My grandmother started me riding horses when I was five. I rode Bobby the pony. Bobby was the farmer’s pet and wanted to spend all his time eating carrots through the kitchen window. One day we were walking through the fields and Bobby took off for home with my grandmother hanging on to the reins. I was hooked anyways, although I’ve never been too keen on riding ponies. Honey, who I trail rode last fall, is an exception but I think she’s a horse in a pony’s body!
When I was seven I moved on from Bobby to the local Pony Club and I had a lesson there every week for the next 10 years. I rode everything from a hard-in-the-mouth pony to a crazy grey arab mare named Phyllis.
I didn’t ride again until I was 40 when I started dressage lessons and bought my first horse – a chestnut quarter horse mare. She was beautiful and I wanted her because she was so pretty. I didn’t think about whether I was really ready to own a horse, I just wanted her. Her name was Lady, how could I go wrong. The thing is, I was learning to ride all over again, I didn’t know anything about ground manners and I thought she was just too cute to do anything bad.
Here’s what I learned: Lady went wherever she wanted when I was riding, when she felt like it she jumped sideways and left me sitting on the ground, she stepped on my foot because she could and all she had to do was bat her big eyelashes and I forgave her. I also learned, true or not, that chestnuts are stubborn, quarter horses can be stubborn and, no doubt about it, mare’s are stubborn. So I had triple stubborn and I loved her anyway. Lady and I might still be together but she developed navicular and went to live on a nice farm with acres of land for trail riding.
When I was young I wanted a horse with a lot of spunk, that could jump 6 feet at least. Kids want to gallop across fields, jump over creeks and ride bareback into the sunset.
None of these appeal to me now. Not a one.
So here’s what I’d look for if I was buying a new horse today:
1. Training. The older I get the more training I’d like my horse to have. Be careful if you’re buying a horse off the track. Many times the price is right but they’re not trained for pleasure riding. Five years ago I rode green horses with my coach. At 50, I’m really partial to school masters.
2. Energy Level and Temperment. I don’t want to worry about bolting every time the wind blows or snow falls from the arena roof. Work with the horse in different situations. Ride inside an arena and outside and take it for a walk to see how it reacts. Test ride a couple of times, at least once in the morning when the horse is fully rested. If the owner hesitates when you ask you know there’s a problem.
3. Age. It isn’t so important if the horse has good training and a sensible brain. But be careful, a young horse can be perfect when you test ride before buying but too green when you get him to your barn.
4. Mare or Gelding (notice I’m not even including stallions). Mares go into season every month and can be tempermental. It may mean a few days that you don’t ride or a few rides on an unhappy horse. Some mares go in an out of season without anyone noticing. And that’s not to say there aren’t kooky geldings, I own one.
5. Size. Pick a horse that fits you physically. The nicest, quietest, best trained 17 hand horse may be just too big for you to push around.
6. Breed. I don’t think breed is that important if the horse meets the above criteria but each breed has it’s characteristics so do some research.
The bottom line. There is nothing better than owning a horse. Love the one you’re with.
attention. He poses for pictures and has even pushed other horses out of the way to get in front of the camera. He bangs his stall door when he hears me come into the barn or when I’m paying attention to another horse and that makes me feel special.
