Homer Horses!

So I finally finished my applications and sent them into 2 schools, Dillon & Bozeman, MT. At one of these two places (hopefully Dillon) I will further my horsey knowledge and continue on to become a FULL TIME trainer!!!! For now i am happy training several horses around Homer. At the moment I am training 2 percerons, a caspian pony and a arab. The work is hard and the horses' training ranges from several trail rides in a month to not even knowing how to lead (one of the big ones, of course) My personal favorite is Buzz, a 18.3 hh perc who i believe was abused at one point in his life. He is frightened by lound people but i a big softly and tries hard to please his handler. He towers over me even though i stand 5.7 he weighs over 1 ton and in VERY intimidating!!!!!! He is pastured with Fleet, a spoiled, adorable, little 13hh (at max) caspian pony. Together they make the cutest pair as they exlore their pen. Seeing as Buzz is a scaredy cat, he will only venture as far a Fleet will and he throws the biggest fit i have ever seen when left alone without his pony friend.I have know ridden Buzz several times and he proves to be a fearless horse undersaddle only! After finding out a bit about him i now believe that he was shown in 1rst of 2nd level dressage in Texas, where he was shipped up with Fleet. He was trained completly English and has no idea what a horn or split reins are. He is slowly coming along and i can see a lot of potential in him but it will just take time.

Horse training/buying

All of a sudden I have had o so many people contact me about training horses or helping them find a horse to buy. They ask me what is the #1 thing to look for and I say temperament! People believe that a good horse is trained and maybe that's true but one of the best horses I've ever known i bought untrained. Lenanna was a 5 year old broodmare who couldn't of have anymore than 20 rides on her. She was young and green but her temperament was so great that she was one of the easiest horses to work with. Yes she still has her problems but that okay with me. To me it doesn't matter how trained your horses is, they have to have the temperament and williness to work to make them exeptional horses. Buying a horse that has been trained professionally for 5 years but has no intention to learn or make a ride pleasent will be no fun for anyone. Where as a horse who wants to learn will create the other hafl needed to make up a strong team, compeditive or pleasure.

To buy or not to buy?

This next year i will be packing up my life and moving to Montana for college. I will be taking Orion down there with me. The cost of that would be anywhere from $1700-$3000 + food. When I get him there I will be having to buy a truck, trailer and hopefully a new horse. But that is the delemma, to buy a horse or to lease one. I'm going to have all these expenses and will need an older horse that i can ride hard and put it through its paces. Orion will be fun to have down there but I will need another horse seeing that he will only be 4. If anyone has a horse or knows of a horse that could attent college 2010 let me know! it would be great to have a friend's horse!

Reber Trail

Two days ago we attempted to ride from Hillside pl into town using the mud trail which connects directly to Reber Trail. I rode Orion and Shannon Reid rode Lenanna (Shannon is hopefully going to become Lenanna's faithful rider for the years that i am away at college). So we set out in hopes of a dry and fun trail ride, which is what we got. Orion was a fearless leader and led Lenanna and Shannon threw almost everything. He walked calmly back down West Hill directly on the white road line. Lenanna did not prance most of the way and did very good for Shannon, to the point I stopped glancing over my shoulder! It was a very enjoyable ride!

Orion Update

Today, for the second time, I hauled my horses by myself. It was nerve racking at first but once i got going I found that it really could be lots of fun. I took Orion to the park, where i dressed him up in his new English get up and rode his around the arena. We started but doing a nice long warm up then getting serious and doing a reining patteren for next years shows (why i was in an English saddle when I did this I don't know) and then continued with fine tuning Orions transition from a canter down to a trot. He did really great and when i asked for a leg yield sidways at a canter he did it! I was so happy that we called it a day! so i loaded him up into our NEW trailer (which is amazing) and headed for home!