Updates!

What a year! Apologies for not updating and keeping this blog current. The lack of updates are due mostly in part to my very busy schedule of applying for and working towards acceptance into veterinary school. This past fall I applied, had interviews in January and am now accepted into a school that I applied. I was accepted at the University of Missouri Veterinary school in Columbia, MO. I'm still waiting to hear back from the other schools that I applied to, but to obtain an out-of-state acceptance forebodes well for the future, and now I know that I have a place next year and will be attending a school next year!

The process has been long and daunting but so very rewarding now that I actually have an acceptance. If anyone has any questions about the process or needs advice how to best go about applying, I'd be more than happy to share.

Now, onto the Bogey boy news! Bogey and I had a great summer filled with some local open shows and teaching 4-H horse clinics. There were highs: successfully riding in a western pleasure class with only putting him into a shanked bit less than 24 hours in advance (oh, what can I say - I really trust my horse), and some great showmanship placings, but there were also some lows: blowing a hoof abscess and losing out on the last shows of the season, and some of his ongoing lameness issues.

When I look back over the summer, I can't think of it as anything but a total success - even with the health issues of my horse. I had never treated a hoof abscess before and this past summer Bogey gave me a doozie. What a great learning opportunity for a future equine vet. I also had the opportunity to help a neighbor with a nasty head wound - word to the wise: pull-ups diapers. They make the best and cheapest coverings for large wounds. All in all I had a wonderful summer, a busy semester and now am on my downward slide to graduation and entrance into veterinary school this fall.

This next summer I'm going to try to spend more time with the Bogey boy and showing as it will be my last summer in a long while that I'll have completely free without other obligations or education opportunities. I'm planning on going to a couple of AQHA shows this year (it has been a life-long dream to show at one) and I have the quality of horse in order to do so (Bogey's the only one of his siblings without points at the major shows (Congress & World)). I'm also planning on doing as many shows of our local circuit as the caliber there is unequal as open shows go. They say if you can win in our district you can do very well at MNQHA shows.

Those are the plans! Thanks for coming on this journey with me and just wait, soon you'll be reading about the adventures of a veterinarian and her Bogey horse, instead of a prospective student and the horse she loves.

Selling?

I've been putting up a couple YouTube videos lately of Bogey and I and a couple days ago I got a response to one that took me aback. (Yes, I promise to write about and post the videos, I'm just really behind! haha)

The message was from a previous owner of Bogey asking if I would be interested in selling him and that the person has "cash in hand". Wow! First I thought it was a scam, but amusing none-the-less and I messaged back asking the person's name and where they were from. Any smart scam artist would not respond back, and I know Bogey's previous owners and their locations from his papers.

Well, the person messaged back and it was in serious. I asked a couple trickier questions about my horse that only a previous owner would know such as what was his barn name when you owned him? I referred to Bogey as "Bogey" in all of my videos and the previous owner got the correct answer of "Lester". I personally do not want to sell my horse at all, but it is always entertaining to "field offers", and I might be able to get some really interesting information about my horse's past from the prior owner.

I only know Bogey's history back to his 3 year old year. It would be interesting to find out who actually broke him out and trained him. I'm messaging/emailing the person back as we speak those questions, but I haven't gotten a "cash offer" yet from this person.

Bogey's part of the family, and we both have a very strong bond together. I couldn't dream of selling him, and if I sold him I would not be in a position to buy another horse of his caliber for 5 more years because of the possibility of future veterinary school. Bogey's a horse I can leave at my mother's house and let him sit and relax all winter and come back the following spring remembering almost everything from the summer before. I don't know many other horses that can do that.

I don't want to sell him but money does talk, and how would I feel knowing I sold off my best friend? Yikes! I wouldn't even consider selling him for $5000 or less, but the $10,000 to $20,000 region - looks pretty good. Who could say no to that? What would people think if I said no to that? I would obtain more than 10 times my initial investment at that point and at the very least over 4 times what I've put into him.

Things to think about. What would you do?

Warm Weather

Worked with Bogey a little yesterday and today, but today was way too warm. Heat index of 105 - not going to ride in that weather just yet.

Both yesterday and today I did a little ground work with Bogey. Working on flexing, side-passing/moving ribs on the ground, moving hindquarters, pivots, and large and small lunge circles. Both days ending with some minor showmanship exercises - set-ups, pivots, backing.

