He has been home with me for three weeks now and between the riding and nursing his feet, I’ve logged quite a bit of time with the big guy. There is still a lot to figure out with him, but there are some things about him I’ve come to know.
He isn’t a dumb horse. His gears don’t turn as fast as Gem’s do, but he isn’t dumb either. In fact, he picks up on things quite quickly yet he can still handle repetition without losing his marbles. When he first got home he was an idiot in the cross ties and would try to weave, eat the ties, back up and so on. After a few days of being tied and left while I picked stalls and generally ignored him he now stands like a statue. This was repeated with mounting. The first ride he would not stand still. The second he fidgeted but let me get on. By the fourth ride he stood next to the mounting block politely and didn’t move until I asked.
He is a pain with his head. Bridling him is a chore. He lowers it and takes the bit just fine but actually doing all the buckles and straps is a fight as he moves his head, tries to scratch on everything, mouths you and is generally very annoying. It’s the same with his fly mask too. I’m not sure how to make this stop.
He cribs only when a person is around. He will stand quietly in his stall as long as he doesn’t realize you are anywhere near him. I’ve hidden in the tack room and watched as he props a hoof and goes to sleep in his stall. Once he realzies a person is around and not paying attention to him he begins cribbing or chewing or flinging stuff around. Anything for attention and to Eeyore negative attention is better than no attention.
He poops. A lot. In nearly 9 years of riding, Gem never once pooped in the arena. Eeyore does it every single ride. It is a little pet peeve of mine.
He also sweats a lot. He comes in from the pasture soaked in the evening and in the morning has a layer of salty crust. When I ride he almost immediately breaks out full body. I’m still figuring out how to know when he needs to be done. His saddle pad is always soaked through even after a 15 minute walking warm up and I think I’m going to have to buy extras to ensure a dry pad. Gem rarely sweats. Actually there was a time I worried she had anhydrosis but nope. She’s a hearty little desert Arab with astounding metabolics. This is new territory for me.
After three weeks with the big guy I’ve also decided that he needs a new name. He is way too happy and has way too much energy to be an Eeyore. I’m not sure what to change it to and I’m not in a hurry to do so, but I’m not really liking the Eeyore for him. His registered name is “Made For Fame” which is gag inducing, so no help there. I’d like to represent his true personality which is laid back yet inquisitive and friendly. He has yet to spook at anything: dogs, kiddo, toys left in the arena, tractor, birds. So I think he is brave as well though his bravery stems mostly from his generally curious nature and love of all the things. He does have a bit of a stubborn streak and prefers to put forth the least amount of effort possible but won’t put up a fight for too long as fighting is more work than behaving. Anyway…I’d like to capture that in his name as Eeyore makes him sound gloomy.
Our local tack shop hosts a trivia night every few months. It is $5 to enter, includes pizza and the winner splits the pot 50/50. Trainer invited me to the first one last fall and I was a bit nervous. These are some pretty serious questions ranging from tack to anatomy to basic health care to discipline rules and breeds.
We paired up together and it worked out really well. There are four groups of 10 questions and a bonus at the end and it was quickly evident that what I didn’t know she did and what she didn’t know I did.
This kid sure knows how to enjoy the summer.
Questions like when does a horse get a smooth mouth (age 11) or what is the extra length of reins called in English riding (blight) are definitely in her wheel house. I tend to get the conditioning (best gait for muscle and wind building: trot) medical and basic biology/anatomy questions right (part of the lung responsible for gas exchange: alveoli). Sometimes neither of us know (lowest height acceptable for a barn: 8′. We thought it would be higher) and sometimes we both know.
We won the first time we went and decided to partner again.
We won the second time.
We then won the third time as well.
Last week was another trivia night and the game was changed a bit from solidly asking English discipline questions to including all of them. It was entertaining and enlightening. The questions were much harder and the competition stiffer with more teams than ever before.
Eeyore is involved in all the things. Like this weekend when I went to dump, clean and refill the water tub. Farm chores take a bit longer with the “help” of the Big Guy.
We missed some questions such as what discipline uses scissors, flank and flag maneuvers (vaulting) and what is a cowboy speeding ticket (breaking the barrier prematurely in western disciplines) but ended up getting the bonus and ending with a score of 32.5/40.
