Looking for our first horse

[This is an installment in "How we got into horses". See the right sidebar for other posts.]

My husband and I had given our oldest daughter (who was then 9) a full year of borrowing a horse for 4-H and it seemed her ardor had not cooled.

So we began looking for our first horse in 2005. (Wow, has it really been four years ago?)

My husband scoured horse websites. I looked at postings at the local feed store. Most were too far away to see. Most also said, "Needs work". I made flyers and put out the word that we were looking for a "kids horse".

The first person that responded met us at a pasture at the west end of town. The horse, a small bay gelding, had already been tacked up. I didn't know much about riding then, but I couldn't very well let on. I told the owners I would ride the horse since my oldest daughter wasn't with me then.

Either the horse was really not reliable, or I was nervous (most likely this), but the horse kept moving away from me. There were other red flags about the horse, which eventually led to me saying no, thanks.

What's ironic is that later, I saw an ad for this horse on the community bulletin board; he was being touted a "kids' horse". But a friend of mine who trains horses said the owner hired her to train this very same horse so it wouldn't go ballistic every time they rode it.

***
We saw a few more horses. It was February, which is a good time to see horses in a glut of a market (people not wanting to feed horses through the winter), but also the worst time because horses haven't been ridden in a while. One had cool medicine hat markings, but wild-pushy.

Nothing promising.

***
I told a friend in our church we were looking for horses. A few weeks later, she told me that she had a friend who was selling her gray quarter horse mare named Wixie. My friend was all compliments about her friend and her horse, and I decided she was worth taking a look at.

Next post: Buying our first horse

History: Horse Audition

[This is an installment in "How we got into horses". See the right sidebar for other posts.]

I got C's name from someone, I forget now who. I looked her up in the phone book,got her husband's name, and left a message. She called me back later that evening.

"Is this Jewel?" she asked. She had a loud voice, so loud that even when I put the earpiece away from me, I could still hear her clearly. First thing she told me was that her husband didn't like horse phone calls at his place of business (which is what I called at first) so to call her on her cell number next time.

C ran "Stable X". I asked her if she did riding lessons, that I was interested for my children to take turns (at $20 a child for an hour, that was about all we could afford).

"Sure," she said. "Come this Wednesday to the riding arena just outside of town."

I mentioned to her that we were seriously thinking about buying a horse. Her voice perked up. She asked me what we were looking for and I told her: older horse, reliable, good-tempered; someone that would not hurt our children, though Sierra would be the main rider. She asked me how much experience Sierra had. When I said 4-H, she told me she had a four year old mustang that might be a good fit, even though she was young.

***

It was a frigid day; we arrived at the arena wearing gloves. A woman in a purple jacket with the stable logo was standing with some girls by a horse trailer. She looked like she was in her fifties, with a curly head of graying hair under an earmuff band, face devoid of makeup with chapped lips. She gave me a welcoming smile, and I instantly warmed to her. But just when I thought she was all warm and fuzzy, BAM! She railed into one of the other kids over something.

Her "storm" passed quickly and she led us inside the arena where Pixie, the mustang, was hitched up at. She was a gray horse, on the small side, with short legs and a rounded body. With C's very minimal help (a teaching philosophy which I think is great in hindsight, but I didn't think so then, scared as I was of the horses)Sierra tacked up Pixie. The two younger children and I climbed up onto the bleachers and I watched with pride as Sierra got Pixie to walk and trot.

Pixie was trotting towards the middle of the arena when all of a sudden, she bolted. Sierra stayed on through the sudden takeoff but looked rattled. Apparently, a big drop of melting ice from the ceiling had fallen on Pixie's back and spooked her.

"What do you think of her?" C asked me as we were untacking Pixie.

"I don't know," I admitted. "She seems sweet enough, but she's so young."

"Why don't you think about it?" she asked. "Sierra can keep taking lessons on her. That'll be great for Pixie, too. They can learn together."

I thought it sounded like a good plan. As fun as Pixie seemed to be, I didn't feel confident in saying "She's the one." Not to mention, I wanted to postpone our decision.

