Thank You!/ah youth

[Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>]

 mom forced me to
>wear a helmet, by 12 years, she said it was my choice,
>I never stopped. I also have a back up horse to ride,
>my best friend, if Thunder is too hot.  . I ride western because at this
point I don't>know how well I'd stay on with an English. 

Kelsey,

Reading your letter was deja-vous for me.  That could easily have been me
writing the whole letter.  Would you like to know how the story turns
out?

1987, trained for my first endurance ride on my 16 hand ex-race horse,
barrel racer/trail horse Appaloosa.  Told everyone what a fantastic
prospect he was and they all smiled knowingly and didn't say a thing.

He had a tendency to run away, I couldn't get off on trail or I couldn't
get back on.  When standing in line for my first vet- in for my first
ride he was being so stupid I just tied him to a post and stood out of
his reach while he fretted.  I looked around at everyone else's horses
that didn't look like such good "prospects" to me.  I picked out who I
thought would win tomorrow.  I also saw some scruffy looking horses with
numbers on their rumps that hadn't even trimmed their bridle paths!  (I
assumed they'd recently been purchased at auction)

The next day my "perfect prospect" pretty much lost all interest in the
sport after 25 miles.  The one's I'd picked to "win the 100" barely
finished the 25.  You guessed it, the scruffy one won the 100.  (Now I
notice nice shoe jobs much more often than bridle paths).

I wasted 2 years on that horse.  I ALWAYS had to be on my guard.  Not
him, but *another* horse reared over backwards on my knee and that's now
the weak link I have to deal with.  Had to give up softball, any hope of
running, etc. at age 19...now at 39 I just hope for days when I won't
limp because of it and I worry about my ability to complete a 100.

After MANY vet bills, etc. I accidentally ended up with an Arab and never
looked back.  I LOVE being able to get on from the ground.  

My policy when recruiting new people is to never recommend that they get
a different horse.  I just let them try it with what they've got, then
they'll eventually see what they need...but in your case, why risk your
health trying to retrain a horse with that much age?  By the way, any
horse that will rear once...given the right stimuli will do it again in
my opinion...no matter how much money you throw out on training, and
believe me, it only takes once.  

The mare that went over backwards with me was standing on a loose rein,
and I had raised her from a baby and she'd never done it before.  After
that she was bred and had three babies...all of which had rearing
tendencies.  You could easily buy a better prospect for the cost of 2 or
3 months of a trainer's bill.

By the way, I sold my Appaloosa when he was 17 years old and I'd had him
since he was 18 months old.  I tried to explain to the guy who bought him
to totally ignore his age and NEVER open him up in an open field.  A week
later he called me so excited he could hardly speak.  He'd just "had" to
try to get him to run and apparently the horse got up to mach speed
headed right towards this guy's nice sports car and lovely home. (His
neice thought there was something wrong with the horse because he
*wouldn't* run)  Actually the horse couldn't believe they actually wanted
to do that, then HAPPILY abliged them.  The guy could hardly talk he was
so excited telling me about them having to flag the horse down with
waving arms (there were skid marks 20 feet long in the front yard where
he stopped).  I said, "I'll come right now and get him."   He said, "Wait
a minute, will ANYTHING stop him???? I mean, will he run through a
building or a house or a fence???"  I said, "Well, he never has."  Then
he said, "well HE'S JUST WHAT I WANTED!!  I thought I was buying a family
sedan and I got a Mozarati (how DO you spell that?).  It was very funny. 
But, the horse has a good home where he's appreciated, and I've got a
horse who plans to go farther than from the first barrel out the gate.

Angie

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