The best part though? They included a ton of ride and tie and endurance questions! And I got them all right!!!
Things asked included:
When did Mr. Tevis ride in the Tevis Cup (never)
Who was Wendell Robbie (founder of Tevis)
How many people enter Tevis (250, the bonus and I was the only one to get it!!)
What sport allows you to tie to a person (ride and tie)
Which sport has the motto to finish is to win (endurance)
Name three disciplines that use two people and one horse (ride and tie, combined driving and vaulting)
I was so excited to see my beloved sports get a nod!!
The pond is a wonderful hideout from the summer heat. We have two Great Horned owls that live in the woods bordering the pond and have numerous bats and swifts that help keep the bug population down. Dusty has seen an osprey come visit twice as well.
We ended up winning again and I got to go home from a tack store with more money in my pocket than I entered with. It’s a pretty good thing and a super fun night out with friends.
Plus Hubby can’t complain when I come home with more money. I keep wondering when they will stop letting us partner up but until that time I plan to continue going and enjoying a night out with friends. Honestly if they split us Trainer would smoke me so I really hope they never do!
Sorry for the delay. Friday was extremely busy at work and I ran out of time. But never fear the results are in!
May was the busiest month with 5 entrants!! Yay!!! Emma had texted me bowing out of the drawing having won two previous times which left Bette, Amy, Olivia and her Hubby in the random drawing.
The winner is:
This month is really starting to heat up so I focused my search on ways to keep cool in the summer. Bette you get two items this month totaling around $20. Please email me your address at agemofahorse at gmail dot com so I can order and get them shipped directly to you.
This pad is a life saver during the summer. You soak it, wring it out and it stays ice cold all day long. Keep it in your cooler during a lesson or a show and wrap it around your neck between rides to stave off heat stroke. And for Chimi (and the rest of the gang) is a Himalayan salt block. Our three are devouring their salt block already this summer as the heat has arrived.
For everyone else, thanks for giving your time back to the sport of your choice! These events, in any discipline, can’t happen without people giving their time.
June is the end of the second quarter. The prize is based on the person with the highest number of hours for that quarter and is valued at $50. The standings for the quarter looks like this to date:
Bette – 23 Emma – 21.5 Amy – 16 KC – 4 Olivia – 4 Her Husband – 4
There are five weekends in June with plenty of opportunity to get out there. The race is pretty close this quarter, so get out there and get your hours logged!
The PPE is scheduled for Friday. Hopefully it goes better than the last one. I’m not sure I have the money in my budget for a third PPE. Who knew it would be so expensive to not buy a horse?
All your positive thoughts are much needed and appreciated!
Wyatt adores the hammock. He kept me company all weekend while I crammed useless factoids into my brain. 2 days left!!
As it grows nearer I find myself growing a bit nervous. Not about E. I’m super excited about him. He is a pretty great match for my current needs and skill set. It’s just…well… I’ve had Gem for nearly 8 years now and that’s a pretty long time to get to know her. I’ve ridden her for thousands of miles and spent hundreds of hours on her back.
I know that mare inside and out. I can tell you just how fast we are going by the feeling of my posting. I know each hoof fall and how it should feel. I know how much she eats and drinks. I know when she will be hot and grumpy versus frisky and ready to go. I know her breathing.
Waggy enjoyed the time outside in the shade of the Bradford pear as well
For her part Gem knows the rules of being here. She knows what is expected of her in every situation. When to stand still and when to move. She knows to slow down around Wyatt. She can read my own moods and actions. There are so many little things that she does that I take for granted but in actuality rook years of effort to get to such as trailering well and settling in after traveling like a pro.
Dusty broke his hand this past week and required surgery, He tried to get me to do it and while the hand mimics the foot and the same principles of fracture fixation apply, there was no way I was taking responsibility for that. So now he is in a cast for the next 6 weeks and all my vacation plans for next week are pretty much destroyed.
Getting a new horse, any horse, will be starting all over with that. It’s going to take a long time to learn everything all over again. To build that level of knowledge. One thing endurance is great at is getting you to know your horse and maybe I will dabble in some 25s just for that fact. There is very little guessing when they aren’t quite right. I could tell when every hoof was hitting normally in all circumstances. When tripping meant too long of a hind toe. When being sluggish was due to attitude or health.
