It still hasn’t really sunk in yet but I have a NEW HORSE! To put it mildly my riding life has sucked the last few years. Let’s see, both of my show horses were retired within a couple of years of each other. I had two very nice youngsters (Bonnie and Lexi) that I had bred to be their replacements but of course for awhile they weren’t old even enough to even be backed yet. They were backed during their three year old year then turned back out to grow more. We started them up again in the spring of their four year old year (last year) and things seemed like they might finally be going my way.
Skyy
Then I had the trailer incident coming back from a cross country school which put us out of commission again . . . and the depressing saga of my riding (or should I say non-riding?) life continued on. Bonnie especially does not do well with this whole stop then start program, a consistent program is her friend. Of course a consistent program is best for any extremely green horse! Then of course you have to add my busy schedule on top of everything – I run a farm as you know! I’ve brought along a lot of green horses throughout the years, but I have learned there is a huge difference between a green horse and a horse that isn’t started at all.
My very first glimpse of Skyy in person
Jason, world’s greatest husband, finally got sick of it all. Sick of me not riding, sick of me complaining about not riding, then sick of me lamenting about how hard it is to bring along two completely green bean horses when you aren’t working with them consistently. One day he looked at me and said “Why don’t you just go buy a horse with more training and have fun with it?” I didn’t think he really meant it at first, plus I felt guilty just thinking about getting another horse.
She has a very soft eye
But he kept saying that so I started kind of half -heartedly looking around. Yeah, you know how the rest of this story goes! Before I knew it I had seen Skyy’s picture, then her video and then – voila! – I had bought her. Yes, you read that right. I bought her without ever seeing her in person or riding her. I did everything you aren’t supposed to do when buying a horse! I did of course have a thorough pre-purchase exam done.
Meeting Norman. Norman has become our resident “barn pony” and is free to roam around certain areas of the farm. He comes in the barn to go in his stall and get a drink of water and check things out a few times a day. He usually ignores any other horses in the barn but he is pretty infatuated with Skyy. He stopped by to see her several times today.
The day I wired the money for her I called my favorite east coast shipper, Tapp Horse Transportation, to have her shipped to me (she was in Northern Virginia). They said they would be able to get her scheduled within a week. Then the next day they called and said they had a cancellation on one of their trucks that day and the truck was in Northern Virginia. So they picked her up, shipped her to their facility in Kentucky where she spent two days, and then brought her to my farm today.
Skyy realizing that she has hit the jackpot (in my humble opinion!) of horse homes!
So today I welcomed Skyy, my new horse! Skyy is six years old and is a Swedish Warmblood. She is nicely broke on the flat and although still green to the fences she will happily jump around a small course. Her lead change is even about 80% there already. She needs to do some more poles, cavaletti and gymnastic exercises but if I had the desire I could take her to a show tomorrow as is. I plan to do a bit of everything with her, some low level dressage (I do some training/first level dressage with all of my horses), some hunter shows and some low level eventing. I hope to do some foxhunting with her as well. She has a great brain and is the type that is game to do whatever you ask of her. The best part is she is fancy enough to be competitive at all of these things, yay me!
Like all of our new arrivals she found the goats to be of great interest
Happily grazing this afternoon
I hopped on her briefly today because I just couldn’t stand to wait any longer. She was a good girl although Jason made me get off after just a couple of minutes. He said I needed to give the poor horse a day or two to rest and settle in and of course he is right. I can’t wait to get to know her better. I have to say I’m not in love with her name but it would feel odd to call her something else at this point. How do you feel about changing a horse’s name? In the end it is the package that matters though, not the name!
On a funny note I have been learning about what it means to own a gray horse. As I mentioned in my “name that gray” post I’ve never had a gray. I’ve always ended up with either bays or chestnuts. When Skyy was out this afternoon the first thought that went through my mind as she laid down to roll was “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” My new horse already has grass stains on her. Quick Silver here I come!
Welcome Skyy!!