2014 ended up being a pretty interesting year and not as horsey as I would have thought it would be. I’m not a fan of riding in the winter, or cold weather in general. Yes, I did grow up in Alaska, but I think that’s why I hate it so much. I rode a little in January, not much in February or March, a decent amount in April and May, once in June and a few times in July. Then a few other random times a one of my friend’s places. Without going into too many details on this blog, I had a fair amount of health issues. Don’t worry, they’re all fixed now, but that ordeal went from the beginning of February until mid October.
In the middle of this mess, I bought my Dexter who has been the best thing ever. Buying an unbroke horse was a complete gamble, but I’ve really lucked out so far. I bought him June 18th and he came home from training September 1st. 30 days at the owner/breeders, 2 1/2 weeks at a complete bust of a place where he just sat and then finally where he got 30 days of consistent riding. In the middle of all of this my friend strongly cautioned me that it may not work, but thankfully it did. Even after a really stupid/painful fall last week, I still love him to pieces. I can’t ride much with the very cold weather, sometimes muddy mess and darkness, but I enjoy having him around and getting to visit him every day.
Thank you to all those who helped this all come together. His owner/breeder for helping me find him and putting 30 solid days of ground work and a few rides on him, the in-between-cowboy who didn’t charge me an arm and a leg for keeping him for two weeks, my friend for putting a very solid 30 days on him and my trainer/BO and very good friend for making it possible for me to board him for 3 months and riding him probably more than I did in that time.
The Horse is Not Black 