Because I Bet You Didn't See This Coming...

Every fall is my favorite time for dog shows.  The weather is finally starting to not be "furnace level" and the venues are ones that I enjoy going to.  There are also shows that hit on agility, obedience, rally, and conformation at the same show.  Lots of bang for my buck.

But wait, this is the horse blog?!

Yes, yes it is.  We will get there good friend.

I decided that showing dogs would be better with an RV.  Remember my post about being logical? Well, there's a method.  Now that I owned The Sexy Beast Truck, I could haul a significant trailer.  I'd also become the owner of a rocking Town and Country minivan to help share mileage duty with my truck and my excessive driving issues.  So I could get something that the minivan could tow, or something beastly for the Beast.

Why aren't you getting a horse trailer?!?!  Living quarters are the bomb!

Yes, I agree with you.  However, due to some odd quirk, I can't get a horse trailer of any kind financed but I can buy any RV.  Huh?  Exactly.  Such has been my situation for several years so I was giving up at this time.  My old old Shelby can still and my pride can handle it, so whatever.

I stalked all sorts of RV places online.  I learned as much about them as I could and debated hauling options with my available vehicles.  All the costs involved, etc.  It was all researched obsessively cause well, that's me.  The day came when I went, research in hand, to the carefully selected and financing preapproved RV dealer that I liked and had the used RVs I wanted.  We checked out the RVs, asked questions, debated ideas.  The salesman was lovely but... it didn't feel right.  They had a REALLY nice motorhome though and hubbs fell in love with it.

FAMILY VACATIONS!  CAMPING!  SO MUCH FUN!

I bit my lip and debated.  It did sound like fun, but it wasn't the most efficient thing.  We COULD pull the Shelby with it though so therefore a living quarter/horse trailer option?  I liked that idea except... insurance was going to put this "cheap" venture way over where I wanted it.  Husband was pressuring, I was balking, so I did what I do:  asked about the bank and figured out a way to leave to think things over.

We got home and I debated.  Finally, I hit on it:  horse trailer or bust.  It made the most sense ALL AROUND.  Something with a gooseneck and pre installed AC, 3-4 horses, rear tack.  Nothing flashy, but functional and we could do anything we wanted in it... dogs, horses, camping, travel, etc.  And I prefer hauling a gooseneck over a HEAVY and LONG bumper pull.

So I called the bank the next day.  The lady was amazing and happily swapped the loan to a farm loan and told me the guidelines for finding a used horse trailer.  Since I'm an internet stalker always, I knew the horse trailer dealerships I liked best.  Well, I'd also called and tried to get financing from several of them over the years so I knew which I disliked and which would be a pita.

NRS Trailers in Decatur always has a great influx of trailers coming through there so I contacted a salesman to give him my wish list- I was willing to wait.  He gave me a few stock numbers to check out on their online inventory and I was able to help him hone it down to what I was wanting.  At the end of the conversation, he told me about a nice trailer they'd just gotten in, but it was steel, not aluminum like I wanted.  I frowned but agreed to check it out.

I was hooked immediately.

We picked it up that Friday and now I have a beautiful, but frugal rig.  HAPPY!

Mango Tango

What do sane people do for Mother's Day with their family?  Let me guess, its not drive 12 hours round trip to buy a pony on the cheap?  Well we don't roll that way.

I'd thought about getting a pony for a while now.  They're cute, fun, and easy to get on.  Oh and I have a child now so that's a totally legit reason for me to get another horse to train.  For my son.  Right?  Anyone believing this?  Me either, well maybe a little.  So the shopping began.

Its me and if you can't figure it out, I'm looking for a bargain.  Shopping for a pony is very different from shopping for a horse.  First, people looking for a horse in some way, shape or form understand this thing can kill them.  Or at least cause injury.  Ponies?  Apparently the people buying them on the cheap don't understand at all.  I found sooooo many ads for ponies being dumped for basically not being bicycles for their kids.  Not "teaching their child to ride" and all sorts of other depressing things.


