If This Blog Were a Horse

[Photo of my daughter Sierra and her five-year old horse Raffiki at the state horse show yesterday]

If this blog were a horse, it'd be very sick by now.

Thankfully this blog which I have been neglecting of late is not a horse, just a repository of my horsey thoughts. Cancel the vet call!

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This horse show season ended for our family yesterday. My oldest daughter, Sierra, who is 13, competed in the State 4-H Two-Handed show. (which is a funny name for a horse show. Shouldn't it be Two-Hoofed? But of course it is referring to the riders' hands. It's a 4-H competition for riders with horses 3-5 years of age.)

Can I just say, at the risk of sounding like a stage-mother fool, that my daughter is amazing?

This is why:

-She's trained this horse herself (granted, with lots of generous mentors) since she was ten. Three years ago, this horse didn't know its leads. Now he excels in trail and Western Pleasure.

-She placed first in her division in the written test (and got $100 for her efforts). And sixth overall in her division among 30 riders.

-She wasn't feeling very good all day and had a bad head cold. Despite this, she still carried on. She gives everything her best - whether it be piano, art, writing, horses - and is successful at whatever she does.

-Most importantly, she is a very spiritual person, diligent in her prayers and scripture study. Which manifests itself in how grounded she seems to be as successes and challenges come her way.

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I can't help but reflect on my own life compared to where she is at in hers.

At her age, I loved art, music and literature. I had good parents who gave me opportunities, but we didn't have the money and it wasn't a priority for me to take art or piano lessons. Let alone own horses.

So I am thrilled to the core that my children have these opportunities early in their lives.

Sierra is a great example to me of someone who got handed a bountiful plate by Heavenly Father along with some personal challenges, and who has made the most of it!

***
I will have to admit, as much as this has been a fun ride this year...I am relieved that horse show season is over. Now for some R&R!

Last Wash

Last wash day for the season today. I am letting the kids sleep in a little before their big day tomorrow, the last regular horse show.

This has been a wonderful season.

Taia has come a long way. My oldest has done a great job with her. She used to toss her head and go prancy-crazy. Now she looks like the good horse her former owners touted her as.

My son's old horse is slowing down some, but still putting in good miles.

My youngest has had quite the turnaround story. Her mare had been a beast this past winter, but now, she is doing so well. I watched them yesterday, go in and out of the indoor arena, and I thought to myself, I am so glad that we have horses we can trust to take care of our kids.

Coz that is what it is all about, having horses you can count on to carry your precious treasures.

Practice Show

All three kids had their first 4-H practice show last Friday. Rain threatened, but didn't follow through, so it was actually quite a pleasant temperature.

We brought down our new horse, Taia, who is 15, even though our oldest didn't use her. She was quite antsy. For an "older" horse she still has so much energy. But I guess that is no surprise since she has some thoroughbred in her. I hope she settles down soon.

Taia, our new horse

For her first show, our youngest did mighty fine. Although Wixie gave her some trouble atwestern riding, she got through all of the judged events far better than the older two did at that age.

It was hard to have Wixie and Quincy together in the arena. Wixie tends to catch up with him and stick to him like a burr. So my son didn't do as well in Western pleasure. We will have to practice having our youngest pass him in the arena. But he and Quincy looked good, as usual, doing patterns. And, he actually stood still at halter, which was a shocker. He got a red instead of a blue because the judge said the horse was dirty (They weren't required to wash the horses, but when the judge put a hand on his back, dust flew.).


My son and Quincy, at halter

Our oldest did well on Raffiki. He is a 5 year old gelding, whom she has been working with the last three years. He got all his leads correctly, he lowered his head during western pleasure, he also backed beautifully. I think this may be the first time our oldest got a blue ribbon for western pleasure, and it was well-deserved. She practices at least once a week on him with the mentorship of an older girl from her 4-H club.

A wonderful practice show altogether. And when we were hauling the horses home, I thought again how grateful I was to be able to help the kids with this experience.

Horses and their riders

Wixie, a flea-bitten gray quarter horse mare. Our first horse. She is in her early 20's. Still spry, sometimes stubborn, can be very sweet. She is the first horse we all learned on, so she has a special place in my heart.

