said that she knew of the perfect horse - one that met all of my requirements!

Uh-oh!!!  Now I’m in trouble. My list of requirements was so long and picky that I didn’t think I would even get a response, let alone such a positive one.   It took a few days to get in touch with the owner but we finally connected and she confirmed all of the information that the other person had told me.

Here is what I know so far:

·        Mare

·        Registered half-arab (Quarab)

·        Bay

·        10 yrs old

·        has been to shows and has done endurance rides (25 miles)

·        14.1hh  (a pony, yeah!)

·        sound

·        safe on trails and roads

·        good to handle and very sweet…   

To be continued…