When You Take the Crazy Leap

 

Sometimes taking the crazy leap doesn't end like you expect it to.  Your daughter who is hell on wheels for every other sport is very timid when it comes to riding. So the sensitive pony you bought doesn't end up being the right fit and now you have to start marketing her for sale. The pony not the child. 

Yet there are other jumps that end up taking you places you didn't envision and they feel like you were always meant to take that path. Years ago when my heart was hurting over my mare who had been diagnosed with cancer, I had a knee jerk reaction and brought home an OTTB who seemed perfect and for awhile he was. I really did love Fox but ultimately he was not the right fit for me so I sent him off to new adventures. 

Then came my giant golden retriever of a mare who absolutely identifies as a gelding. She's big and goofy and I love her more than I thought I'd ever love another horse after my heart horse (a tiny red AQHA mare) left my life. I loved Seneca dearly but she was not my heart horse. I grieved for her but when she left me it didn't tear me apart like losing Lady did.  I'm hoping the growing love I have for Roo will at least equal how I felt for Lady. I hope that we learn to trust each other at the heart deep level that Lady and I did. 

Roo, or searching for a Welsh Section D Cob sent me to Lisa Schultz Brezzina, a fantastic breeder who breeds Section D's and Section D Warmblood crosses under the Castleberry prefix in Indiana.  If you are looking for a well bred, athletic, smart, ridable horse, she is your person.  She sold me Roo and now she is selling me Roo's mom, Reminisce.   

When I knew my daughter's pony wasn't going to be a match and my daughter was going to need several more years of riding saintly lesson horses before she gained the confidence she would need for her own horse I went about looking for a horse that I could play with until Roo is old enough to be ridden consistently.  That's another year away at least.  The problem was I had champagne tastes and a beer budget.  I really wanted something that was already going or at least W/T/C.  Honestly I wanted a fancy Warmblood hunter but there was no way I was going to afford that.  Have you seen the horse market these days?  It's insane!  So I started looking at  OTTB's and Appendix AQHA's, even some paints but nothing I looked at was what I wanted. I wanted lovely movement, with lofty gaits and a sweet personality.  I wanted Roo, just older. 

Which is when Roo's breeder, Lisa offered to let me buy Remmy. I said yes without a second thought.  Remmy is an enormous Belgian Warmblood from the award winning breeding farm BannockBurn.  She has some of the best sporthorse blood in the world and she will be my new riding horse.  I may even breed a foal from her someday because I've always wanted to raise a foal from birth and Remmy has the bloodlines, the atheleticism and the good brain to make a phenominal baby.  I already know she can because Roo shows me everyday.

It will be a couple months before Remmy arrives but I am so very excited! Until the next step, keep it between the flags everyone!

Just Trucking Along

So another year has gone by or maybe two, okay a few. Life has gotten a little away from me and yet some things haven’t changed at all. Roo is still a giant Golden Retriever, sweet, goofy and well out of large pony size and in to the 15 hands range.  I’m thinking she might stop at 16 hands, which is kind of a relief.  Her half brother from last year is already 14.2 hands at 5 months.  I mean he is going to be HUGE!  Roo’s breeder offered to sell him to me and if I already had a going older, schoolmaster type and the room for it I would have definitely bought him.  

Roo is still the best baby horse ever.  She will be three at the end of April and I’m hoping to be able to take her to a couple of shows and just maybe do a walk trot class with her.  I don’t know yet.  My original plan was to have her started by someone I trust but I might just be able to do it myself.  My only goal this winter was to be the very first person to sit on Roo.  I bought her as a gangly, fuzzy weanling and I’ve loved every minute of watching her grow up the past two years. Despite not being a professional trainer or having really started any of the other babies I’ve had over the years I wanted to be the first person to sit on my girl.  And I did it!

Perhaps not in the most sane way.  I had planned to have my husband home while I did it but decided later I didn’t want an audience.  So when he was a work and my daughter was at her after school activities I brought Roo in to the barn, tacked her up (she’s been tacked, lunged and done all the ground work, I’m not completely nuts) and then I brought her in to her stall and just went through all the things we already done before I assessed where her mental state was and then swung my leg over.   It was amazing!   She didn’t flick an ear and I was just so proud of her.

So next, the pony.  Tara is still at my farm. I want to sell her and yet I don’t.  If she was a large or even a bigger medium pony I’d just keep her for myself but as a small she just isn’t super fun for me to ride.  So this spring I’ll be taking her to some breed shows, some local hunter/jumper shows and starting to market her for sale. I hate it because I am so very afraid she will end up in a bad situation that isn’t as understanding of her quirks as I am.  She is not a beginner child’s pony.  She’s a super brave, trainer kids pony or one of those really talented A circuit junior riders.  So I’m trying to find her the right person, a person who will love her and laugh at her quirks rather than punish her for them. 

My daughter is still riding, though I take her over to my friend’s hunter/jumper barn where she rides a pair of saintly lesson horses.  Someday I will get her another horse but for now she’s learning from the lesson horses.   As for me, aside from tuning up the pony and bringing along Roo I haven’t really been riding much.  Thief had to retire last winter due to some injuries and my friend’s other hunter gelding is not my cup of tea to ride.  So I’m sort of a riding horseless.  I’ll start looking for a schoolmaster of my own later this year when I have the budget for it.  

The problem is that I want a lovely, well schooled, saintly Warmblood and I can’t afford that.  A nice OTTB would be good too but the ones I need are all really expensive too.  I mean the horse market the last few years has just gone insane! 

Anyway, until I pick up the keyboard again, keep it between the flags my friends.