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!
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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…
8 comments:
Your dismount doesn't sound too bad. Rusty is a sweet horse, if you decide to get rid of him I hope he finds the perfect loving home.
The mare sounds nice too. It's so hard to find the horse of your dreams. I hope she works out for you. In this economy I'm sure there are a lot of horses looking for good homes, it's going to take a lot of leg work to find your perfect match. I'm always reminded of something I heard once - "Have you ever seen a bad ad." Of course meaning that everyone trying to sell you something is going to tell you what you want to hear. Good luck.
The possible new horse sounds worth a look - good luck with that!
Glad you and Rusty are OK after your "incident".
Your dismount sounded kind of sweet. Rusty was so laid back about it. Ultimately, it will be up to you to decide if that mare really does match your requirements. People are desperate to sell horses, so be careful and do your homework. Find out what they are not telling you. All horses come with quirks, so you need to find out what they are and decide if you are willing to work with those.
With my horses, Lostine gets impatient riding at home -- swishing her tail, crow-hopping and bucking. I have to trailer her out if I want a pleasant ride.
With Bombay, I can't trailer him out because he has a trailer phobia and injures himself as soon as we start moving.
With Gabbrielle, she is lame off and on, so riding her requires not just time in my schedule, but she has to be moving and feeling well too.
My neighbor took on a boarder and her horse is a wind sucker.
Of course, there doesn't HAVE to be something drastically wrong with the horse, but if the seller can't think of anything that the horse needs to work on, you know you can't take her word for it. Every horse has something to work on.
The size of the potential new horse caught my eye...Whoohoo! Ponies for Grownies!
Can't wait to hear more about this mare.
I'm so glad you basically just slipped off Rusty and he was calm and sane with you. Rusty is a horse worth his weight in gold. I wish you weren't so far away as my husband needs a safe horse to begin learning how to ride and he'll only ride a few times a month on lazy trail rides with me and Apache. Rusty sounds like he would be a perfect fit for us. And I bet Apache would fall in love with him. Would be nice for her to have a pasture pal, too. sigh.
~Lisa
Oh god...I thought old Hank helped you fly a little or something. LOL...Glad it was just Rusty giving you a little 'lesson' on how to work those unplanned dismounts. ;-)
The little Arab mare sounds right up your alley. I'll be anxiously waiting to hear if you got to try her out and how that went.
I have no doubt you will do the absolute best by Rusty. There are people out there who desperately need a horse like him and would probably cherish the opportunity. And if that is not the case, a retirement place sounds perfect.
I cringed when I saw your title! I too was thinking Hank was acting up...never would have guessed Rusty. I have to giggle a bit at the image but still glad to know you're ok...even the most benign situations can lead to injuries!
Can't wait to hear more about your horse shopping adventures.
Good sounds like you handled that perfectly with Rusty and no one was hurt. That should be a nice confidence booster!
Don't forget Appy's can endurance too! Why do you think Native Americans liked them so? Not an arab fan myself but I can see why you are interested they have a good hold on the sport.
More, more, more, more! Don't leave us hanging!
I fell off after a car accident once, in much the same way you described. Only, I was being led at the walk. I was quite embarrassed and waited a long, long time until my vertigo passed before I sat a horse again.
I'm glad your spill was nothing drastic and that neither you or Rusty were hurt. Wish you were closer. Rusty would be perfect for my kids and he'd have an excellent home.
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