Their loss is my gain though.

I wanted something I could register, preferred a mare (see a trend going?), and I wanted it to be able to be ridden by myself.  At 5'9" and 200 lbs at the time, it was going to take some doing.  I also wanted something with color because for resale it would probably be better.  Oh and its fun.  I have issues...

I found this cute (but HUGE) pony on Dreamhorse and contacted those people.  Much like Piper her price was all over the place on the internet so I was curious.  Short version (the lady talked to me for 2+ hours o.O), the mare had been rodeoed on and was well trained in roping, poles, etc and ridden by those trainers' 7 year old son.  They'd gotten the mare for some $$$ thinking their very beginner daughter could ride the mare in 4H and endurance.

Not so much.

The daughter was unwilling to ride the mare outside the round pen and generally grew to hate her.  Sad, but enter me.  I talked to the owner on Saturday and on Sunday we drove to North Texas.   Like, almost Oklahoma, Texas.  It was 6 hours each way but my lovely husband is insane enough like me that we thought nothing of it.  With our brand new truck and crappy old Shelby trailer with very outdated plates, we made the trip.

When I make a trip to see a cheap horse, I'm normally 80% sure I'm going to get it.  The other 20% is going to depend on what I see in person but I'm normally sold before I get there.  Years of scrounging the bargain bins for horses makes you clever and quick to ask "the right" questions.  So basically, we had cash in the truck and ready to rock if we wanted.

Upon arrival we were greeted by... no one.  

Well then.  We parked where we thought was best and the house and barn were very adorable.  The land was about 100 acres of lush grass - did I mention this mare had put on a TON of weight in the 3 months these people owned her?  No, well she did.  After about 10 minutes the people drove "from up the road" and met up.  The lady brought the mare out of the barn and I did a few groundwork exercises before tossing my child on the pony (bareback).  She was literally that calm (I'm not that careless about my kid, no worries :P).  We did some trot circles and I said sold.

So Mango came home with us on Mother's Day, 2013.  Another project horse in the making.

Keep On Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

I've lived with my crazy insane yet perfectly logical thinking for a long time now.  As I've gotten older, that has been honed to a fine point.  I'm ruthless about efficiency and productivity, things that have helped me get through some wicked tough times at my job over the past 9 years.  I can also convince anyone of anything with relative ease.  Convincing myself is infinitely harder, despite how it looks.  There is always a mastermind of reasons behind every action I do, I'm calm, cool, collected.  

Always.

So when my husband convinced me to ignore my beloved 1988 Ford Bronco in favor for a 2002 BRIGHT RED Dodge 3500 dually 4x4 in 2004, I balked.  $425 A MONTH! THAT'S INSANE AND WASTEFUL.  But he wanted me in something "safer" and since he had a 2001 Dodge 2500 diesel it kinda made sense.  Also we'd just started living together and I figured I had little say in this; it wasn't like we'd end up together, right?  My past told me the stars were stacked against it, but hey, if he wanted to spoil me why not.

The Urban Assault Vehicle

It was also a killer deal.

That truck was awesome, I loved it.  So nice.  I wasn't riding much but I had my old TB, Athos and a 2 year old AQHA that I was retraining to sell.  Sure, why not?

When Hurricanes Rita and Katrina hit the gulf coast, gas prices skyrocketed.  Diesel was over $4.00 a gallon and approaching $5.00 with me driving from south Houston to College Station daily for work.  Our fuel bill for me was reaching $1200 a month.  Something had to be done and as much as I hated to say it, paying for TWO diesels in that time was not going to fly.

I traded the red beast in.

It was a sad day but I convinced myself that with a yearling human baby and the other big truck, we needed a more family friendly vehicle.  Something that could hold dog crates would be nice for my dog showing hobby too.  The Saturn Outlook was a sexy crossover option with some smart features.  We bought that one and now had $600 a month payments.  But with the money we saved in fuel, it was justifiable.  

