I GOT A HORSE!!! I GOT A HORSE!!! I GOT A HORSE!!!

After searching for over a year, I actually found and was able to buy (barely) my dream horse. He's an eight year old, 16.2 hand, dapple gray Andalusian gelding.

JJ kindly agreed to give Shadowfax a test ride when I asked for her opinion before buying him. I didn't have anyone to take pictures when I was riding him, but JJ said that I looked good on him.

I can't believe that I actually found an Andalusian that I could afford that was healthy, sound and sane. He even has dressage training. Okay, he doesn't have the best conformation, and he has a little arthritis in his hocks, and yes, he is young to already have arthritic changes. But he is still sound enough for what I want to do according to the vet, and should remain that way for many years with proper maintenance. He is also still somewhat inexperienced since after being started under saddle and ridden for a couple of years, he was then put out to pasture and had nothing done with him for about two years. But after being back under saddle for only a little over a month, he was easy and comfortable for me to ride. He's a little lazy, but that might get better with more consistent riding. I didn't have any trouble getting him to trot and canter, though I did have a little trouble keeping him cantering. But just a little extra push with my outside leg and inside hip kept him going. Considering that I'm still learning how to canter myself and that I am just coming back from several months off of riding because of my surgery, it's a pretty good sign that I was able to ride him that easily.

His registered name is Mi Romeo, but neither Foxfire nor I really wanted to call him Romeo so I was trying to come up with another name for him. I was out in the pasture with him and suddenly realized that I had just called him Shadow. So I asked, "Is Shadow your name?" and he walked toward me. Of course any time he hears my voice, he walks toward me(Yes, he already comes to me any time I go out in the pasture. He really WAS meant for me.) But Foxfire liked the name Shadow, so we tentatively started calling him Shadow. However, we already have a cat named Shadow and I also wanted a name with a little more distinction for my horse, so after thinking about it for a while, I decided that I would call him Shadowfax. I know it's a bit presumptuous to name him after Gandalf's stallion in Lord of the Rings, but he is an Andalusian, which is the breed of horse they used for Shadowfax in the movie. And it just seems like the right name for him.

I admit that I'm still a little nervous about having spent so much on a horse. But even though he is not perfect (no horse is), I think he is the right horse for me. I'm still sort of getting used to the idea of having my own horse. I don't think it's really sunk in yet. Maybe once I get a chance to ride him here it will finally sink in. I haven't been able to ride him at home yet because my husband's very mild mannered horse, Ziggy, has turned into a fire-breathing herd protector. Ziggy will not let Shadowfax anywhere near HIS donkeys. The problem is the donkeys (and Ziggy to some extent) are used to coming up to me anytime I go into the pasture in order to get petted and scritched. So anytime I go out in the pasture to try and spend time with Shadowfax, the donkeys and Ziggy come over and chase Shadowfax away. I can't put Ziggy in his stall because when we tried to do that, Ziggy went absolutely balistic and started charging his stall door. We were afraid that he'd hurt himself (and destroy the stall) so we had to let him out.

Foxfire and I have tried several different things to get Ziggy to accept Shadowfax. It's not like we just turned everyone loose in the pasture together. When we brought Shadowfax home, we had Ziggy in his stall and the donkeys and goats in the goat pen. We led Shadowfax around the property and let him see and smell everything. (BTW, Shadowfax behaved very well throughout everything. He was curious and looking around, but not nervous or aggressive.) Then I led Shadowfax up to Ziggy's stall to let them sniff noses. And that's when the drama began. Ziggy took one sniff then snapped at Shadowfax. Shadowfax naturally stepped back, but that's all he did. He didn't snap back or get excited, he just got out of reach of Ziggy. I waited a few seconds and let Ziggy just look at Shadowfax and when he seemed calmer, I led Shadowfax up to him again. Again Ziggy snapped at him. So I decided to leave Ziggy alone for a bit and led Shadowfax over to the goat pen and let him sniff noses with the donkeys through the fence. Tessla, of course, immediately came over and said, "Hi". After seeing Tessla interacting safely with the big gray horse, Kanny and eventually Marie came over and they all sniffed noses. Shadowfax actually seemed to like the donkeys. Maybe he just appreciated that they weren't pinning their ears and snapping at him.

