So back in May we went out ans looked at this really lovely gelding in Ellensburg and absolutely fell in love. We sat on the decision for a week and initally ended up turning him down simply due to finances. Then we found a solution that would work for us and decided we did want him, but not before he went out to trial to the next in line.
We waited a painstaking three weeks only to find out that the boy we loved would not be ours.
The seller ( who was also the breeder) did have another horse that she thought would be a good fit. She would be coming home in the fall after her lease was finished. It was a bit of a sad situation for this mare. She had been out on lease for 2 years and basically sat. She has very little to no additional training since being broke at 3 and going to the track for training but never having raced due to financial circumstances.
About 4 weeks ago we made a trip back to the east side and drove to Walla Walla to look at a gelding and then stopped back in Ellensburg to meet this lovely mare. The gelding was nice, but not quite what we were looking for and Preston didn’t really click with him, which was important since predominantly this will be his project. So off we went to E-burg.
I personally was really excited about this mare. The seller had really talked her up and I had seen lots of pictures of her and some video and I was really impresed. We beat Jen (the seller) to her barn and as she pulled this girl off the trailer, my heart leapt! She was stunning. So we got her in the round pen and brought my tack out. I got her tacked up and unfortunately my saddle was just a bit small, but I figured I would give it a shot.
As I stuck my foot in the stirrup and swung my leg over, I had a premonition that I was going to come off. I settled my seat, took on the reins and put on my leg…..
…..and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground. She had bucked me off! We untacked her while I nursed a jammed finger and some hurt pride. Once we had her untacked, we gave her a bit of once over and she presented with a pretty sore back. We talked with Jen and told her we loved her, but were obviously concerned about the incident and her soreness. We agrees that she would have a body worker out and we would come out in about three weeks and give her another try.
Jen had a body worker out a couple weeks later and the body worker was suprised at her soreness and indicated that she had never seen it before in her a believed that it was due to her increased weight, which is what we suspected.
So last weekend we trekked back out to the eastside to visit again. I made sure to give a good lunge before we tacked her up. We also had brought a couple different saddles to see if that would aslo help. Once we found a good fit out of our options, it was time to take the plunge and get back on her.
After she was tacked I lunged her again. I will admit I had a mild case of nerves so I insisted that Preston lead her around with me on her first. She seemed to do really well and I went off on my own. I walked her around the round pen both directions and she seemed to be super responsive to my aides.
I jumped off and Preston got on her just to ascertain her fit to him. He jumped off and we decided to take her.
So now we are expecting a new mare at the beginninf of October, just to give me some time to settle into my new job. We are beyond excited!
Her JC name is Hearsay but lovingly known around the barn as Ruffi due to her uncanny resemblance to the famous Ruffian. She is about 16 – 16.1hh and maybe about 1350 lbs (of which she could lose about 100lbs of). She is an unraced TB and is 9 years old.
Once she comes home she will go on about a 3 week lunge routine to try and get her to lose some weight as well as give us some bonding time on the ground.
One more month. WE CAN’T WAIT!
Happy riding and pony shopping (if you are)!
A+B+P+R