The search continues...

[velessa]

But it's looking more like I won't find a horse I like as much as Chance. I looked at six more this weekend, plus a revisit to one I had already ridden (Mystery).


February 8
Belle

Nice big mare, surprisingly calm and lazy for having only been ridden about twice in the last 9 months! Pretty boring and kind of crabby.

February 9
Finlay

Horse rescue from a feedlot. Apparently their trainer rode him and says he's got lots of good hunter training, but he's out of shape, obviously. Odd situation - their land had flooded, so all their horses were moved to the fairgrounds nearby; the lady didn't have any tack with her, so at first I got on him bareback in a halter until her husband brought a saddle and bridle. Not such a great horse though...really lousy ground manners and tried to buck me off whenever I put a little leg on him. I wound up on his neck at one point!

Mystery

I went to re-ride Mystery and see how he did after being out in some good weather for a while. He still is really hard to stop, but is fun to ride. Instead of going to an arena, I rode in the pasture area behind the lady's house. It had five loose horses and a pond and some geese and wild turkeys in it, about 8 acres or so. I rode around and we came to a fence he wouldn't approach. A few seconds later a dog started barking at the fence there and he would not take one more step toward it; he tried to run away but I didn't let him. Then we went over by some trees with a turkey sitting under it. I figured the turkey would get up and leave when we approached, so I wanted to see how he would react. Heh, that was a stupid idea. Apparently the turkey, like, leapt up and charged us with flapping wings! (I had to hear this second hand; it all happened so fast I didn't even see it). Mystery reared up, spun around, and took off the other direction! I hung onto the reins for dear life and it's a miracle I stayed on; I slid back in the saddle and was sure I was going to fall off, but I didn't (thank goodness, at 17.1 hh that's a long drop!). I don't think it would have been too bad if I did fall since the ground was all still really soft and I was wearing a helmet, but I was much happier to have stayed on! Now I'm not sure he'd be such a good trail horse since that kind of thing is very likely to happen on our trails where joggers and bikers and deer and all sorts of things are apt to dart out in front of you at any moment. I don't want a horse that spooks so huge because I'd end up either landing on hard packed clay or over the edge of a cliff on those trails.

Secret

Another OTTB, apparently hasn't really had any real English riding training. Wouldn't bring his head down and was constantly poking his nose out to one side or the other, and was incredibly hard to get to pick up his left lead (which I found extremely odd for a racehorse). I don't want to have to do that much work with the horse while trying to work on myself as well.

At the stable where Secret was, this guy had an adorable Haflinger stallion! I had to take a few pictures of him. Only 6 years old, already trained in 2nd level dressage and jumping 3'6", and such a gentleman you would never know he was a stud if you didn't look. He even does little kid lessons he's so sweet tempered! Very impressive:
Marco



Boot

Pretty, black Appendix gelding. I was a little hesistant about this one at first because in his stall he had his ears pinned and was trying to bite the whole time. But it turned out he had just been moved into a new stall and his neighbors were constantly picking on him; he perked right up once he was out of the barn. He was kind of off because he had just been shod and the arena footing was still kind of ugly (or so they told me...I guess I have to believe that's why), but we rode him anyway, which I sort of felt bad about, but he didn't seem to mind. He had a really strong jumping career and was really nice and fun to ride. I would consider him a contender, except that he's going to be 15 in June. He doesn't look or act that old, though; I just still have that hesitation about getting a horse that high up in age.

Lady

Another OTTB, but the woman who owned her wouldn't let us ride her because her daughter wasn't there to warm her up. =P They had expected us earlier, and as usual our schedule got thrown off by us having to go with whoever we could get a hold of first, and her daughter had to leave before we could make it there. Anyway, I don't think I'd want her anyway...she obviously doesn't have the greatest conformation and mares are just kind of tempermental in general. But we did have fun there, trying to catch chickens and watching her Shetland pony stud free jump! He was sooooo cute! And he's for sale! We have a (small) friend we work with who wants to be a professional pony trainer, and he would be *perfect* for her. Here are some pics of him just because:
Rock & Roll (Rocky)




Socks

Irish Thoroughbred, turning 13 in May, super cute and sweet and trained out the wahzoo. He used to jump and event competitively and was worth easily over $30,000, but he's now being sold for only $3,000. He has some kind of old injury that shows up on an x-ray that could cause serious damage if he were to land on it wrong from a long (like 4') drop. She won't sell him to anyone who would jump him until he breaks down; he's more like a big pet to her. I almost wanted to buy him out of pity for the girl who's selling him. It just sounds like her life is totally falling apart...she's lost a baby, she and her fiance broke up a few weeks ago, he has a new girlfriend who wants her and her horses out of his stable, and she can only afford to keep two so that's why she's selling all the others and they have to be gone by the end of the month...just really, really heartbreaking. =( The horse himself is really nice, but he's so well trained that all your cues have to be exactly what he's expecting to get him to do what you want, so there's not much room for error...he's just not quite what I'm looking for.

So, Chance is still my favorite by far. And here's a picture of him being jumped for your viewing pleasure:


I am accepting donations to the "Give Christy a Chance!" Fund for my birthday (March 13th) ;)

Comments

[mahkara.livejournal.com]

Chance is a gorgeous horse. You'll have to let me know where to donate. It'll make a better birthday present than buying you something you'd never use. ;)

[velessa.livejournal.com]

Oh, well I hadn't really thought about it, but I do have a Paypal account under my velessa at yahoo dot com email. Anything would certainly be appreciated! =)