At this point I’ve decided that my life just feels weird. Horse shopping is certainly a lesson in patience (and more patience) as well as trying not to be too depressed that your fairly sizable budget seems to be nothing compared to what people want for any horse that breathes, is of substantial height, and resembles a hunter. Also note that at any one time there appear to only be one or two horses that meet those 3 criteria within a reasonable distance. Outside of horse shopping my chances to ride have been pretty staggered and minimal. Thank goodness for friends who contact me when they are busy and need their ponies worked! I tend to be averaging one to two rides per week and all my jumping is done on random sale horses I go try. At least I’m testing their forgiveness of rider error? Going from a past of riding every single day and driving out to the boarding barn every single day to sometimes not leaving my house in the evening life is quite strange. I definitely miss my barn friends and just the companionship of riding all the time with others. That said I love having the boys at home.
Sandwiched between my favorite boys
This change has made me realize just how insane my old schedule was! Life is much more relaxed (not to worry I still don’t’ sit down often, lol) and hopefully I can continue to keep it that way even when this new pony comes into my life (where are you new pony???!). After work and dinner I go out and clean stalls, etc and watch my ponies graze or give them some cookies if they decide to come visit me in the barn. My favorite is when they come snuffle on me while I am scrubbing their water trough. 🙂 I also love catching moments where they are together grazing the same way or grooming on each other. Just makes my heart happy. Usually after that I walk the dogs, go for a bike ride, or get a run in. The boys seems to want to come in around dark right now so around 830-9 pm I bring them in, groom/doctor as needed, then feed them dinner and some carrots.
I know you came in here to clean stalls but how about some cookies?
A certain horse thought it would be fun to roll in my aisle after getting rained on outside. Caught on barn cam!
My husband took up bike riding last summer but I never joined since I was always at the barn. This summer I’ve joined in after borrowing a bike from my parents. It’s not as good as riding horses (nothing is!) but it is fun to get out and cover some ground and hang out with my husband. We keep trying new routes and new parks to keep it interesting. If I manage to keep doing bike rides once I get a new pony I plan to get myself a nice bike.
Always sharing 🙂
Phoenix got his shoes pulled last week and is a bit sore currently. I’ve been putting on a lot of Keratex hoof hardener and last night switched it up with some magic cushion (that did not want to stay on his feet even though it’s the stickiest stuff ever). Time will tell if he can make it as a barefoot retired pony. If the boy needs shoes he will get the shoes of course, but he was barefoot for years at one point with me. Stamp got his shoes off the trim before and didn’t seem to mind at all. Funny since he was lame on his left front when I retired him even with pads on. I think Stamp is too busy finding things to cut himself on to worry about his feet! Seriously this horse spends his time rubbing up on my fencing and finding anything that sticks out.
They have a tough life
The (amazing) husband and I finally finished putting up the top rail of flex fence in the new section of fencing this past weekend which feels good. The weekend before we did the longest section in order to give the boys access to a new pasture and they were so happy for fresh grass. Those boys are spoiled!
So happy to have another pasture to enjoy
The shade is perfect for afternoon naps
Roxy finally healed up after way too many weeks of limping, meds, and a splint. I would say she is back to operating at 100%. Now she just has to stay out of trouble!
Someone loves car rides
As far as my other non-horse related secret item the result was a good one. I am now back at my previous job (just took a two year break!) and was able to set a schedule with less hours than I worked before. I was missing public accounting and I look forward to reconnecting with old clients and meeting some new ones. Better yet I’m loving being treated like a professional again. Hopefully the good feeling will last!
I’m planning to do a post about how my management of the boys has changed since bringing them home next and of course there is a list of barn projects out there for completion before winter.
Stampede and Phoenix look so so so happy in all the pics! glad to hear they’ve adapted so well to life on your farm! now we just need to hurry up and meet a new hunter pony for you to play with 😉
It’s really amazing how quickly the boys adapted to such a huge change in lifestyle and feeding times although I’m sure it helps that they went to a less stressful situation. I know, someone find me a pony already!
Horse shopping sucks. For me the longer it took the larger my budget became since it was hard to find what I was looking for within my original budget. Though I also had no horse, so I was saving money hand over fist for about 9 months.
I have upped my budget slightly but for some reason in my area this middle ground I’m in doesn’t seem to exist much. I can easily find horses that are $40k and more and I can find low to mid four figure TB’s but neither of those are what I’m looking for! I’m certainly not saving hand over fist since I’m still putting money into the barn at home to get ready for winter (need more than 6 light bulbs, lol) but definitely still saving some. I think the other issue is since the horse isn’t for investment or resale and I’m just doing the local B circuit and potentially an A show here or there how much do I really want/need to spend? I’m not afraid of a green horse and I love flatwork so I hate the idea of buying something that’s ready to go in the baby’s for some crazy price. Blargh.
If I had been buying for myself I would have definitely gone with a TB. Cheap, they stay pretty sound (especially the war-horses) and I’ve known and owned ones that to well on the B circuit Hunters and Eq.
The one I vetted that failed was a TB, never race trained though. Beautiful horse with such a chill attitude. Ugh. I now know so many OTTB’s and TB’s with kissing spine issues though so I’m fairly nervous about going that route. I would actually really love a TB cross since I like a forward ride. Either way just finding the height/size of horse I need is problematic. The curse of being tall.
I shopped in a similar price point to you (I think), and had the exact same problem. I ended up compromising on what I wanted to stay within my budget… and that didn’t go super well. Good luck – horse shopping is the worst!
What’s funny to me is that I don’t feel like I’m asking for much that’s hard besides height. I already gave in on avoiding full TB’s and that doesn’t even help much. I did try one horse that we was decent under saddle and a good size but I just couldn’t get excited about him and then I felt bad because he fit all the rules! I’ll be so glad when I finally find my match! Definitely jealous of people who have lots of options of horses to try.
I’ve still been creeping on horses for you out here, but it’s the same thing. Everyone wants a crazy amount of money for their horses right now. I know someone asking $18k for a 5yo OTTB that does w/t/c and started over fences–that’s all he does so far, no show experience, nothing. Say whaaat!
Thanks for keeping an eye out, I appreciate it. That’s crazy! It better be the most fancy OTTB ever then!
Your farm turned out so nice — the boys are lucky!
Thank you! It’s funny when you plan something for so long and then see it come to fruition. Sometimes I don’t even realize what we’ve built!
I love all the pics of Morstone <3 <3 <3
I’m so jealous of your pastures! The boys look SO happy.
As for horse shopping… I think that’s going to be in my not so distant future, and I’m totally not excited about it. I hope your unicorn comes along soon!
Thanks, I’m quite jealous of their lifestyle myself, lol. I should take a picture of their old pasture at the boarding barn, they are so spoiled now with all the space and grass! I guess at least there are other bloggers to commiserate with on the horse search and torture?