More horses seen

[velessa]

I was absolutely NUTS and tried to see 9 horses in one day yesterday. I actually managed to see 8 (one had to cancel due to timing conflict); rode the first one at 7am and the last one a little before 10pm! =O And drove about 400 some miles between them all...left at 6am and got home at 12:30am. Remind me not to do that again. Thankfully my mom came along to drive me home because I would have been too tired for it.


Bella

Draft cross 8 year old mare who apparently likes to jump big, although I just took her over something tiny. She has a really comfortable trot and needs little work on steering, and she has a funny habit of flapping her lips and shaking her head when she's not moving (she likes to work). Really calm, sweet personality.

Jackson

Wow! If Chance has some competition, it's from this guy. Fantastic 13 year old Thoroughbred (they think probably a cross of some sort) - perfect size, great gaits, feet with walls so thick they never need shoes. He's lots of fun to ride. He's had a lot of work done on him to get him back into shape after being neglected for a long time. Due to problems with his teeth (that have now been taken care of), he does toss his head during the canter and has to be reminded to keep it down, your face doesn't actually hurt anymore. I REALLY liked this guy. If for some reason I changed my mind about Chance, he's the one I'd go for.

Scarlett

5 year old breeding stock paint, but I think crossed with Arab or something. Kind of hyper and goey as one might expect, but what I didn't like is she's just too small and narrow for me; it was like riding an Arabian (blech!).

Jargon

HUGE Thoroughbred, 17.3 hh and 13 years old. Although lacking in a lot of muscle tone in his hind end, very forward and difficult to stop. He'd require more maintenance than I want because he'd need double feed and wore half pads on his front feet.

Via

Hyper-sensitive 13 year old Thoroughbred mare. Lots of go, preferred half prancing to walking; would probably trot all day given the choice. Very nice gaits, but as it was getting late in the day, the trainer and I found out she starts bucking when being ridden during dinner time! Yikes.

George

This would be my next choice after Chance and Jackson. Soooo sweet, aims to please, really great 9 year old Thoroughbred. He's an OTTB the trainer got from a horse rescue and retrained. Very nice gaits, still a little stiff going to the right but has the perfect jump for me.

Sebastian

Another OTTB, but this one's only just turned 5 and was only in two races before getting a tendon injury (healed now). Really nice gaits, a little green yet, has no trail experience.

Poké

As the name implies, he really is quite pokey! Slow and easy going, super calm, just turned 4 year old Thoroughbred who never raced, gaits kind of uncomfortable to ride.

Sebastian and Poké are owned by the daughter of the Harris Farms trainer. I wish I could have seen this place during the day, it must be enormous. It's a racehorse training/breeding facility with around 600 horses!

I was supposed to go see three more horses today in Petaluma (I even took the day off work for it), but when I checked my email this morning, two of the three had cancelled! Oh well, I guess it's a sign. I'm not driving all that way just to look at one horse. I have 7 more to see next Saturday, and then I'm giving up; I've found three good possibilities, so that's plenty.

Comments

[ayacchi.livejournal.com]

It's great that you've found three that you like! From your descriptions, they sounds really sweet and what you're looking for. Good deal!