***

During the next few months, the kids took turns taking riding lessons. C was often not diplomatic in her criticism, and sometimes my son would cry, but the kids listened.

Next: Looking for our first horse

History: A Reprieve From the Big Decision

[This is an installment in "How we got into horses". See the right sidebar for other posts.]

I waited, in vain, for Sierra's horse craziness to subside. I thought that "borrowing" a horse would be an eye-opener for her and she would decide it was too much work to care for a horse.

Well, it didn't work. And borrowing a horse for 4-H wasn't all that great either. Sierra and the girl she shared the horse with sometimes had two minutes between events and had to switch saddles and riders, usually making one late.

In 2005, we decided it was time to take the plunge. It was time to, gulp, start thinking of buying a horse.

***

Buying a horse is not something you go into lightly. And for someone like me who had hardly done anything in my life much to do with horses, the prospect TERRIFIED me. I didn't even know how to halter a horse, for goodness sakes, and I was supposed to help my daughter take care of the horse? We didn't have horse property, so we had to find a boarding place. What about all the tack and saddles we would need? And how were we going to find the time to do horses?

When I stopped hyperventilating, I decided it couldn't be all that bad, or most people wouldn't do it.

I didn't realize that to even consider buying horses, you have to be a touch insane.

For a few months I had a reprieve from this BIG DECISION. It was winter and not really a great time to check out horses. Drew and I decided we would enroll the family in riding lessons.

Next: Horse Audition

History: Borrowing a Horse

[This is an installment in "How we got into horses". See right sidebar for other posts.]

Sierra's first horse she showed at 4-H was a pretty paint named Melody (sired by a stallion named Mozart, get it?). Susan's granddaughter Lauren owned Melody. Lauren was too young to show at the regular 4-H, so sharing was not an issue. Susan had another granddaughter, though, Alicia, who rode her in the Senior division.

Melody was a sweet horse, if a bit lazy. She was perfect for someone like Sierra, who was just learning the ropes. Sierra would call Susan to set up appointments. I would take Sierra to her place and she learned how to tack up and ride, mostly at a walk.

At the shows, it was a little tricky sharing a horse. Sometimes, there was just a couple of minutes, literally, between the Senior and Junior divisions, and Alicia would be scrambling because I didn't know how to tack up a horse yet.

I can still picture Sierra in my mind; a little squirt of a girl, in pigtail braids and her cowgirl get-up of peach shirt and red hat. She did well in halter, since Melody was good at standing. She didn't want to lope her yet for Western Pleasure (where they walk, trot, lope), but that was alright. The goal was just to keep her on the horse. And then, at the poles, Sierra finally broke down and cried. She said she was scared, and she didn't want to do it.

Bless her heart; Susan asked Sierra if she could lead her around the poles. Sierra sniffled and said yes, then Susan led her through, this woman bouncing around leading the horse. They registered "no time" but for Sierra, that was a milestone. After that, she was okay doing the speed events (not very fast to begin with, but again, that was okay) by herself.

Borrowing was perfect for us. We wanted to see if Sierra would stick to this new passion of hers, before we (gulp!) might actually look into buying a horse. I will forever be grateful to Susan for sharing her granddaughter's horse, and for helping teach Sierra her first year.

Next: Taking the plunge

History: I paid for this?

[This is an installment in "How we got into horses". See right sidebar for other posts.]

The day of Sierra's 8th birthday party arrived. We drove and drove out west to the middle of nowhere; I wondered if maybe I had the address down wrong. But finally, I saw a blue house with a huge red-roofed barn behind it, like Susan described on the phone. At the entryway, a sign said, "Dreamcatcher Ranch."

I drove our minivan down a skinny dirt road past a ramshackle arena full of loose boards, weeds and rocks. I parked beside a sedan and we got out. A woman came out of the house. She had blonde graying hair pulled back in a pony tail and glasses, and wore a white shirt and jeans. She had a way of bouncing lightly on her feet.