I’m nervous about entering into the unknown. About questioning everything because I don’t know what his normal is. I’m excited to start learning everything about him, whether that is E or another horse, and building this relationship again but I’m also nervous. I tend to always think I’m braking my horse. its an annoying internal dialogue that goes along the lines of “Gem stumbled a bit…is she off…is she lame and I don’t know it…I’m asking too much..she can’t possibly work this hard…there she did it again…I’m hurting her…etc….”
The 100 miler killed most of that off with her. After we completed that I figured that she could handle most of anything else I was asking of her, well physically at least. Knowing myself though, this inner dialogue will return with new horse until I figure out what exactly the normal is and what all the horse can do.
We went up to the opening night of Saturday Night Lights at TIEC this weekend and happened to catch the Kentucky Derby on the Jumbotron. I’m not a Derby person and knew nothing about the horses running, but it was neat to see it on the big screen.
It’s hard to step out of the bubble I’ve created over the last 8 years. Sure Gem is hard and tricky and sometimes a pain in the butt, but I know what I’m getting with her. I know her reactions. I know what will spook her and how she will react. Learning a new horse, especially one the polar opposite of what I’m used to, is going to be a huge learning curve.
And we ate sushi there. Expensive and upcharged due to being at TIEC, but very very good.
Not only am I going to have to learn his way of going and his body, but while doing so I’m going to have to learn to let go of the things I learned with Gem. Not all of them because so many lessons she taught me made me a better rider, but it also taught me to be distrustful and defensive. This particular horse doesn’t need that. Trainer tells me I have to give permission for Gem to do what I ask however at least 50% of the time she doesn’t do it so it is hard to let go. The new guy in town should, if his history and my test ride pan out to be good predictors, do the thing by his very nature. Punishing him for doing what I ask will not be a good thing and I’ll need to trust him as we grow together.
We also watched some of the horses go. It was an exciting course with very few clear rounds and a lot of dropped poles everywhere. Most notably the water and the wide oxer in the bottom right corner which was the last fence. So many riders had clear rounds only to crash through the last fence. This past weekend was a $70,000 2*
Partnerships take time to create. I know that. It took 3 years with Gem for her to open up to me.
Wyatt got a super cool face paint job, rode the carousel, enjoyed the bounce house, ate ice cream and cotton candy, and then played football and tag with the slew of other children on the turf hill while we watched the rounds. It is a really nice venue for families.
I’m nervous. And excited. And ready for the future.
It dawned on at 6 pm with another hour of travel to go that maybe this was a stupid idea. I was alone with only the most vague sense of where I was going, it was super late and would only be later by the time all this was done and I was on my way home and I should be studying. As I got through the last of the Charlotte area rush hour traffic and saw that I was finally drawing near the end, I texted Dusty the address just in case it was some serial killer ploy to get half sane horse women to his home and I never came back. You never know.
What was I doing travelling for nearly 3 hours up I85 after work on a Wednesday? Going to meet a horse, of course.
I had seen the ad for E three weeks, maybe even four weeks, prior on one of the many horse sales sites like dream horse or equine now etc… I really liked the sound of the ad and the pictures that accompanied it, but the seller never answered my email or text. I gave up and kept looking. Monday morning I came across two interesting things:
A was back up for sale under a new name, same pictures and same price. Interesting. I was tempted to comment asking if the RF navicular issue was resolved, but took the high road hoping he would potentially land in a safe spot eventually.
I also saw an ad for a really great looking gelding that sounded vaguely familiar. Looking through the pictures I recognized his face. It was E! I tagged Trainer and contacted the seller. She quickly replied to me that day and we set up a time for Tuesday evening to go meet him. Then she messaged me that evening pushing me back to Wednesday and I was frustrated. She had someone else wanting to look at him Tuesday afternoon and I was not happy, but I really liked the look of him. Honestly, I sorta wrote him off at that point figuring whoever was looking at him Tuesday afternoon would purchase him.
Wednesday at lunch I messaged her to verify he was still available and he was! Which is what led to me fighting traffic all the way up to a small town in NC late into the evening.
So who is this horse?