The Outlook sucked from day One.

Le suck.  Day One

I hate to say it, but it did.   It was a FABULOUS vehicle, well thought out, fun to drive, sleek, shiny, wonderful for dog shows.  But it had issues from the start- annoying little things here and there, but HEY! they're covered under warranty so whatever.  It was working out the kinks, no?  We had an extended warranty and sure enough, at 65,000 miles the evaporator coil exploded.  Freon and all sorts of fun gasses filled the vehicle while I was driving back from Ft. Worth one day.  In July.  I was so miffed but managed to limp the thing home once I figured out it wasn't an engine issue.  When I got home we looked for estimates for the repair.  $4000-6000+.  Apparently the sleek vehicle was badly designed and to access those parts, you have to remove the entire dash.  The.entire.dash. of the vehicle.  W.t.h.

So I traded it in angrily as is for a new 2011 Ford F150.  My husband had had a Ford work truck that he'd driven all over these four states and put 50,000 miles on it in less than a year with no whimpers out of it and just regular oil changes.  I wanted reliability! My new truck was pretty basic.  I was hoping to keep the mpgs from the Outlook as much as possible and was hoping by compromising on the engine (I went with the little V6) and no 4x4, and just power windows/locks/cruise and the one "fun" thing as the SYNC system, that I could save some on the payments.  Yes, we were about to pay $800 a month.  For a $30,000 truck.  I was mad.  I felt stuck.  I wanted my old Bronco back.

Trusty fella

We got it and I was extremely thankful for our dealership for working it out, they were truly supportive and wonderful.  As a previous car salesmean myself, that's saying something.  So I drove the F150.  It was reliable.  It was comfy.  It was great.  We put a cap on the back and the dogs rode in there 3 months of the year and in the cab the other 9.  I drove that truck from here to Missouri for a week long dog show.  It was a champ.  Within two years though, I was approaching 40,000 miles.  What?  The warranty was out and it was hitting the break even point on the Blue Book Value.  It was time to decide to keep it forever and end up with a truck not worth a thing later on, or trade it in now.

I will admit, it is amazing being able to pay $800 a month, I'm extremely thankful for the situation I'm in.  The younger version of myself thought $800 a month would buy something more like a BMW, Corvette, really really nice diesel truck.

Hold the phone!

If I was going to be bleeding out the wallet, I wanted to be like HELL YEAH THATS MY TRUCK!  So I thought about what would be my dream truck and without hesitation, I was like KING RANCH DIESEL!  I decided to keep an eye on local truck dealers for a nice used King Ranch.  Hopefully it would have all the accessories on it as I always like those, but never put them on.  Within a few weeks, the wonderful dealership that had sold us the F150 had one roll in.  It was big.  It was sexy.  It was my big sexy beast.

When I stopped at the dealership after work that day, I went right to the finance manager.  "Can we work the numbers?"  He was accommodating and in my insane shock, he said yes.  The payments were barely $100 more than my F150.  My mouth went dry.  It was like all those years of paying off debt were suddenly paying off.  The golden retriever of a salesman then asked for the 500th time if I wanted him to go drive it over from the other facility.  I paused.  Naturally they let me take it "no pressure" and I glared.  "Fine."  20 minutes later it pulled up and I swear, my heart skipped a beat.

Hello you sexy beast.

My husband was there by this time (gosh that man must love me) and got in grumbling.  I assumed it was the money or something but we drove off.  The next day he was still miffed and I confronted him.  "I want something nice and shiny like this!!"  Ahh!  I asked him what he'd rather have than his truck (it was his dream truck out of college) and he paused.  "Fine, get the damn thing."  We signed the papers the next day after I nit picked every tiny thing that was wrong with it.  They agreed and we got a killer interest rate and a bad ass truck. 2019 can't get here soon enough for this to be paid off! *dies

Up next, trailer?  Poor husband.  