When Shadowfax seemed to lose interest in sniffing the donkeys, I let him wander around a bit on his own. I was still holding his lead rope, but I let him go where he wanted to. He soon found the water trough and took a long drink. After that I decided to try Ziggy again. Same result. Foxfire thought that maybe Ziggy would be friendlier if he weren't stuck in his stall, so I led Shadowfax a good distance away, and Foxfire haltered Ziggy and led him out. We carefully led the two horses closer to let them sniff noses again. This time Ziggy not only snapped at Shadowfax, he reared up a little and sort of thrashed his front hooves at him, accidentally racking Foxfire in the process. Foxfire was okay, just not real happy. Shadowfax remained surprisingly calm and just stepped back out of reach. Foxfire backed Ziggy up and I kept Shadowfax at a bit of a distance and we just let the horses look at each other for a while. Then very carefully we again let them get closer. Again Ziggy displayed very aggressive behavior. Ziggy wasn't actually biting or kicking Shadowfax, but he was putting on one hell of a threat display. We, Foxfire, the previous owner, her trainer and I, finally decided that the two horses would have to just work it out themselves. So I took Shadowfax to one end of the pasture and Foxfire took Ziggy to the other end and we turned them loose.

Shadowfax immediately trotted towards Ziggy who was standing by the goat pen with the donkeys in it. Ziggy charged at Shadowfax and chased him away. As soon as Shadowfax was a good distance away from the donkeys in the goat pen, Ziggy stopped chasing him and went back to the donkeys. This pattern repeated itself several times during which we figured out that Ziggy apparently saw Shadowfax as a threat to his herd (the donkeys). Poor Shadowfax just wanted to join the herd, but Ziggy absolutely refused to let him near. Since Ziggy was behaving so aggressively, we decided to just leave the donkeys and the goats in the pen for a while and see if in a few hours things had calmed down. Watching Ziggy behaving so aggressively was actually pretty frightening. He'd always been such a non-dominant horse before, but now his behavior was really scary. I'll repeat that neither Ziggy when he was attacking nor Shadowfax when he defended himself actually bit or kicked the other horse. It was just a lot of really aggressive display. But even though no one was actually getting hurt. It was distressing to watch.

Unfortunately, even hours later, Ziggy was still chasing Shadowfax away from the goat pen any time he came near. However, both horses were completely lathered and probably exhausted, and the chases were getting shorter and less intense, so we decided to try feeding everyone since it was about time for their evening meal. Shadowfax was quite willing to go into his new stall to get fed and enthusiastically gobbled up his grain. Ziggy had to be haltered and led into his stall and after taking only a few bites started pacing his stall, pinning his ears at Shadowfax in the stall next to him, snaking his head around the stall wall and snapping at Shadowfax. He even started charging his stall gate. At this point, because we were afraid that Ziggy would hurt himself, we had to let him out of his stall. He ran over and checked on the donkeys, then started charging at Shadowfax's stall. Foxfire and I would clap and yell at him and make him turn away, but it was still frightening Shadowfax. For the first time, Shadowfax started displaying nervous behavior. Completely understandably. Foxfire managed to chase Ziggy far enough off so that I could let Shadowfax out of his stall. Once Shadowfax was out of his stall he calmed down. However, Ziggy would still chase him away any time he came near his little herd. Poor Shadowfax.