E is a 7 year old 15.2H registered Appaloosa gelding hailing from Canada. The current owner has had him since August making him the most well known of all the horses I had seen to date. He was some grand champion of the hunter world up there until he was sold to SC. I’m not sure why he was sold but I know he was purchased due to his calm demeanor and willing attitude by the current owner. Since last summer he has been teaching kids and wimpy adults like me the basics of w/t/c and going over small jumps. He has also been extensively trail ridden, taken over logs and ditches and worked on cows. He was a pretty good all around type of guy.
Going in I was a little hesitant just because I’m not typically a fan of the Appy. Not that I have much personal experience its just that the flimsy hair and the look they have in the eye like they always are throwing shade at you has been a bit off putting to me.
I arrived 30 minutes late thanks to all the traffic and MVAs I passed and the owner was very generous about it. It was 7pm, but she wasn’t in a rush and let me look him over and say hello. In fact, she was the best seller to date. She immediately asked me what I was wanting in a horse, what I was going to be doing with him and what the living situation would be. She informed me that he can crib if left in a stall for multiple days but keeping hay in front of him stops it. He didn’t crib on the fence line out in pasture and didn’t suck wind. She filled me in on his background and that he was a bit picky about bit choices and was currently going in a D ring Myler.
The first thing I noticed was that he was fat. Like jiggling in places he shouldn’t be fat. Other than that he looked really well put together, had a lovely head and a soft, fluffy nose I couldn’t get enough of. Gem has a tiny little Arab nose and for some reason I was addicted to petting his soft, fuzzy muzzle. He didn’t mind at all and came in for some pretty epic head cuddles.
She had her working student get on him to show him w/t/c and over jumps. She warned me that he did prefer the left lead in canter and that her student is bad going right and I noticed that he was a bit sticky going right but did pick it up and picked it up willingly after the jumps.
What I really liked though was how steady he was. He did what she asked and didn’t seem to need nagging, crops and spurs but also wasn’t ripping her arms out. Kinda of do the thing but with the least energy expenditure as possible type. The ring was filled with gorgeous jumps: painted butterflies, black silhouettes of cowboys and cowgirls, and pine trees. Things I wouldn’t be brave enough to get Gem over with all the pretty colors and solid planks.
When it was my turn, I did my typical get on, walk and halt. I always make sure I have brakes. Some things are negotiable, but brakes are not. He had a really nice halt, but even better he walked back off without me having to get after him. This pretty much was true for my entire test ride. He was responsive to everything without being over reactive or tense. Once I asked for something, he did it until I asked for something else. Which was awesome until I started talking and forgot to really steer and then he basically tried to leave the arena because, well I didn’t tell him not to and it was in our path. Oops. Sorry big fella!
His canter was amazing. The canter transition is my nemesis. I get so tense due to all my time with Gem and her flying off on me, that I ask to canter but hold back and it falls apart. With E, all I did was sit tall and barely brush my heel against him and we were cantering. Slowly. And in control.
Magic pixie dust was in the air.
After that I decided to jump him. Now, with every other horse I have tried I only felt comfortable asking over a single tiny cross rail and pretty much immediately pulled them up afterward. I’m a wimp. With E I immediately pointed him at the butterfly combo and he was very unimpressed with it, barely taking the time to trot it. So I came back around and put my leg on and really pushed him. He still was a bit awkward and no where near as fluid as with the young rider, but he went over. After that I came around and took the black plank. All on my own without my Trainer there to force me.
Bravery…I found it.
After that I was done. I really liked him. I liked his stocky build. I liked his calm yet inquisitive nature. I felt he would be a good fit for me and Wyatt could even ride him if he wanted to some day.
I have a video that the student grabbed for me but it is 7 minutes long and taking forever to upload.
So….I paid my deposit!!!
The PPE isn’t until the 11th and I’m holding off anything super exciting in my mind until then. I didn’t see any outward issues, Trainer did notice anything in the videos and he has a pretty easy past history so fingers crossed this one passes. If not, I may get into mountain biking instead.
This month saw the most diversity in volunteering with a total of 30.5 hours given back and four participants getting out there!! Emma, Amy, Bette and KC you are all awesome!
Thank you for everyone who has participated thus far and for the rest of you – GET OUT THERE!!!
