Horses and their riders

Last updated 6/30/11


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. Snuffles when happy. She is the first horse we all learned on, so she has a special place in my heart.

Our youngest - Sabrina (who was 9 in this photo)


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 loved to do speed events on him. Now our 11 year old rides him.

Our son - Wesley (who was 11 in this photo)


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

Our oldest - Sierra, horse crazy as they come, she got us all into horses (13 yrs old in this photo)


Taia (pronounced "Tie"), a 15 year old quarter horse mare with racehorse bloodlines. We initially bought her for our youngest, and was shown for one year. Now my husband's horse. Beautiful, sweet, with the energy of a young horse.


Lovey, 16 year old Arabian mare. Her owner died in a car accident and a mutual friend referred her to us to give her a new home. Petite and pretty. Descended from Russian bloodlines. Has been a wonderful "project" horse for Wesley. Jumps high and goes fast.

13 year old Wesley is riding her in this photo

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.

***
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.

***
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.

Introducing Annie/Mandy

After searching for a fourth horse for several months now, we finally made our pick. This is Annie whom my youngest daughter will be riding for 4-H. My daughter wants to rename her to Mandy and already wants to use purple tack on her.



She is petite and very sweet. She comes from Burley, Idaho. Her seller delivered her to us with a three week trial period, which is really quite generous of him. On Monday or Tuesday, my youngest will ride her for the first time.

Risky But Worth It

As I was waiting for a school program, I got talking to a friend and the topic got around to the kids and how busy they were. When I mentioned that my kids ride horses, she said, her daughter has always wanted to learn to ride one.

I told her she should look into it lessons for her daughter. She said, "I told my husband if we could afford it, we should get a horse, but he said it's too risky."

The cost, sure, I could relate to. It is an expensive hobby, owning horses.

As for risk. Sure, there's risk. Three years ago, my daughter, who was ten, got bucked off by her young horse and she had extensive nerve damage. And the other day, I was talking to a woman who was selling off their horses because she "did a Christopher Reeve" and broke her back and neck getting bucked off a horse.

But my daughter is fine today, and probably a stronger person for her experience. She got right back on the saddle when she could and has never looked back. She has learned how to stay on a horse. She has always worn a helmet and we stress safety on a horse all the time. Sometimes, riding a horse that decides to buck can be an adventure.

And what a rush of an adventure it has been.

Kids break bones from jumping off trampolines; heck, even just walking down a curb. To miss out on the joys of riding horses because of the possibility of injury is missing out on a great experience.

Thanks to horses, our family has become closer, we spend a lot more time outdoors, our kids have learned responsibility and have grown in confidence. I have grown as a person and as a mother as I have ridden horses and as I support my kids in 4-H.

I know not everyone has the opportunity to have horses, and I am grateful to have this. But best of all, I am grateful we can let our horse-crazy children live their dream now.

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

On Mud and Mares

I love winter days like yesterday when it is so pleasant outside that I can be in a hoodie and sweat pants to turn out horses.

Oh, but the mud.



(photo by welliefreak on Flickr)

Squishy, yucky, mucky.
Splashy, icy, icky.

Thank goodness for mud boots.

***
My youngest took riding lessons yesterday on a sweet old gelding named Hershey.

Our mare Wixie, whom she usually rides, has been very unpredictable lately. High-strung, fearful, bucks, wants to run off on you. Is it that time of the month?

For our fourth horse, I told my husband we should only look at geldings. We women are too high-maintenance.

Nixing the Fourth Horse

My husband and I decided, in light of the country's economic woes, we will put our search for a fourth horse on hold.

Did you hear the huge sigh of relief from my house?

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

Still Looking

We're still looking for a fourth horse.

My husband Drew e-mailed me the other day about a potential horse. Sounded great except for one small thing. The horse does some "random bucking".

*Random bucking*

I e-mailed Drew and told him he made me smile. He wrote back that if we got the horse, I'd have more things to blog about.

In one piece

For the first time ever, yesterday, I hauled a horse trailer by myself without my husband there coaching me. Sierra guided me back, and she told me, "You did everything you were supposed to." We loaded two horses, I drove them down to the next town, and everyone was still in one piece!! Sierra said, "Yehey! We got here safely!"

It's amazing the things you learn how to do when you are desperate.

Actually, I'm glad I had to do this. I feel like hauling the horses across town, just for fun. Well, not quite...

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

Why we needed a new trailer

This is the one we replaced.