Once it got completely dark, things seemed to settle down a bit. Every once in a while, Shadowfax would ease up toward the herd and Ziggy would chase him away, but things weren't nearly as dramatic. Since Ziggy hadn't finished his grain which is a very bad thing because he has a history of ulcers, I led Shadowfax into the goat pen and stayed with him so that Foxfire could bring Ziggy's feed bucket to where he was standing with the donkeys and encourage him to eat. Ziggy eventually finished most of his grain, and I let Shadowfax back out. Foxfire and I finally got our own dinner and settled down to watch some tv. But we would go outside every once in a while to check on everyone. Ziggy still wouldn't let Shadowfax join his herd, but at least there were no more big dramatic chases.

Anyway, that was the first day of having my new horse. Which was Sunday, by the way, I'm a little behind in posting this entry. I'll try to post what went on on Monday and today either later tonight or more likely tomorrow.

Interesting times...

I think that I've been the recipient of a Chinese curse. As far as I know, I haven't pissed off any Asians recently, but my life sure has been "interesting" lately. Some of it has been good. Some of it is a mixture of good and bad. And some of it is just plain bad. Starting with the good... I helped to successfully rescue another horse. And a horse that I really liked has come on the market again and I might be able to actually buy him this time. However, since I had to buy a new Air Conditioner because my old one died, I might not actually have enough money to buy this horse even though he is fairly inexpensive and I've been pinching pennies like mad saving up to buy myself a horse. Also, my husband is currently looking for a new job because in his current job he is just really unhappy and stressed by the company's work environment. He is also severely underpaid for his level of experience and what he does. During this time, I took a job assisting with costumes for a local theatre company which should have been a good thing, but which, due to absolutely horrible treatment by the head costumer, led to me quitting a production for the first time in my life. Also, I've recently started receiving stress-filled emails from my brother who is a police detective and a recently divorced father of three little girls which is leading me to worry about his mental well-being. And I'm going to have to have surgery next Wednesday to remove a cyst the size of a walnut from my abdomen. It should be a fairly minor surgery, but having to have surgery at all is just plain bad. So... interesting times.

I think that I'll expand upon these statements in several different posts, otherwise, this would be one REALLY LONG POST.

A very happy birthday to me!

I've been a very bad girl and haven't been keeping up this blog, but somehow despite that the universe rewarded me with a very happy birthday weekend. My birthday was Saturday and at noon I met with the costume designer that I'll be assisting for the next few weeks doing costumes for Austin Shakespeare Festival's production of Measure for Measure. I'd been a bit nervous about meeting her because, frankly I don't always get along with people, but she and I seemed to hit it off. I liked her designs and she seemed to appreciate the comments that I made. So that made for a nice birthday experience.

After I got home, as part of his birthday gift to me, my husband took me to half price books so I could add yet more books to my overflowing collection. I am an absolute bookaholic who has been having to do without, due to tightening up our budget in order to have enough money to buy and maintain a horse for me. So finally having free rein (pun intended) to buy some new (okay used, but new to me) books, was very nice indeed. After buying me some books, Foxfire took me out to Johnny Carino's and we had a very nice dinner out. Another thing that we haven't done in quite a while as part of saving money. I had my favorite dish, chicken scallopini minus the tomatos and mushrooms with capers added, and a pomegranate granita which is just the most delicious drink that I've ever had.

On Sunday, Foxfire and I got up early, joined our friends, SH and DA, and we all went down to Schlitterbahn for the day. The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold, and it wasn't raining which it did last year for my birthday trip. It wasn't very crowded and for some rides there wasn't even a wait at all. We made it through all three sections of the park and hit almost all the red diamond rides, some of them several times. It was an absolutely fabulous day! After we left the park, we stopped at Oma's Haus German Restaurant and had a nice dinner.

The only bad parts of the day were at the very end. As we were driving back to Austin, my stomach started feeling bad and we had to stop at a Whataburger so that I could use their facilities. I think the lunch that I had at the park didn't agree with me. Either that or I accidentally swallowed some water on one of the rides and some nasty protozoa or another was making it's presence known. Also, once we were home and putting things away, I stepped on a scorpion which stung me to express its displeasure or its general scorpion-ness, since I know that simply stepping on a scorpion barefoot isn't going to hurt it that much. (I really should write a post about my unique way of dealing with the scorpions that I find in my house(or more usually that my cats find and point out to me).