April is a random drawing month with everyone who submitted any amount of hours getting an equal chance at winning the prize of roughly $20 value. I put all four names in the online random name draw thing and the winner is:
EMMA!!
Congrats on the win! I already have your info from your February win and this month I decided to go a little different route.
Your prize for getting out there and getting it done is a $20 gift card to Road ID. If you aren’t familiar, these are custom wrist bands that contain your medical information and emergency contact information. I have one and love it. I rarely ride away from home without it on and I know all the shows around me allow it in place of the arm band. While I generally do not like gift cards, I do not know what information you would want on it or what style you would prefer. The card should cover the basic band and plaque and I am pretty sure there are coupon codes out there (the sponsor The Bad Eventer if you follow her and I think Amanda had a post about a code as well at one point). I’ll forward the e gift card your way!
May starts today, so everyone else, step up and get your volunteering in. This month should mark full blown competition in all regions for pretty much all disciplines. No excuses!!! Give back to the sports you love.
Ah!!! How is it already April 30th?!! I have 9 days until my boards and then my regular life can resume. Some of you have already submitted hours via other posts this month, (Emma, Bette and Amy), but if you have been out there donating your time and haven’t please respond here and I will get everything updated tonight. The challenge page is not update accurately, but my spreadsheet is so once the April clock closes I will get that corrected.
The winner for April is drawn at random and will get a prize valued roughly $20. I’ll draw it tomorrow morning and post the winner.
Get those hours in and get out there in May and volunteer!!
Before this gelding popped up, horse shopping wasn’t even on my radar. Mentally I had prepared for 2-3 more years with Gem and then begin looking as she starts fading into retirement in her mid 20s.
Stumbling across his ad threw me for a loop and I’m not sure what to think now. I know I’m not ready to put an ISO ad out there and the thought of setting up trial rides and spending my time doing that is a bit daunting at the moment.
After the initial disappointment passed, I began a fevered search of sale ads. I know what I want and what I won’t tolerate. Being so close to Aiken has the benefit of a constant stream of event horses for sale but the downside is that they are either green or $20,000 neither of which is on my list of doable. So it may take a while for that unicorn to pop back up.
If one does, I’m likely to run into the same issue I did with this guy. Apparently nobody else works day jobs in the equestrian world and by the time I can get to a horse, it will probably be sold. Evening appointments to ride after work aren’t considered acceptable either. But I tend to believe that things happen as they will and that the Universe has not only its own sense of timing but a wicked sense of irony and a dark sense humor too.
It could stop raining at some point though
There is one farm I’ve been following for a year now. They have really nice looking horses in my price range and typically have a good selection at any given time. They are in MD however (a town called Tuscarora) and over 7 hours away. I made a date with them for the weekend after my boards to go try as many as they think would suit what I’m looking for. I gave them a very honest list of my abilities and desires so we will see. I asked them to email me a list of what they had available the week before so I could make sure the trip will be worth it. I may not come home with anything, but if I got to sit on a handful of horses it would be worth it. Its about a month away, so we will see what that brings.
In the meantime, I’ve hired a professional to finish my arena so hopefully Gem and I can get back to it. I’ve re watched the rounds from the schooling show we did before I took a hiatus and in hindsight we actually didn’t look as bad as it felt. I think we’ve come a pretty long way and would like to see where we can go with this as I await the arrival of my unicorn. I’m in no rush yet willing and able to jump as opportunity arises and I think that’s a pretty good place to be.
The plan was to go try this gelding. Fall magically in love. Buy him. Turn the Three Musketeers into the Fantastic Four. Conquer cross country and show in my first horse trial this June.
Instead we turned the Three Musketeers back into the Dynamic Duo.
Goodbye Big Guy. I hope the best for you.
I never got to see the gelding. He sold Thursday, came available again Friday and then sold again Saturday. It was fine though. I wasn’t set on it and there will be more to try in the future.
But what happened to Nashville? A lot really.
I’ve been fairly silent about him on here. I had such mixed feelings about him. He’d be great for a while and then pull some crap like the time he bit Wyatt’s arm for no reason. Or the time I gave him a spring bath and it went spiraling so far down hill that I ended up losing my temper and throwing the sponge at him and flipping him the bird. I’m not proud of that. He just pushed all my buttons and I cracked. Dusty finished the bath for me before I did something I’d really regret.