Teh Sexy Beast

Along Came Katy

My original goal when I first got A horse again was that I would keep it at the local boarding barn.  I HATE fixing fences and making sure all that is farmlike is just functioning.  I have a horse, I want to be with my horse not doing farm chores.  There is a nice boarding place about a mile away from the house that I had utilized in college and thought it would be nice to return.

The day we got Piper I decided that I was going to be cheap and keep her at the house.  The cost for boarding was around $250 (not bad for full board) but I got to thinking how much cheaper it was at my own house.  I already pay the mortgage.  I have the money invested already and the land available.  The trailer is at my house so there was little reason aside from an arena and maybe the round pen.  I HAD been looking for some camaraderie though but taking a tour of the barn didn't reveal the environment that I had left years ago.  If I was going to be on my own, I might as well be at home.

So the thing with horses, even brave headstrong, head mares like Piper, is they still want to be around other horses.  Our property isn't really protected from wildlife and I've had my old boy Athos run through the fence before when he was housed alone.  Within a week, Piper was permanently set up in the corner nearest the closest horses and wouldn't leave it. 

Awesome...

So yes, the need for another horse (or to commit to the boarding place) was upon me and fast.  I knew what I wanted: something that lived off of air, was useless and would just be a companion.  I didn't really want to train another horse and I didn't expect my family to participate in horses.  I cruised my normal online places and began to entertain the idea of something more like I would "normally" own: taller, more TBy, possibly less of an easy keeper...  I could have it be the yin to Piper's yang...  And while I was in my Genetics 301 lab "working" I found her on Craigslist for $800.

I loved her eye and I loved her alert but not panicked look mixed with the relaxed pose.  She was a little thin, but so is everything you find in dark corners with horses these days.  I texted the "owner" and found out they were cosigners that sold horses for other people. 

I like middle men.

Middle men are great because while they are trying to sell a horse, they have to maintain a reputation.  Granted most horse people don't have that great of a reputation but it is what it is.  I asked some basic questions the ad didn't address: height and age.  She was 15.2 and "at least" in her mid teens.  I liked the first answer but the second one didn't make me excited at all.  I started pulling away and then when I got home I debated the pluses.  If she WAS older and WAS kind like I suspected, maybe she was a nice ride?  She'd probably seen and done a lot and while that can be bad, it can also be very good.

She was literally 5 miles from my house so I made arrangements to meet her that night.  She was a bit head shy but not overly so and the lady warned me of some habits they had found out.  Oh and she revealed they had only had the horse about 3 days.  That's a plus in my favor normally.  We went to ride her and the lady mentioned that she was hard to mount and proceeded to pull her head to the side as she mounted the slowly spinning horse.  Um.  OK?  But then the mare went through all three gaits nicely each direction with nice transitions and I was like wow.  Easy.

Now it was my turn and the lady held the horse for me.  There was no spinning, nothing so I just got on.  We worked through our paces and she was a very kind horse.  There were items of a horse nature littered around the arena (barrels, cones, poles, etc) that she approached each with a "go around this?" "go over this" type of attitude.  All three gaits were simple and while she needed some work on balance, it was a nice difference from Piper.

At this point I'll talk about some things people don't like to mention about horse ownership.  First, when you're away from horses you lose your confidence around them (if you're a smart person that understands horses).  The idea that they're likely to kill you in 10000 ways becomes more apparent when you return.  While I had owned Athos and Marco for a while, I had ridden them little.  I hadn't done ground work with them.  Aside from feeding and making sure they were healthy, I'd done little since before my son was born.  Now that I was horse hunting, it had been almost 5 years since I'd ridden for any duration and basically 15 years since my glory days.  The muscle memory is still there and the knowledge is still in my head.  When I get on a horse, I feel like I'm home.  None of that had left.  What HAD left was my muscle STRENGTH.  They KNEW where to be, but I couldn't keep them there.  Old injuries I had rehabbed from before my son were now borderline dangerous in their stiffness and inability to function.  I had no abs.  I have no shoulders.  No leg definition.  After years of being tight as a tick on a horse, the feeling that you can't keep things where they should be when a horse is behaving makes you nervous for when it won't.  Knowledge tells you that you need to just "get back in the saddle" and work on those things.

