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I first decided to try him out simply because he was in the same town and I wouldn't have to drive very far. It turns out he was right down the street, literally. When I called, the owner was on her way to ride him and told me to just come on down. So I did. As soon as I saw him, I knew he wasn't 16 hands tall, but even so, I sort of fell in love with him at first sight. He had the cutest face.
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And when I got on him to ride, I felt perfectly safe and happy even in a big uncomfortable western saddle. Unfortunately, his western training hadn't been very good at all. He was basically just green broke, even though he was VERY calm. Combined with his complete lack of english training and the unbalanced disaster that was his canter, it simply made him unsuitable for me. So even though I really, REALLY liked his personality, I decided that I would have to pass on him.
However, that is not the end of the story. I had made calls to several trainers that I'd either found online or that I had met while looking for Foxfire's horse asking if they had any horses for sale that might suit me. About two weeks after passing on Hoss, one of the trainers that I'd called, called me back saying that she had a horse that she thought I might like. She described him a bit and I thought that he sounded nice, then she mentioned his name. Hoss. It was the same horse. The people selling him had decided to bring him to this trainer (who was recommended by an olympic level dressage rider they knew) to start training him in dressage in hopes of being able to sell him for more money. I told her that I'd already seen the horse and really liked him, but that he just was too green for me, but that I'd be willing to come out and look at him again after she'd worked with him for a week or two.
Well, when we went to see him, he had improved noticeably. His canter actually looked fairly decent and he was more responsive to cues, but for some reason, his personality didn't seem as nice. Maybe he was still adjusting to his new surroundings and training, but I just didn't feel the emotional attraction to him that I felt the first time. (Maybe I was just imagining it the first time. Who knows.) Anyway... even though he had improved fairly significantly for just having a week of training, he was still just too green for me. And I'd begun to think that he was always going to be a bit lazy. I don't want a hot horse, but I do want one that enjoys going faster than a walk. Also, the seller was still asking way too much for what he was, and I simply wasn't willing to spend that on a halfway trained horse. We took some nice pictures which can be seen in my Hoss album in my photobucket account.
Foxfire riding Hoss
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