Since I’m a terrible blogger, here’s the last month

I was well intentioned when I decided to start a blog to chronicle the adventures of my new horse, but I failed. I failed quite miserably.

I visited my horse exactly three times before bringing him home. I sat on him twice. I had only walked and trotted him. The day we picked him up (Labor Day) was the second time. Turns out he was pretty
awful the first couple weeks my friend had him, but once he decided to just be good, he was pretty lazy. He was good when I rode him and loaded like a champ. Other than moving around a lot, he rode in the trailer reasonably well. He nearly stumbled out of the trailer, but seemed to like his new home.

The first time I attempted to canter him, I evidently curled up like a hunchback because I got him to crowhop. Things were better after that. Our first few rides were in the roundpen, then we graduated to the indoor arena. He was good in the outdoor and the jump field too. He didn’t seem to be very spooky. We really had no issues until it got chilly and he got wild. Then it warmed back up and he was lazy again.

He gets groomed often and gets lots of treats. He’s had his teeth floated and feet trimmed. So far so good.

One of my friends also helps ride him which has been a huge help, especially this week since I was out of commission.

In addition to the western saddle we have a wintec dressage saddle. I like it and he seems to be just fine with it. Though if his back changes much, I think we’ll have to look for a hoop tree saddle. He’s currently in the XW gullet. He doesn’t have much of a wither and has pretty big shoulders. Hello hard to fit QH back.

Hoping to ride in some lessons and do some more riding outdoors before he moves home either later this year or the first part of 2015.

Hey Facebook: STOP FINDING ME PONIES!!!!!!

I came across Joker being for sale on Facebook in the fall of 2010. I came across the black beast on Facebook this June.

Anybody see a trend here?

I NEED TO STAY OFF THE FACEBOOKS.

Facebook finds me good deals I can’t pass up time and time again.

So one day I was on Facebook and I received a notification of a for sale ad on a group I belonged to, so of course I had to open it.

Next I saw an ad for two black Appendix QH geldings at fire sale prices. So I messaged and asked prices. $750 and $1000 for nice looking horses. I of course thought this had to be too good to be true, as these horses had been posted since April. I decided to message the advertiser and to my delight, both horses were still available. One, a 6 year old gelding, the other a 3 year old gelding. Neither was broke to ride. It was pretty much a classic case of breeders that had a lot of nice horses that they didn’t have time for because they were also running a training business with lots of client horses. Plus, They primarily do the Buckskin shows, so black horses don’t exactly fit that mold. DH and I were already going to be an hour away at a doctor’s appointment later that week, so we decided to go look at the 6 year old gelding.

I asked lots of questions, the lunged him, I got to pet him and it turned out he was very friendly. I tried my English saddle on him which didn’t fit at all. We left and said we’d be in touch. On the drive home we bought the horse. In comes Please No Autographs, 6 year old, 16hh Appendix QH gelding. I’ve ridden green horses and problem horses and lots of horses in between, but I had never broken a horse. So we decided to leave him with them for training for 30 days. He only got 5 rides in that time, so with the help of my BFF, we took him to a cowboy’s place on July 19th. He was there for 15 days and has been with her since August 3rd. After a lot of discussions last weekend, we decided to bring him home on September 1st and keep him at my trainer’s for at least 30 days so I can ride him with other people around and get help if needed.

So….the adventure continues. Yesterday I visited the not so black black horse. He’s all sorts of sun bleached right now. He doesn’t really know me yet, but he enjoyed a good grooming, a walk, some fly spray and last but not least, tolerated picture taking. And a selfie.

I’m hoping to go visit and see him ridden next weekend and someday soon I’ll ride him myself.

A little about me before we get to the horse

I’ve had a few blogs over the years, namely of the melodramatic teenager variety.  A couple xangas, a couple livejournals and most recently two tumblrs. However, none of these have been horse related. So welcome to my first ever pony blog.

I grew up in Alaska and according to my mom was always horse crazy. No, I didn’t grow up in an igloo, but I feel like my hatred of indoor arenas comes from growing up there. I loved pony rides and the guided trail rides I got to go on occasionally. No one in my family likes horses very much. At age 9, my parents agreed to let me take riding lessons and a couple months later, I had my very own horse. An Arabian mare named Suzanne. She was the perfect first horse, but once I learned how to jump, she and I slowly drifted apart, as that just wasn’t her forte. I was fortunate to have plenty of other horses to jump on and eventually I ditched the saddle altogether. When I was 13, we traded Suzanne for a TB mare named Cherokee, a horse I never should have owned. She had a rearing problem. But as a teenager I wanted my own horse, not to just lease one. In hindsight, the WB gelding I could have leased would have been a much better choice. After two years, we decided that it was time to move to a different horse, so along came Fievel. I leased him from 2003 to 2004. We started off in Long Stirrup Hunters and Equitation, along with some beginner jumpers. The next summer we did really well in the Children’s hunters and level 0 jumpers. I eventually made my 3 foot debut and did respectably well in the 14-17 Eq. I wanted to move up to our 3’3″ medal, and Fievel’s owner was wanting him to move down in height.

I rode a green horse of another client’s for a while and was all set up to lease my dream horse, however, it just wasn’t in the cards. So I moved to another barn for the summer and half leased a TB gelding named Cruiser and tried my hand at the jumpers. Cruiser was a tough ride. Some days we did okay, but I really just never figured out how to ride him well. Luckily for me, he liked me well enough and tolerated my lack of riding skills. He was not known to be the most tolerant horse.

My final year at home, I moved back to my original trainer’s and leased Sly, a 19 yr old TB gelding who was Mr. Hunter Extraordinaire. We formed a good bond and during my time riding him, I was offered a spot on the Kansas State University Equestrian team for the following year. We did very well showing in the AA Hunters and Equitation throughout that summer, but sadly Sly wasn’t registered with our horse show association. I, however, was year end Champion for AA Eq.

Then I moved to Kansas. I got to ride some really neat horses at a local barn and some very challenging horses on the EQ team. I only stayed on the team for most of my freshman year due to a lot of different factors, but stayed here and kept riding.

I eventually moved to another local barn and rode some more neat horses. Chief, Charlie, Lady, just to name a few. My two very generous friends shared their horses Thug and Ginger. Eventually I got Joker, who was a trip. He came with some very bad habits, but after about a year and a half, decided he was over being a jerk. That was also about the time I decided to sell him. The main reason was money, but it also became pretty clear that he wasn’t going to be my jumper. I started riding at my current trainer’s about 5 months before selling him and he improved a lot, but due to his rocky start in training before I bought him, he was better off being sold to a home where he wouldn’t jump. He is now a very happy dressage pony. After I sold Joker in September of 2012, I kept riding at my trainer’s place. I started off on a QH mare named ChaCha and eventually moved on to Mars. Mars was very hard for me to ride at first. He’s a very bouncy warmblood and my forte has always been the Thoroughbreds. I love that horse now though and I am so grateful to have him in my life and even more grateful for my trainer who is the sole reason I’ve been able to keep riding.

Up next: how I acquired the not so black black pony.