I kicked off my between-jobs four day weekend with a viewing of two prospective ponies, which became one prospective pony and a scan through a stockfeed place and a saddlery store as the other pony was lame. Not figuratively lame, but literally lame - he cut his leg playing with another pony. The stockfeed place was amazing - all the smells and sights of my riding years crammed into one enormous building :)
Anyhoo, the second horse left me with mixed feelings. On one hand, he had great conformation and appeared to have a nice temperament. On the other, he looked a tad stiff and/or lame in the hind and when I rode him there was major canter drama. HOWEVER both could be attributed to the APPALLING weather. It was pouring rain and while the footing was good, there was still a sheet of water on the ground and buckets of it coming down. The pony was lovely enough to soldier on regardless but seemed a little stiff. On top of that, I came to realise that my current trainer hasn't been correcting certain things, like my reins being too long. I had a feeling they were and wish now that I'd asked for more info; as a result I had some mixed results with this horse.It left me lacking confidence and wondering if I'm doing the right thing. When i rode him it seemed he was testing me out a bit, seeing how naughty he could be with me which also left me a bit freaked and/or less confident in my ability. Add to that someone rear-ended my car tonight, so it's sitting with a repairer and will be assessed on Monday. As Elvis put it, I'm all shook up.
Apologies for the sound, it was pouring rain. Turn your speakers down perhaps!
The horse in question is a 16.2hh 9y/o OTTB gelding. He's a dark brown, with his forequarters almost black/a deep dark chocolate and his hind end bay. He has a small star and no white socks - after having 2 horses with 4 white socks (so 8 white socks at any given time) and dealing with regular bouts of greasy heel, I'm thrilled! He raced until he was about 7 then spent the next 18 months with his current owner (who has moved overseas so I can't ask a number of questions) who used him for dressage and eventing, plus used him to deliver a few riding lessons. I'm hoping the latter means he was a decent rider and taught the horse some good things! The horse's name is Mister E (as in 'mystery') but I plan to rename him if I do buy him. A few of the names on my maybe list include Liquorish (Loki [aka God of Mischief] for his stable name), After Dark, Top Hat, Tuxedo, something with Jet as his front is jet black - maybe Jetset? or some kind of exotic name that hints at dark cocoa/chocolate. But let's see if he works out for me first!
So tomorrow, I'm meeting a trainer at the place where he is agisted and I've asked her to put us both through our paces to check if we're a good match. An 8.30am riding lesson 45 minutes away from my home? *cough cough wheeze* how early on a sunday? EEP!
Fingers crossed it all goes well!
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