Anyway, all in all, it was a wonderful weekend, and I'm already looking forward to doing it all again next year.

Pictures of potential horses

I have still been looking at horses, I just haven't been keeping up with posting about them. Mainly because I found a horse that I really liked and didn't want to post about him until I had bought him so that no one else would see my blog and go buy him. Unfortunately, someone else did find him and buy him before I was able to drive down for a second ride. Needless to say, I was rather upset and didn't really want to talk about horses for a while. The horse that I really liked is named Cat Ballew. Strangely enough, given my usual preferences, he is a 16.2 hand, solid bay, OTTB. But he listened to me and obeyed my slightest cue the way no other horse has done since I was learning to ride on Cash. I am still kicking myself for waiting to decide on him and letting someone else get him. Here is a link to pictures of Cat Ballew.

You can see the other horses that I have looked at by going to my Potential horses album and clicking on the names listed on the left. Obviously none of the others worked out for various reasons. If you have questions about any of them, feel free to ask, but I don't think that I'll be doing individual blog posts about them.

I have definitely learned a valuable lesson. Next time that I find a horse that I really like, I'm not going to wait around, I'm going to put a deposit on him right away.

A Horse is a horse...Part Four -- Quinn

Quinn is an 8 year old, 16.3 hand OTTB gelding. He is an experienced hunter/jumper with a very nice video of him at an AA hunter/jumper show under his show name, Last Laugh. He had been originally trained at a barn that I'd actually visited during our search for Foxfire's horse and that had seemed like a very nice facility. He'd been sold from there to a wealthy family for their 13 year old daughter who hadn't even started lessons yet, for $12,000. He'd turned out to be too much for their total beginner daughter who had really just wanted a nice little trail horse that she could go bareback riding on with her friends. They'd tried to sell him for $9000 then decided to just cut their losses and gave him to a dealer to sell for whatever she could get for him. She told me that they'd probably accept $3000 for him which is pretty much the limit of what I can spend. I was pretty excited at the thought of getting such an expensive horse for so little, but I also figured that there must be a catch. However, from talking repeatedly with the dealer, calling the original training barn and talking to the owner there and watching the video of him, it seemed that he really was a very nice horse that was being sold by people who just wanted him gone, so Foxfire and I went to see him. It didn't quite go as hoped for. He was indeed a very well put together horse. And unlike the blue roan mare, quite photogenic.

However, he was hotter than the sun, as Foxfire put it. His ground manners were nice, but from the way he'd show a fear response whenever given a strong command or when anyone just moved too fast around him, I suspect that his training involved more fear and abuse than firmness and respect. It probably wasn't this trainer, she'd only had him a few weeks, but the parents of the little girl had sent Quinn to a “wenglish” trainer who supposedly fixed difficult horses. I suspect that he might be responsible. Anyway, the horse bucked several times just on the lunge line.

I almost told Foxfire we'd leave then and there, but the horse behaved well enough under saddle for the the trainer. He did some nice lateral work

and even jumped a very jury-rigged and rather frightening(at least to me) jump set up on some very uneven ground at the edge of the arena.

In retrospect, it seems like she was having to pull him back pretty hard most of the time she was riding him. But anyway, since he'd behaved under saddle, Foxfire got up on him. He seemed okay right at first, but then started to try and canter. It rapidly degenerated into Foxfire trying to slow down the psycho pony. He didn't buck or anything, just kept trying to run away. Fortunately, Foxfire got him under control and got off of him safely. The trainer/dealer seemed honestly embarrassed by Quinn's behavior and said that she hadn't seen him behave like that before. Maybe, maybe not. Who knows. But we said thanks, but no thanks, and left.