Bogey was pretty pushy yesterday, so more backing up was ordered and today the pushiness was gone - great! But, he did pretend to try to bite me while I was asking him to move his hips over, that resulted in a slight come to Jesus back up session and he and I both forgot about it. Sometimes it's really nice having a smart horse, other times not so much - you really have to be on your toes, but you only have to correct them once.

With the heat index as it is, the groundwork sessions were conducted in the pole barn, and I hosed both Bogey and Nancy off at noon and then late afternoon after his work out. They both received their breakfast and supper a la' soup, soaked in water and they both loved it!

On not related to horse news, I did take my clippers out and shaved a couple long haired kittens. They are grateful now, but that was a different story when I was clipping them. Good thing they are so very tame. The weather is supposed to be a little cooler out tomorrow, hopefully I'll be able to take Bogey up to the arena and ride.

Riding with the Sister

Today, Bogey showed no sign of the hesitation or lameness so we may be clear on that front. This morning I did some light groundwork with him loosening up his shoulders, hindquarters and beginning to teach him to bend and maneuver his ribs. This afternoon my sister and I went riding up town at the fairgrounds.

It was a very nice day, the only issue was the bugs - but that was remedied with a heavy dosing of fly spray. My sister took her pony, Nancy, out and lunged her then got on and rode around.

On the Bogey front I got on and worked on bending at the poll and bringing his break over rearwards and finally worked on forward and maintaining the lope. Bogey's bad habit is breaking down on me while loping, which is a combination of him looking for every excuse for "whoa" and the lack of stamina to lope throughout a show class. To remedy this I simply asked Bogey to lope and cruised around the arena. I let him go wherever he wanted, with the only requirement to continue loping. I think we made significant progress in this area and there were only minor breakdowns.

Hopefully, that issue will also be behind us, but I'm going to have to continue that exercise to insure that "forward" is maintained in-spite of the collection exercises. He's too smart that he looks for every excuse to be lazy, and this is his biggest excuse.

Busy Weekend!

This past weekend was fairly busy but still fun (with one not so fun component). Saturday was the second clinic my BHF (best horse friend) performed for the county 4-H horse group and this one consisted of warm-ups, groundwork, minor showmanship review, western pleasure, horsemanship and some minor playing around with a few trail obstacles. There were four girls for the majority of the clinic and six in the beginning, a small but good sized group to get a lot of work done.

My BHF emphasized the warm-ups and groundwork heavily. She has a routine of flexing, lunging, and maneuvering the fore-hand, ribs, and hips. It's a very systematic approach to see where your horse is at and how it is responding to you. The kids worked on that and then we moved onto the showmanship review which simply consisted of a pattern to practice since all of the girls were there for the Wednesday session.

I brought Bogey along and participated in the groundwork, warm-up exercises thinking that once it came time for the riding my BHF would want to use Bogey and not tire out her three year old. Nope, it ended up being me riding the Bogey horse and she rode her horse the entire time. It was unexpected but fun to work on my own horse and help out.

The group of 4-H'ers were clearly divided into a more advanced group and and younger group just learning the basics of showing. BHF took the more advanced group and worked on collection and advanced maneuvers to enhance their pleasure horses and I got to work with the younger girls! It was so much fun teaching the lesson. I do wish I could have heard all that BHF said to the others as she has great ideas that she sometimes forgets to tell me since we spend so much horse time together, but it was really fun working with the two girls and their ponies.

We first worked on hand position, body position and queuing for the western pleasure class. Then we moved onto riding our horses gaits, one had a pony with a bouncy trot and we remedied her seat by sitting deeper, bringing her legs beneath her and not "chair sitting" and counting with the rhythm of her horse's gait. There was immediate progress with both girls and you could see their ponies relax and slow down when they sat properly, that was so much fun to see and be a part of! We also played a variation of red-light/green-light to work on transitions, did a few horsemanship patterns and critiqued each-other (the two are sisters so it was handy for them to learn that skill to help each other out), and finally played a little follow the leader.

The two girls had the most adorable western pleasure ponies. One was about 12 hands the other just under 14 and they had the prettiest lopes I have ever seen on a pony! It was amazing! Their parents really hit a jackpot with those well broke, beautiful moving ponies!

At the end of the pleasure/horsemanship clinic my girls challenged the older girls to a horsemanship pattern and they won! They did the pattern so beautifully and had great position! That was so much fun to see!

