Starting the Search...

I know, I know. I said we were going to long term lease. But funny things happen when the tax man decides to give you back some of your money...

In addition to the horse fund filling quicker than expected, the horse I've been keeping an eye on for months on dream horse has dropped into my price range. And hubby is willing to start looking..I have an appointment to view her this week, along with some others.

I wasn't expecting to learn about my self in this horse shopping experience. It seems that once one starts looking for a teammate, one evaluates themselves as a teammate and what comes out of it seems to be quite positive.

For example, I test rode a horse over the weekend who was the friendliest horse I've ever met. I could have put my three year old on him and felt safe. But he had no go, no willingness to work, and took extreme coaxing to show me his canter. Which was lovely, but not worth the work to get there. He was just so...mellow. I realized then, as I walked back to my truck for the two hour drive home, that I actually appreciate a hotter horse! Ok, maybe not a 8 on the hotness scale, but at least a 6. I also realized from that experience that Gracie is wonderful with leg yielding and her willingness to work when asked.

The most important thing that came out it all though, was my desire to canter Gracie. I put all fears aside this morning, and after warming her up, asked for the canter. She transitioned into it right away from the trot. No whipping, no asking over and over, no hard pressure like the test ride from the weekend...just an easy transition into canter...on the correct lead even. We went around the arena three times before I had to finally had to bring her back to the trot to start cooling down.

I CAN ride a hotter, spooky OTTB...in fact, I kind of like it :)


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