Riding Lesson Tonight

The end of another week and it's time for my children's riding lessons. However, one of them is having a sticky point in his riding. Two weeks ago the pony he was riding in his lesson got a little spooky. Though my son wasn't hurt and in fact did a good job of controlling the pony and getting him to settle down, he did get a little rattled by it and has now insisted on going back on the lunge line to do anything faster than a walk.

His brother will canter for the first time tonight. Their trainer (who I call "the Master" in case you have forgotten or didn't know due to my erratic posting schedule) thinks it would be good for the suddenly timid brother to have a few weeks off from lessons, and then to return to the saddle as the weather warms up. He's also counting on the competitiveness between the two of them as an extra push to get Mr. Scaredy pants back on track. I agreed. So in the meantime, I asked to take his time slot and have a lesson myself with Ruby, my half-boarding horse.

I'm tired of going in circles. I need to jump around and as long as Ruby is feeling up to it we'll do some work over fences tonight. I've been sliding into that emotional ditch again lately where the horses are concerned and need something to divert me. I hope the Master gives me a good challenge tonight.

Rescue? Maybe not for me

At the moment I respectfully passed on the rescue/rehoming horse. I met the horse. He was very sweet and walked right up to me and nuzzled me as if he'd known me his whole life. I met his owner and the woman handling the adoption. I couldn't try riding the horse because of all the ice and snow in her paddock but she was willing to send the horse out on trial to see if we were a good match.

Sounds pretty good I know, but after reading through the adoption restrictions and finding out more about this particular arrangement I decided it just wasn't something I was comfortable with. I guess I didn't realize that adoption is a form of leasing a horse. You don't actually own the horse. The person who adopted the horse to you does. You are paying for everything but ultimately, you are under the control of the person who allowed you to adopt the horse.

I have been a responsible horse owner for over 30 years. I am not comfortable with having to run my decisions past someone any time I need to do something with the horse. I started to envision what that might entail and began to realize that it could be a very frustrating arrangement for me;

For example - say I wanted to change boarding barns to one that is closer to my home, and I've known the place for years and I trust the management. Before I can do that, the adoptor must approve of the place. Now, maybe the adoptor of the horse has a poor opinion of that barn, for whatever reason. Technically, she can say "no" and I can't do anything about it, even though it may be a better situation for me.

So I'm back to zero again. I am just so bitter and mistrusting of all of this. This is the 3rd or 4th time I've backed away from something that I initially had optimism about.

My greatest sadness is to be sitting here in July, a year after losing Rugby and still nothing. A year without a horse of my own? I never imagined...

Hug your Horsey Valentine

If you are lucky enough to have a horse to love, give him or her a hug for Valentine's Day. And another hug from me.

Rescue/rehoming horse may or may not be the thing for me. Not sure I'm settled with the details of the situation. The search may go on...

Rescue Me

Looking into a rehoming/rescue horse. Don't have much time to write about it now but working on having him for a trial period to see if we "click" and he may come to be with me. He's a nine year old 16.3 hands tall chestnut thoroughbred.