Horse shopping 10

[goddessfarmer]

Skippy: Alas, the is no photo. I forgot the camera. But there will be photos on Saturday after I take James and Alice to try him. His stats: 6 yrs old, Tb/Connemara, 16.3h, dark bay, odd white markings up the left rear leg. Broken at 3.5 by the trainer who owns him now, who happens to be a friend of mine. And, oh yes, he's not really for sale. She has turned down $50,000 offers from people who saw him competing. To me: $45,000. He's doing first/second level dressage work, competing at Training level Events, and schooling Preliminary. All of this is nice, but the real selling point is that when Beth (the trainer) set up jumps, she started at 2'6", then put up this gymnastic grid - first a rail just under 3', bounce to another the same hight, one stride to 3'3", then two strides to 3'6" oxer, which she put up even further the next time I went through. Every jump was perfect. My legs didn't move, my balance was right, I wasn't on his mouth, or grabbing mane. It felt really good. Unity with the horse as good as mind-blowing sex. I took him to some single jumps after that, where it was more up to me to get the distance right, and he did exactly what I asked him to each time. After each set, he came back to the walk and was perfect happy to stand at rest until asked to go again. On top of all this - his head is cute, and when I first got there, he was turned out and Beth wasn't there yet, I leaned on the paddock fence and he came over and whuffled my ear. Yes. This One.

Comments

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Ann says: He sounds fabulous. A sensible horse. Good call going with Beth. Ann her fingers crossed. She hopes he passes the vet exam.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

This does sound like a good one. Hoping he's not too far of a drive? (giggle). It would also be nice since you apparently get along well with the trainer, so if anything comes up you can discuss history, etc.

[goddessfarmer.livejournal.com]

1/2 hour from home, and the trainer is one that I might use for jump training anyway.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Good luck!