Our youngest - nine year old Sabrina



Quincy, a chestnut Morgan cross (our best guess) gelding. Reliable, bomb-proof. Wish we could find more horses like him. 20-something like Wixie. For an old horse loves to go fast. Our son loves to do speed events on him.

Our son - eleven year old Wesley



Raffiki, a five year old palomino paint whom our oldest "won" by writing a letter to the 4-H horse council. Our oldest trained him herself. Was bucked off and injured few weeks into it, but has gotten back on since and has done phenomenally well on him.

Our oldest - thirteen year old Sierra, horse crazy as they come, she got us all into horses



Taia (pronounced "Tie"), a 15 year old quarter horse mare with racehorse bloodlines. We initially bought her for our youngest, but will be shown by oldest this year. Beautiful, sweet, with the energy of a young horse.

Tears to Cheers

A horse reduced me to tears this week.

Over the past few weeks, our family has been trying out a friend's horse for our youngest to use in 4-H. Boo (the horse) is beautiful, with a sweet personality, but she is a hellion when it comes to being bridled.

Now I am not the kind of person to easily give up. And I was telling myself, I can do this, I can do this, even to the point of getting the bridle over one ear. We made do, my daughter got on for her riding lesson, and I was okay.

Until we had to take off the bridle. The horse wouldn't let me, just pulling her head back enough out of my reach. And that's when I lost it.

We've been through two horses in as many months, trying to get one for our youngest, and I was exhausted from the roller coaster ride, from having high hopes only to not have the horse work out. I cried as I told the silly horse that I wasn't going to hurt her, and couldn't she let me take off the bridle?

I told my husband I don't want a horse for our youngest just for the sake of having a horse. Unless it's a well-behaved horse.

Fortunately, after much discussion by phone with a seller and an evening of riding, we found a great horse for our youngest this past Friday. Her name is Taia (pronounced "tie"). I have high hopes.

Taia is a good reminder of how wonderful horses can be.

Hope

We took Annie back to Idaho last week. Thank goodness the owner was willing to give us back our money and didn't give us grief.

We are trying out another horse.

As we pulled in today at the stables, I laughed at the expression on our friend Julie's face. I got out of the truck and said, "Here's horse #590!"

That's how these past couple of months have felt like, searching searching searching.

I think we might have just found us a horse for my youngest. I am "cautiously optimistic" if there is such a phrase.

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Her name is Boo and she is a beautiful horse to look at. She is my friend's horse that she is willing to let us "borrow" for 4-H. Boo is quiet, which is a really good fit for Sabrina. The only concern is she moves kind of funny, paddling at the trot, and bounding at the lope. But our friend Julie and our barn owner both say she would probably be a good fit for my youngest. And the lope might smooth out if she lowers her head.

I hope so. I would rather not have a horse for her at all than cope with a horse that is just so-so and dangerous for my child.

This week, my youngest will take a lesson on her and take her to 4-H practice.

Yikes!

Our 13 year old daughter rode Annie today and did not have a good experience. She lunged her at first and then when she thought Annie was listening, got on. I did remind her to be light on her mouth, but it seemed like without much provocation, Annie reared a couple of times, sidestepped, tossed her head, etc. So my daughter got off again, lunged her some more. Then she got on. Annie settled for a bit, but at a lope (which got faster and faster as she went), she bucked quite a bit when my daughter tried to slow her down. (My daughter stayed on fortunately)

This daughter is a quiet, experienced rider who has trained her own colt; I am glad she rode her first because our 9 year old probably would have panicked which would have made it worse.

We’re willing to give Annie other chances, but it’s not looking good so far. We emailed the seller (we have a three week trial period) with the above details so he is not shocked at our final verdict.

Sigh. Back to square one.

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Lessons learned:

No matter how sweet and gentle a horse looks, do not fall in love until the main rider rides it.

The older the horse, in general, the better. Especially for your youngest child!

If you are looking for a 4-H horse, a horse with 4-H experience is ideal so you don't have to teach it new tricks.