A Horse is a horse...Part Three -- Blue

Blue (Yes. They really called her Blue.) was a 15.1 hand, nine year old, blue roan quarterhorse mare. She only had western training, but was supposedly well trained and kept in shape by the stables hired exercise riders. The seller thought that she might do well for lower level dressage and jumping and wouldn't be that hard to re-train for English riding. She also looked decently conformed in the ad pictures. Her lack of English training meant that I wasn't willing to drive very far to see her, however, she was only 30 minutes away, so I figured I'd give her a try.

Picture from ad

When we got there, she was actually a very nice looking horse. The pictures I took don't really do her justice. And she behaved pretty well for her regular exercise rider, especially considering that her rider kept yanking on the reins to try and make her do a sliding stop from the canter. It made me wince and want to yell at the rider every time she did it. Blue did have significant trouble picking up her right-lead canter, but I'm not sure how much of that was the horse and how much the rider. Her gaits were a bit on the fast side and she seemed like she might be a little hot. However, when Foxfire got on her, she was hard to even get to walk. She'd just stand there or sidle sideways. Finally, Foxfire got her to walk and then to trot, but she was very gate sour and difficult for him to steer. However, she was definitely NOT going to run off with anyone. So even though I knew from watching how she behaved with Foxfire that I wasn't going to buy her, I hopped up on her to see how she behaved with me.

It was even harder for me to get her to move. She just stood there no matter how firmly I kicked, squeezed, "kissed" and said "walk". I finally used a wide rein to pull her head all the way over until I felt her give, and at that moment, I'd kick her, and she'd start to walk in a circle. Then I could straighten her out and get her to walk around the arena. Even then it was hard to keep her walking, especially past the gate, and I had to "re-start" her several times. Surprisingly, it was not difficult to get her to trot. One firm kick and she went into a trot. She tended to ignore your direction cues, but at least she was trotting. Of course, going past the gate was still a challenge. Strangely enough, I was actually sort of enjoying riding her, and so I kept at it until she was obeying me somewhat well. Or at least better than she had when I first got on her. However, there was no way that I was going to buy her. You can see the few halfway decent pictures that I got of her on my Blue Roan Mare album.

Foxfire riding Blue

A Horse is a horse...Part Two -- Hoss

Hoss is a five year old, 15.1 hand, blue roan quarterhorse gelding. He was listed as very friendly with some western training, but more suitable for dressage. (Though he didn't have any dressage training yet.) He was also listed as 16 hands high, and his pictures showed that he had pretty decent conformation.

Photo from ad

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.

Photo from ad

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

A horse is a horse, of course...NOT!

Searching for your first horse(or second or third, I imagine) can be a very frustrating process. First of all you have to weed through all the myriad horse search engines and local Craigslist ads and newspaper ads to find prospects worth a phone call or email. This is very time consuming and frustrating when the ad does not even have basic information such as the horse's breed, age, height and skills. And of course you have to try and weed out the ads placed by dealers whose every horse is child-safe, beginner friendly and perfectly suited for everything from western pleasure to three-day eventing. Just this morning I found a listing for a Friesian mare described as suitable for endurance riding,western pleasure and jumping with an asking price of $2000. Now perhaps this Friesian is VERY unusual for her breed and might actually make an endurance, western pleasure and/or jumping horse. Or possibly some idiot who knows nothing about evaluating a horse's potential simply listed these as being the most marketable things to say. More likely, it's some sort of scam. An obvious one. Some of them aren't so obvious. You can't even trust what you see in videos. Who knows what they've done to that horse to make him behave in that video. Worn him down beforehand, drugged him,...? Just weeding through the ads is frustrating.

And of course, there are those people who aren't intentionally lying about the horse, they are simply ignorant or "barn blind" and think their horse really is "all that". Let me pass on an email I got in response to an ad I queried. The ad read that,"This horse probably already is trained up to the 2nd level." I thought maybe the current owner had bought a previously trained dressage horse that didn't work out for the trail riding and play days that her kids wanted to do and therefore was selling it. So I asked if she had been told that he was trained to second level or was that her opinion based on her knowledge of dressage. Her response was,"I bought him to basically ride/train for my pleasure and exercise. I ride him in a dressage saddle. We work on seat and leg commands at the walk, trot, and canter. I have not been formally trained in dressage, but I have seen some magazines and videos. That is why I think Max fits somewhere at the 2nd level." Uh... yeah...