As much as I like Piper, she needs a lot of work.  She's very catty and fast and sometimes its hard to stick.  Not exactly a confidence builder.  What I found in Katy was what I needed: a treadmill.  This was a horse that I could use to get into shape while I trained Piper up and provided her with companionship.

I hopped off and began looking at her legs, teeth, etc.  Her teeth were worn completely off in the front (cribber probably) and even broken into a V formation.  I was lost on that at the time but later realized she had a penchant for cribbing on T posts, hence the weird wear pattern.  Her ears were very sensitive and she needed weight.  They had no current coggins on her and there were a few other things.  I firmly offered $500 after pointing out that they would need to put that into her for feed/vet bills.  The owner was called and the deal was made.  We picked Katy up the next day and brought her home to begin the next chapter in her life.

Starting Over. Again.

This post was written much later in the year (2013) - November in fact.  Originally I was just going to do what I normally do which is acquire a horse, retrain it, and go about my business.  Throughout the year things changed and I decided to start recording things down.  It made sense to go back to the beginning.  Well, at least the beginning of this part of the journey.

I'd been horseless for about 2 years I believe when it happened.  Naturally it was my husband's fault as he always equated motorcycles with horses.  I finally "allowed" him to get another bike after a job change left him working 2 miles down the road from our house with the most dangerous thing he'd encounter being a deer or rogue cow.  A year passed and I was debating options for being more active.  Going to the gym was boring and that left me only thinking about horses.  The year before I'd gone through this when he got the bike and even went to look at a lovely Appaloosa filly here locally.  The timing didn't feel right and I was actually enjoying my time free from horses and their cost/responsibility/etc.  This spring however, I was going to do something about it.  Just something simple: a "fun" horse preferably of some color and registered.  A mare, I'd always liked those for fun things like trails.  My goal was something around 15.2 hands and an all around horse but nothing spectacular.  Cheap of course as I like my projects.  I found some nice young horses for a reasonable price, but young horses aren't really my specialty and I'd never tackled one.  Besides, I wanted to ride.

After looking off and on for a while, I found an APHA mare on Craiglist and I'd seen her on several of the for sale websites as well.  Her price had been a bit all over the place and it never hurts to ask questions.  I emailed her owner and offered her 25% less than her asking price at the time.  Along with the offer I detailed out the type of life she'd have and how I trained/showed/kept my horses.  "Kate" was nice enough to agree to the price and began to tell me the story of this black and white horse named Peppi.  She'd gotten her as an 8 month old foal and they'd had years of adventures sharing their childhoods together.  I was feeling awful about possibly taking a girl's horse and it pained me to think about my first horse and how that was a bit what happened to me at that age.  Taking a deep breath, I looked one last time at the horse's ad and noticed a picture I hadn't seen before:

Kate had been trying to explain her horse to me and it was an odd mix of contrary things.  I was really certain that this was not the horse for me.  She was too small first off.  14.1hands is by far the smallest horse I've ever even BEEN on let alone looked at as a potential purchase.  Kate was describing a hot, hard to handle horse that needed regular work.  I didn't have that sort of time.  But that picture... I doubt any of my past eventers would realize that was even a jump.  So I asked if she had any videos of the horse.  She did, and they were jumping ones:

VIDEO VIDEO

I saw no trace of a hot horse.  She looked sane, happy, and no hesitation.  Definitely worth a trip to look; after all, she was only 45 minutes from my house.  I'll never forget my first thought when I saw this chunky monkey of a horse: definitely too small.  And I began my plans to exit as quickly and as politely as I could.

