Obviously I’ve still been riding since Maestro left, but aside from going to try 3 horses, I hadn’t been jumping at all. The cute appendix I’ve been riding for a friend really needed some flatwork assistance (which I love doing) so we focused on that.
I tried three horses in October (looked at four but didn’t bother getting on one of those) and that was about the extent of horses we found to meet my criteria and budget and they were as follows:
- Nice size, definitely needed some work on the flat, had a roar, freaked out after hitting a rail and rocketed off with me across the ring.
- Nice size, grumpy about going forward, super chill to the jumps and didn’t care when I missed, and I could not see a distance on him to save my life.
- Small, cute, responsive, fun to ride.
So basically I came out of it discouraged, especially as time went on and there were not any good contenders to try. For a moment I fantasized about getting a baby horse who looked like P and had P’s sire as his grand sire, but that obviously didn’t solve the immediate problem. I’m also not positive he would get big enough, and there is a lot involved in getting a baby horse to adulthood. Not sure I’m up for that at this point!
I mean seriously cute and so much like my best boy.
The weekend before Thanksgiving my trainer texts me saying I could lease horse 3 that I had tried but decided wasn’t quite big enough for me. She felt that even though I thought the size wasn’t perfect he would be a good confidence builder for me. The more I thought on it, this seemed like a good idea. Most likely I will end up with a young, green horse unless I happen upon a nice big TB with some training, and my confidence just isn’t there over fences for a green horse right now. I assume it would be for the right horse but why risk it?
So we went back and tried horse 3 again last week (who seemed a bit bigger after riding a smaller horse for a while now!) and he came for a seven day trial a week ago today. He was great for the trial and so I signed on the dotted line yesterday to lease him through show season.
So welcome to Earnest, aka Ernie, a 10 year old chestnut TB. I’m looking forward to learning from and getting to know this handsome guy better and having a lot of fun together. Viewing life from between chestnut ears just always feels like home.
I’m so glad Ernie worked out! And the color is definitely right! One of us had to keep up the chestnut trend and since it wasn’t me… lol
Me too! I think he’s just what I need right now. Clearly we also needed someone to use #notachestnut with Maestro gone.
so glad you found something to ride! He is cute!! #chestnutsallaround 🙂
Congrats! He looks like a sweetheart!
Awww super cute!! Can’t wait to hear all about your adventures with him.
He looks so adorable! Welcome Ernie <3 And actually, would you know of any good hunter/jumper (preferably more on the jumper side) facilities that raise appendix QHs that I can follow on FB or something? I want to follow places and keep others in mind for when I seriously look for another horse, but I don't know of any good farms that raise jumper QHs lol. Google is meh on that haha. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on any!
There is a group I follow on FB that’s aqha and apha horses for sale (so not just jumping) but the one related to Phoenix just showed up in a regular hunter/jumper for sale group. The website they linked to is full of qh’s though, it’s whittingtonequine.com and it seems like some kind of national sales site. It was fun to look through!
Oh okay great! Thanks for the info 🙂
Sorry for stalking, but you should follow Robin Degraff of Degraff Stables — they stand a number of stallions and usually have some hunter-type horses for sale. You could also try Ray and Linda Monaco who own Skys Blue Boy — although I’m not sure how active he is as a stallion anymore. For trainers that have sales, I’d look at Missy Jo Hollingsworth of Saddle Lake Equestrian, she always has a TON of sales horses and does both USEF/USHJA and AQHA shows. Other QH powerhouse hunter/jumper trainers include Lainie DeBoer and Jessica Johnson.
No don’t apologize! Thats great info; thank you very much!!
aw yay!! he’s super cute, and this sounds like such a perfect solution for where you’re at right now. as you know, i had a lease agreement with a small cute chestnut for over 4 years haha, and it was honestly a pretty special overall experience <3 looking forward to getting to know Ernie during your time together!
It’s funny because I call him small and he’s 16.3, but he’s small for what I’ve ridden for many years besides Phoenix. Tall people problems! He’s actually wearing one of Phoenix’s old girths. I’m hoping it will be a good experience, he has some good show miles and he seems pretty level headed and sweet. 🙂
This sounds so perfect! He sounds like a wonderful guy. And honestly… I’m kinda glad you’re back on a red horse. <3
He is a good boy, even better that he’s my favorite color. 🙂
Congratulations!! He sounds amazing, and I know your horse search has been hard. Hopefully you can enjoy this lease and not stress out about the horse hunt for a long time.
Thanks! This year had just been tough, especially the second half. Looking forward to having some fun.
You already know how excited I am for you!! He sounds like a wonderful boy who you will have a ton of fun with <3
Thanks for the advice along the way too. We are having a lot of fun so far.
ah he is quite cute. What a sweet face. I really think the confidence building ones are the most fun, regardless of size. <3
I have not ridden many horses with show experience before coming to me so I’m looking forward to that. Never mind that he just seems to be a good egg!