We’ve been struggling with what to do with him for a while. He craved attention and the ability to be his full pony self and he wasn’t getting it. I had hoped my ultimatum would be the push Wyatt needed to start interacting with Nash more. He didn’t have to ride him. Simply hanging with him, being his friend, loving him was enough.
It worked for a bit. He rode him Monday and Tuesday and enjoyed it. Then he asked to ride him Friday. He rode Gem in from the pasture bareback and giggled the entire time. When he got on Nash, Nash pulled a dirty buck and threw him. That ended that.
It was back to debating his fate. For all his flaws he had one job: take care of Wyatt. That’s it and he was failing at that though that was mostly our fault. Being worked for 10 minutes maybe 3 times a month wasn’t doing him any favors.
I decided to put an ad out and see what would happen. If he didn’t sell in a couple of weeks, I’d send him to pony boot camp. Saturday morning his ad hit and Sunday afternoon he sold.
The lady knew ponies and loved his personality. She rode him w/t/c and over a small cross rail. She adored him and has a lovely farm with a lesson program where he will get to be ridden consistently and loved on a lot. His personality won’t be a hinderance, but instead something laughed at and enjoyed. He couldn’t have been very happy living in a place that didn’t understand him. She laughed at things that drove me nuts and he soaked it all up begging for more attention. I fully believe that he will have a happier life having a job and loads of people who love him and I wish him many happy years. I do worry about his future. I was his 4th home that I knew of in his short 9 years on earth and that just sucks. I had planned on him spending the next 20 years with us growing old and being lazy in the sunshine.
But in the end it couldn’t happen like that and it makes me more sad than I thought it would. Sure I could have let him be a pasture puff for the next 20 years, but I’ve learned a lot having Gem and I knew deep down that Nash needed a loving home versus a tolerant one. Everyone deserves to be appreciated for who they are and loved and he wasn’t getting that from us. He was getting punished for being himself and that wasn’t fair.
Wyatt handled it better than I thought. He cried and it broke my heart, but when offered one last ride he refused saying he was scared. Wyatt really needs lessons until he is w/t/c and then we can revisit the horse thing though he won’t get a pony again. Ponies and I don’t get along.
Loo Mom! I’m Super Mud Boy!
The Dynamic Duo were happy to see Nash go. Nash bullied Pete to no end and poor old man winter kept coming in with fresh bite wounds at Nash level all over his body. Nash wanted Gem to himself and Pete was getting pushed away time and again. At 28 he didn’t need that stress. Gem was stressed as well by all this. I think most of her ulcer issues were Nash induced and it will be interesting to see how she does without him. I was also growing tired of all the bite wounds on her too.
I’ll miss him more than I thought. At the moment it happened I felt relief that he would be gone to a home that would work with him and give him a purpose, but that night it sunk in and I grew very sad. He was adorable. Wyatt was adorable with him. They could have had so much fun together. But they didn’t. Reality sucks sometimes. As I explained to Wyatt, when you love something you have to put their best interest above yours. I immediately followed their barn on Facebook and will be stalking him and his progress so hopefully I can see how much better he is doing.
On to the future I suppose. As ever changing as it is.
These two have no worries about finding a new home. They are as stuck with us as we are with them.
First a shout out to Emma for texting with me during a work day while I was stressing out about things and stuff. Mostly things and stuff the hubby is tired of listening to.
Here’s the deal. I have found a horse I really want to try out and potentially purchase. I have a time set up on Sunday to go try him, but there are a number of people already scheduled before me so it may be a moot point anyway. It did, however, bring up a whole lot of thoughts and emotions I didn’t even know I had.
Writing helps me explore those, so you all get to be dragged down with me 😉
Being realistic, I have time to ride one horse. Heck, I barely have time even for that. Gem is a multiple rides a week type of horse. Sure, I could ride her once a month, but it wouldn’t be fun and why put both of us through that? This means that if I did end up purchasing a new horse, Gem would be defaulted to retired status. Not the end of the world for her – nice grassy pastures, twice a day grain and plenty of sunshine for the next decade.
I’m just not so sure I’m ready for that and I don’t know if she is either.