Kate was nice as could be, adding to my guilt and wariness of the situation.  She saddled Peppi while tied to a tree.  The bridle that she'd borrowed possessed a gag style barrel bit that literally hung to Peppi's incisors rather than sitting on her bars.  When she mounted the horse, she walked off immediately and I noted that she'd need work on standing for mounting and then followed them to the field, nbd.  Kate rode Peppi through her three gaits as I'd asked and I decided to get on.  Donning my helmet I hopped on and sighed as I felt like I was towering over this small mare.  I was expecting some grunting, some issues with my weight versus her size.  Nope, nothing.  Nothing but curiosity and I thought huh...  I moved her through her gaits again and all I had under me was straight energy, happiness, great work ethic.  Sure there were things to iron out and she was a raw material, but she was a gusty little thing with boundless amounts of try built in.  I knew she was going to go home with me as I rode back over with a smile.  Its been a while since I've smiled on a horse this untrained.  But there was so much potential that I couldn't help myself.  So we loaded the girl up and took her home.

Kate texted me the next morning to check on Peppi and I began thinking how I'd have to wean her off the horse but that was to be expected in her situation.  I also pondered if that's the sort of thing I'd want to have back when I'd had to sell my mare in high school.  I decided I did not but with today's technology I was going to have to "put up" with this prior owner for the time being.

The first few weeks with Peppi were not my favorites, but then again, I normally hate the first few weeks of anything new (why don't they know the program yet?!).  I renamed her Piper and realized that she was a handful.  I debated selling her.  I debated sending her to a trainer.  I wasn't in the best shape and after a series of bad accidents on my previous horse I wasn't too terribly confident despite knowing facts about the horse and facts about my level of riding.  Even if that riding skill was in my head and not in my muscles.

I called some trainers and then made a list of what I needed to work on with her.  Kate had said that Piper knew the Clinton Anderson exercises and I vaguely recall when the whole "Horse Whisperer" movement began that he was the one I agreed with the most.  I'd always been fortunate to have like minded people that encouraged me to use groundwork and roundpen work with my horses and so I was used to the idea.  Seeing it in action and the marketed was amazing.  I decided to start with Clinton and see what Piper knew.

First thing is first, Clinton is a marketing genius.  This means also that his information is expensive but well organized.  I liked that well organized but the price was a bit off putting.  I found a Kindle book for $14 and bought that.  It outlines his program perfectly if you know your way around horses (which admittedly is not his target audience) and it was nice to have a guide to remind me to not leave out things as well as give me new ideas on old tricks.
 

At this point I ordered a few things.  I got a stick and a "clinician's lead" from horse.com and bought some mecate reins from B&H rope halters.  I was beginning to feel like a groupie but whatever.  I knew his program worked because it mirrored what I'd done with horses over the years when I "flipped" them.  Once everything arrived a few days later, I grabbed Piper and started seeing what she knew.  The exercises relaxed her which built up my confidence.  There were some holes in what she knew or remembered so we worked on that.  I was once more reminded of what a willing student she was and all thoughts of selling or sending her out for training was forgotten.

This is basically the start of my journey with Piper.  Kate and I still stay in touch regularly which has turned into something I actually enjoy.  I am so busy that I have to stop at times to remind myself to text Kate a picture or a message about something funny Piper did, but its been nice.  I've never been "tied" to a horse's former owner as I prefer to buy from feedlots or auctions so it was definitely an adjustment.  It is however nice to have someone to share this journey with this horse.  Most things I do I end up going on that pathway alone.

Piper still has a lot of work to go through and things to learn.  I struggle with deciding to train her in jumping or reining for the most part.  I'm sure I'll figure it out in time, but for now, we're just working on solid foundations and then more advanced techniques.  She's the lead mare of a herd of 4 at this time.  She can be a huge brat in the pasture.  She loves to get her way.  I have to remind her that I am head mare when I'm out there and while I doubt he fully believes that, so at least goes along with what I ask and rises to most of the challenges I offer up to her.