So anyway, after weeding through the dealers and idiots, and after all the research and talking on the phone and looking at the pictures and watching the videos repeatedly to make sure the horse seems like one that you would want to buy, you decide to make the drive (usually several hours) to go and check the horse out in person. And he/she is so very NOT what you were looking for. Of course sometimes the horse really isn't that bad, but he/she just isn't right for for one reason or another. It feels so hopeless sometimes.

Anyway, I'll be posting summaries of some of the horses that I've looked at recently.

Third lesson with Christine (and a mild scare with Ziggy)

Well, tonight was my third lesson with Christine. I had been having sort of a bad day and was tense and nervous. I warned Christine that I might not do very well that night. She said that we all have off days, but that she was sure I'd do fine. She let me choose which lesson horse to ride, so I chose Meshack since I seem to have a better connection with him. I mounted up, then took a few seconds to do some deep breathing to try and relax before starting the lesson.

We started with some walk/halt transitions to re-enforce that all important ability to stop your horse with your seat and not just with the reins. I seem to be doing a bit better than previously, but still need to work on being clearer with my "stop" cue. While we were still walking, Christine had me do something that seemed a bit unusual to me, but that I'm sure has a purpose. (I really should learn to actually ASK QUESTIONS during my lesson.) Christine had me state, "now" every time Meshack's inside hind foot hit the ground. Then she had me do it for his inside front foot, outside hind foot and outside front foot. Surprisingly, I got it right every time. It's the first thing about riding that I've actually gotten right, right away. I wish I knew what it was for.

After that, we did some posting trot with downward transitions to walk. That went pretty well, though again, I still need to work on it. Finally we did some sitting trot to both practice my sitting trot and to practice downward transitions from the sitting trot. I have a lot harder time slowing him with my seat at the sitting trot. I think that from posting trot it's very obvious to the horse when I stop posting and ask for a downward transition. But when I'm sitting the trot, my cue just isn't very clear. He did slow down, but it took a lot longer and wasn't as clean. Hopefully, as I get better at sitting the trot, my cues from the sitting trot will get clearer.

As for the sitting trot itself, I think I am improving. I'm still bouncing around a bit, but at one point, for about 10 strides, I seemed to get it right. I felt like I was moving with the horse and didn't feel like I was bouncing around. Of course, it didn't last. I fell out of sync and went back to bouncing. but at least, I think, I got a feel for what it should be like.

After that, we did some 20 meter circles at the posting trot and then at the sitting trot. My first circle was too small. Apparently, her arena is 20 meters wide and I should have made it big enough to go all the way to the other side. After that, I was making my circles big enough, but I'm pretty sure my circles weren't very circular. However, Christine didn't say anything, and considering that it was my first time doing trot circles, I was pretty pleased. I did have a slight problem with Meshack pulling on the reins, but Christine told me to just give a little tug on the reins and bump him with my inside leg and he'd give, and sure enough he did. He tried to pull on the reins a couple of times more, but I just gave a tug and a bump and he'd quit. And after about the third time, he didn't do it anymore. Once we finished doing circles, we took a few minutes break to let me and Meshack rest a bit, then we moved on to doing trot poles.