10 am naps in the sun doesn’t really seem like a bad life
Look, I know she is hard and is making learning a new discipline for a part time ammy rider with confidence issues harder than it needs to be. There are evenings I really, really want to ride, but decide not to because I am already stressed and have no interest in fighting with her.
An easier going, better suited to this sport for my riding ability horse would be a thrill to own. I would ride more often, likely advance more in my skills and abilities and have more fun.
But I love my Gem and I’m not scared of her, I just don’t always want to deal with her crap. I’m excited to see where we would end up in 2-3 years with more work. She has made me a better rider and honestly probably more confident than I realize. It is hard to gauge when I haven;t ridden anything else for so long.
For her part, she still readily meets me at the gate. Now that she is on hold until my exam is behind me, she is starting to give me signs that she misses the work. Or at least the attention the work brought along with it. I don’t think she is ready to be a pasture pet.
Waggy stealing a drink from the horse water trough
Of course, I’m also not sure she really enjoys this new work. She tolerates it and is getting better and better, but like it? Probably not. She is settling into it and figuring out what I’m expecting of her, but she also got ulcers for the first time in her life with me when we started ramping up the schedule. It could have been her heat, the move, the spring grass etc…but she has moved before, had many heats and been out on grass for 5 years all while putting in way more saddle time and travelling a whole lot more with nary an issue. I think it is the stress of the new job.
So maybe retiring her to a second string job would be better for her in her senior years. Even though I’m barely asking anything of her with 18″ jumps, it may be too stressful for her mentally to handle well. Or maybe I’m trying to come up with an excuse to side line her and not feel bad about it.
The other thought I had was that the new horse could be used as a back up horse for a while and keep Gem in the starting line up. I could still ride her twice a week as normal and then squeeze in some rides on new horse when able. But that kinda defeats the purpose of spending that much money on a horse of his caliber. Why bother just to let him sit and age over the next 2-3 years until I’m ready to retire Gem?
And none of this touches on the financial impact of owning two horses. Thankfully, I no longer board or else this wouldn’t even be a consideration, but it still means two sets of tack. My saddles are adjustable which would help as long as the style of panels fits the new horse, but if they don’t it would mean an entire new saddle. Which I probably couldn’t really afford without selling one of my others and I don’t really want to do that. Of course, if I side line Gem I wouldn’t need her saddles any longer as she would be happier going back to riding in her endurance gear and being a trail horse once again. So in theory I could sell both my dressage and jump saddle if needed and not wreck my ability to ride Gem in the way she prefers any way.
I’m really battling over this. The truth is I want a different ride for the arena life. I want to enjoy doing all the things without fighting all the time. I want to not stress about every tiny thing and will it piss the mare off or not. I want it to be easier, not less work, but inherently easier on a more easy going horse who enjoys life as an eventer. And that makes me feel guilty. I love my Gem. She has a forever home with me regardless of what she is doing. She has given me so much and while she is hard, she does try in her own way and gives it all she has even if all she has is being tense and hard to manage.
The hard truth? I want Gem, but I want her to be different and that isn’t possible.
So I’m going to keep my appointment to try out this gelding as long as he is still available by then. Who knows? I may ride him and get off thinking “eh, Gem is better and I wish I had ridden her instead” or I could hop down and go “wow, so this is what I’ve been missing all these years?!”. Either way I’ll learn something about myself and what I want. I can then continue my casual watching of the horse ads that flood my Facebook feed from Aiken for anything else that may catch my eye. I’ve been casually watching it for almost a year now and this gelding is the first one that has really grabbed my attention. Well, the first one in my price range which is hard to find in the area where most horses with experience in eventing are being listed upwards of $15,000 and I refuse to shell out that kind of dough to hop over 18″ cross rails like a boss. My search may end up taking quite a while in the end anyway.
Just a casual picture of my Smokey cat. Except she is in the living room where she is not allowed. The bedrooms are separated from the living space by a screen door which she has learned to open and now goes any where she darn well pleases.
Anyone have any insights on what to do during a test ride? Thankfully Trainer will be there with me, but um…well confession time…I’ve never test rode a horse before. I bought Gem without getting on her due to her emaciated and neglected state. No way was I gong to ride her in that condition and no way was I gong to walk away and leave her there. Anything I should specifically do with said horse while on him? I’m very nervous about the whole thing.
The Roaming Rider 