Horse Shopping over the years...

SIERRA
When you are 10 years old and have spent the last 4 or so years begging for your very own horse, it is very hard to be objective when the opportunity to get one finally arises. I think my instructor wanted me to get him because he was owned by a friend of hers… He had been bought at auction, hadn’t really worked under saddle for years, and was lame due to recurring abcesses. Quite a catch, right? But, I was 10 and desperate. To me, he was perfect. You’d never seen a horse with a kinder eye, a richer coat. He was a gentle giant and I fell in love immediately. I don’t know why anyone thought it was a good idea to le me buy a lame horse, but I’m forever grateful that they did.

DUSTY
Great Barrington was the last stop before the slaughter house for a lot of unfortunate racehorses. Of course, I didn’t know that then. My friend was picking up a horse that day, and I tagged along with her and my instructor. I still had Sierra at the time, but my eye had begun to wander.
My instructor was the first to see her. Pressed up against the back of her temporary stall, she looked small and defeated, ready to accept her fate. Thankfully, my instructor had a soft spot for unwanted animals, and convinced the trainer to let her take the small bay mare off his hands. When we got back to the barn, I was the one who led her to her new stall, gave her food and water, and told her everything would be ok.
Over the next few months, I got to assist in her transition from racetrack reject to riding horse. She turned out to be a little firecracker, and while I thoroughly enjoyed her, my instructor apparently didn’t feel the same. One day, she wasn’t there when I showed up at the barn. She had been traded. For a paint colt. The people who took her planned to breed her and use her as a hunter horse.
Around a year later, I was in the market for another horse. I had just decided against a young Appy cross when my instructor informed me that the little bay mare she had offloaded a year ago was for sale. She hadn’t thrown a paint foal and she was too hot for the hunter ring, so the people needed to get rid of her. I went to try her, but I had already decided that she would be mine. From the first day I had met her, I knew she was special, and I still believe that her and I were meant to be together.

KESTRAL
The end of my partnership with Dusty was gut-wrenching. We had soared so high, only to come crashing down because of a silly little cataract. I didn’t do much in the process of purchasing the next horse. I was in Ohio, and my dad and I asked my trainer to do the bulk of the shopping for us.
Once she had narrowed the list down to about 4 horses, I flew home and tried them out. He was actually from Rochester, NY, but he was in town for an event, and his owners brought him over to my trainer’s place for me to try. I had tried 3 horses the day before, and had rejected 2 of them already. The 3rd horse I had been quite smitten with, but as soon as I got on Kes, I knew he was the one. Every once in awhile, you get on something that you feel like you’ve known for ages, and Kes was that horse for me.

TANGO
When I first saw Tango, I thought he was kind of goofy looking. He was all legs and ribs, with a scruffy mane and no topline. I couldn’t imagine he was going to be very nice, but I watched him go anyway.
Under saddle, he was obviously green, but seemed like a good guy, so I popped on and gave it a go. I hadn’t really ridden in awhile, so I was a little rusty and a little nervous, but he made me feel right at home. He tried hard and didn’t get flustered when we couldn’t understand each other, but I was truly sold when I completely screwed up a jump approach – we were so crooked that almost any other horse probably would have just run by the fence thinking that I didn’t want to go over it – and he self-adjusted and quietly jumped the fence. With his heart of gold and incredible athletecism over fences, I figured we’d be unbeatable. Too bad we all know how that ended…


DEE!!
Now, I’ve got Miss Dee. My great big baby mare, who looks like a yak in the winter and has a serious attitude. She and I have had some issues, there’s no doubt about that, but I honestly believe that she is kind of perfect for me. We’re quite similar in a lot of ways. One of my friends once said to me, (something along the lines of) “You come across as such a prickly person when someone first meets you.. But once someone gets to know you, you’re more like a week old gummy bear – kinda hard, but sweet.”
And that’s why Miss Dee and I get along now. I think we’ve realized that we’re both week old gummy bears who have to stick together.