Now I've done trot poles a couple of times before on different horses and although their movement did change, it didn't change that much. With Meshack, it was completely different. Not only did his rhythm change drastically, his trot became much bigger and bouncier. It wasn't that apparent the first time we went over, because he tripped over the first poles, fell out of trot and we just walked over the later poles. The second time we went over, his change in rhythm and size of trot took me completely by surprise, and I'm afraid I completely lost rhythm and balance and just bounced around on his back. I was rather embarrassed. But Christine just told me to keep my hands down (they'd flown up when I lost my balance) and to try it again. The third time I went over the trot poles, I wasn't taken by surprise, but I still couldn't adjust to Meshack's change in rhythm and size of trot very well. I didn't lose my balance as badly as previously and my hands only came up a little, but it was still pretty awkward. The forth time I went over, I had begun to get a feel for how his trot would change and did better. I didn't lose my balance and my hands stayed down, but my rhythm was still off. However, Christine apparently thought I had made enough progress (or maybe we were just out of time) and she told me to just walk Meshack cool and that was the end of our lesson.

She told me that she couldn't tell that I was having a bad day because I had actually had a good lesson. She also said that I was making noticeable improvement in each lesson, which made me feel really good. And, actually, I did feel much more relaxed after the lesson than I had before it. We set up another lesson for next Thursday at 7pm. Meanwhile, I had noticed a big handsome gray gelding in the round pen next to the arena and asked her about him. She told me that he had just been brought to her for a tune up and that he would probably be a good horse for me(I perked up), but unfortunately, he wasn't for sale(I un-perked). So we talked briefly about finding the right horse for me. She agreed with The Oracle that age and experience weren't as important as personality and willingness. She said that she did know of a 6 year old, 16.2 hand quarterhorse mare that might suit me, but she hadn't actually tried her out yet. She was going to try her out, and if she liked her, she'd arrange for me to try her out. We'll have to wait and see what happens.

I have been looking at horses the past few months. Most don't make it past the phone call stage, but a couple sounded good enough and were close enough to go check out. The first was a blue roan gelding that I really, REALLY liked, but he was just too green for me. I also went to try out a really beautiful blue roan mare. (I swear I'm not looking for blue roans, two just showed up nearby.) Unfortunately, although she was nice to look at, with really good conformation, a pretty coat color and a long thick mane and tail, she was a very stubborn and difficult horse for anyone except her usual exercise rider to actually ride. Someday, I may get around to writing a post about those horses with some of the pictures I took.

Anyway, that's it for now. It's late, I'm tired, and my husband's horse, Ziggy, is either having a mild colic or his stomach ulcers are acting up, so I'm having to run out and check on him every twenty minutes. Yes, we called the vet, and she said to just keep an eye on him and as long as he didn't go down and thrash around that he would probably be okay. Since he's still up and walking around, and he has both pooped and drunk some water, we're not going to do anything but watch him for now. The last couple of times I checked on him, he still looked a bit uncomfortable, but wasn't showing significant distress, so hopefully, everything will be fine. You can get more information about what happened on my husband's post, "Damn. It." Well... gotta go.

UPDATE ON ZIGGY: This last time that I went to check on him, he was eating hay, and as I watched, he wandered over the the trough, drank a bit, then wandered back to the hay to eat some more. I think whatever the problem was, it's over now. I'll continue to check on him, but I'm relieved that he seems to be doing better.

A Weekend to Remember... Hopefully...

I'm too tired to write a full post tonight, but I'll just mention that I had a very busy weekend. On Friday, I had my first lesson with Christine Bergeron of Cadence Ranch. It went very well and I am looking forward to taking more lessons with her. Friday evening, JJ, Foxfire and I drove out to Pine Hill, an eventing facility. We spent the night in JJ's pickup bed camper which was surprisingly nice. In the morning, JJ and Foxfire took a cross country jumping lesson and I followed them around taking pictures(you can see some of the pictures in my Pine Hill May 2009 album). That afternoon, we went blueberry picking at a "pick your own" farm in Hockley. Then we had lunch in a fantastic diner called "Must be Heaven" in Brenham. Finally, we went back to Pine Hill, picked the horses up and headed home. Sunday, Foxfire and I went to Dripping Springs to see a horse that I was interested in(that story is too complicated to summarize here). I'll try to write a blog for each day when I'm not so tired. I hope that I can remember everything.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of Foxfire taking a bank up with Ziggy, while JJ on Saga waits her turn.