"I thought I'd have my daughter's help," she said, "but she had to run an errand."

Susan continued a friendly chatter on the way to the stables, where the horses were. Four horses had saddles on, and looked ready to go. But without her daughter, I had to fill in. I didn't know what I was doing, but somehow, I got kids on, riding double, without any incident. I wasn't sure what I had gotten us into; I had all these horses and girls to keep track of. Some girls were scared which then scared the horses which then scared me. Ally said ,"Oh, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!" I wasn't much help, really, and Susan was too busy to intervene all the time. I thought, "I paid for this?"

Then the riding was over, all girls accounted for. Sierra had a big smile on her face, and I felt it was worth my feeling like a fool.

Before we left, Susan told me about her life growing up and how she got into horses. She told me that as a teenager, she did not get her parents' support on horses. She worked and saved up, bought her own horse and tack and paid for its boarding. When she needed to go to a 4-H horse show, she had to ride the horse down for about an hour and back. She vowed then that if anyone ever needed a ride for their horse, she would help. And if a kid wanted to ride a horse, she would help. She owned several horses, and they were mostly for others to enjoy.

I looked at this unpretentious woman, at her rough-shod ranch full of flies and piles and discarded appliances. All of a sudden, it didn't seem so rough anymore to me.

"When you turn 9," she told Sierra, "see me about 4-H. I can let you borrow a horse. I've done that with other kids before." Borrow a horse? That sounded good to me. We thanked her and Sierra began counting the days.

Next: Borrowing a Horse

History: Sierra turned 8

[This is an installment in "How we got into horses". See right sidebar for other posts.]

I wanted Sierra's 8th birthday party to be special. When I asked her what kind of birthday party she wanted, she said she wanted a horseback-riding party.

I looked up "horseback-riding" under the yellow pages, and I think the two numbers I found were disconnected. Somehow --and I don't remember now how -- I found Susan, who owned horse property at the west end of town. She told me that she worked as a nurse during the day, but that Saturday we were looking at, she would be off. It would be $25 for a couple of hours of riding for eight girls. I would probably have spent at least four times that much for a horse-themed party; I told her we'd do it. Sierra waited with giddy anticipation.

Next post: I paid for this?

History: And then "Spirit" came along

[This is an installment in "How we got into horses". See right sidebar for other posts.]



You know, the Dreamworks movie about a buckskin mustang named Spirit. It came out in 2002. Sierra, my oldest daughter, was 7. She loved that movie, gobbled it up and begged to watch it over and over.

She discovered a new passion: horses; mustangs in particular.

History: How it really started

[This is an installment in "How we got into horses". See right sidebar for other posts.]

Every summer, my husband's partner Roddy has hosted a horseback-riding party at his place. Roddy and his wife would saddle up their ten or so horses and people with riding abilities from none (like us initially) to a lot would ride in their arena. I watched my children with pounding heart, but the horses they rode were old, dependable ones. Nobody got injured; the worst thing that happened to me was a horse got fed up with me yanking at the reins it reared up and dumped me on my bum. We rode with running shoes and no helmets; I cared more about how my wind-blown hair would look after the party than my staying safe on a horse.

It would be years later, when the bug would bite, but it had begun to burrow into our skin.

History: My first horse experience

[This is an installment in "How we got into horses". See right sidebar for other posts.]

I was probably 12. One Sunday afternoon, Dad took me and my brother to Quezon Circle Park, which was just a short walk away from the government housing we lived at. Dad decided we should ride a horse; someone was giving rides for a certain amount of money for an hour.

My brother got to go first. I was so excited, but when a half hour came and they were still not within sight, I began to worry. The hour was almost up, and they hadn't returned. Finally, in the dusk, I saw my brother being led on a horse by the operator. I had maybe five minutes. So I sat in that saddle, trying to hold back tears, and instead of focusing on the fact that I was on a horse, all I could think of was being so mad with my brother.

Years later, I have three horses at my disposal, and if I actually ride any one of them for five minutes, it's short of a miracle.