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A new horse...sorta



I have recently purchased Cabby, an Arab gelding who had been in my barn
for the last year and a half...up until the first of January.  The horse
was owned and ridden by Catherine, a 14yo whose parents just went thru a
nasty, miserable year-long divorce.  The dad was ordered by the court to
pay for Cabby's upkeep, which he didn't want to do, so he moved the horse
to a H/J barn -- 2 days before he went to the east coast for 3 months of
alcohol rehab.  I guess he figured that it would be one way to get his
daughter to lose interest in the horse.  Catherine couldn't get to the barn
to ride very often  and, when she did, those at the barn poo-pooed her
little horse and her lack of interest in drilling arena work...and did a
good job of diminishing her self-confidence.

To add to this fiasco, I worked (up until last month) with the dad and the
girlfriend -- the gf particularly didn't like the fact that I knew all the
dirt on them because of my friendship with the mother and kids...so they
set out to get me out of the picture.  I guess they didn't want me to tell
anyone what total selfish jerks they really are. (And I didn't have to
since anyone that knew them knew it already.)  Anyway, dad decided to *not*
pay the board at the new barn for a couple of months.  As soon as I found
this out, I got info to the mom about selling the horse before they put a
lien on him.  She would end up losing since the horse was in her name and
she would lose the money from the sale if that happened.  As per prior plan
with the mom when we moved the horse, I would buy him if I was at all able
when the time came.  We both knew what he was going to do...the evidence
was already starting to show.  The moment arrived (when Catherine and the
mom decided they would have to sell him since he wasn't getting any
attention now and dad couldn't be relied on to pay for his upkeep) around
the same time as our income tax returns...so I bought him.  He is to be
moved back to my barn this week.  

Hopefully Catherine will be able to come back and ride him in the future.
She loved the endurance stuff, the training rides, and camping with the
horses.  She will have to convince her dad and his gf that she wants to do
this...she's not a very assertive kid (more of a placater, non-conflict
type of personality) so she might be stuck being controlled by him for a
while yet.  It would definitely be a lot cheaper on him than horse
ownership was, so it might happen.  Right now I'm doing a big picture album
of all of her horse stuff here over 3 years, of the trips to Oregon and
California we took, and of her rides so she doesn't forget how much fun she
had.  She had just started competing and was soooo much looking forward to
this year as her first full year of competition.  

In the meantime, I have a 15yo student that has been very anxious to ride
Cabby since she found out he was coming back to my barn.  Kadi will be
riding him in her first competition in July in Oregon.  She came to the
Fish Folly's last weekend to see if she would like endurance stuff and was
completely hooked after one time as crew.  She got her first ride on him
today and had major bugs in her teeth from grinning so much when he turned
on his ultra-smooth power-trot for her.  Cabby was fabulous -- did all the
right stuff and really confirmed in my mind that I did the right thing.
Kadi's sending in her AERC and PNER stuff tomorrow -- we have a new, very
enthusiastic micro-featherweight junior joining the ranks!! 

Cabby is a 10yo bay Arab gelding who already has a few miles logged in the
AERC.  He was formerly owned by Cynthia and Ramey Peticolas-Stroud and
ridden quite a bit by Cynthia's daughter.  Now that we have the problems
with the dad out of the picture, Cabby can start racking up more miles.
I'm very excited to have him back in my barn...and to be the *owner* this
time!

Sue

sbrown@wamedes.com
Tyee Farm
Marysville, Wa.



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