After the clinic I rode Bogey around a little more since most of what he did was just stand there with me on his back and I found him to be very hesitant to lope off. He was not lame but was very uncomfortable going into the lope and would not hold it. Oh, no - here we go again with the leg issues! BHF saw the issue too so it was not all in my head. After the clinic I took him home and washed him, banded him and buted him. He's so funny with the bute - he gets so sleepy. I've never had a horse react like that, they always hype up - but he takes a nap!

Sunday was our second horse show and I was planning on simply doing showmanship and going home because of the leg issues. He was completely sound at the trot just hesitant at the lope and seemed ouchy. The pattern was the old school way of doing a showmanship class with a very old-fashioned judge. We lined up and one by one he asked us to walk forward, set-up, pivot and trot back to the line-up. So boring, and does not show anything or clearly define the class. He also wanted a snappy set up and perfect placement of the hooves. Well, that's Bogey's weakest part, the set up. He has the nasty habit of cocking a hind foot (it is getting better) and setting up a little slower. Well, the Bogey horse was especially slow because of the bute and his busy previous week making him extra tired, and he cocked a foot for half of the set-up for inspection. I did fix it, but we blew the simple pattern. Our pivots and trot offs are always rocking though so that was nice!

We got fifth place out of five, so we did take home a ribbon and had our names called, but it's just fun being out there and all dressed up. Speaking of dressed up, as I was getting Bogey ready by the trailer some tourists came by (our fairgrounds doubles as a camping ground) and asked if they could take a picture of him since he was the most beautiful horse they had ever seen. How cute is that! He stood all proud with his ears up for the picture - it was pretty cute! Bonus points for my show grooming routine!

Today, I did worked with Bogey a bit to see if the hesitation was still there and it was only slightly. We did some groundwork, desensitization and then showmanship work. I cold hosed his legs off afterward and we'll see how they look tomorrow. He is on a joint supplement, but I'm going to look into some alternative therapies such as the Back on Track leg wraps and maybe even magnetic therapy.

My BHF also suggested he might have been sore from his pull back episode from Wednesday, so hopefully the issue is behind us since it was not as bad today. (He always is a little hesitant on his left lead lope since his right hind has more arthritic changes and degeneration.) Oh, horses!

Final happy plug, Bogey and I are listed on the qualifying website for our 2nd place showmanship win in our open show series! Yay, Bogey aka "A Chip Off the Tee"!

You win some, you lose some...

This look shows Bogey's feelings about today and the weather we've been having. Photo taken 1/2009.

As famously perfect the Bogey horse was on Sunday's show day. Tonight's practice was a semblance of a flop. I need to give him credit though, as normal horses go - he did great. My expectations for him: he fell a little short.

My BHF (best horse friend) gave the county 4-H clinic tonight on showmanship. She asked me to help out and bring my horses, because mine is older and more well behaved than hers (ha ha!), and is pretty much finished in showmanship now (Yay!). She was going to bring her horse as well and deck him out show ready, but with the weather decided to pass. I then offered to prep Bogey as if for show day.

This took a long time as the weather was rainy and I like to take my time and prep Bogey extensively. I washed him, banded him, clipped his stockings, blaze and whiskers (didn't want to fight with his ears - I always have to twitch him :( ), whitened his legs, chalked and greased his face, and put in his tail. Some of this was done at the clinic, but most was done throughout the day. Bogey was tied then for a long time considering all of those activities. I did have a hay bag in front of him, but any horse would be bored.

Once we got to the clinic he was really looky. I had him tied to a fence post - he spooked and jerked back really hard. How dumb, but very much a horse thing! Somewhat embarrassing as well since this was in front of some of my old 4-H members and I knew almost everyone there. That wasn't all! When I was warming him up for the showmanship clinic, I cued him to back up and he took it too sharply and banged himself on the chain, freaked out and backed into a friends horse. Thankfully, it was a friend and she was very forgiving, but come on Bogey! He knows better.

During the clinic then he did do a lot better. He was very crisp in his pivots (something we've been working on and a goal), and he was excellent in his set ups (yay goal). His backs were straight and good excluding the one freak out. He also did a whole bunch of killer pull turns!

It was slightly unnerving to have the kids ask you to do the pattern after you've been critiquing them. Thankfully, Bogey and I did ok - and then laid down an awesome killer pattern in the end! Yay, us!

He did get sick of waiting though closer to the ending of the clinic and didn't stay lined up, but he was probably bored and he was oddly really thirsty when we got home so that may be a factor as well.

Things to consider:
- Ok, the weather was bad - rainy, cold, changing weather patterns
- Bogey hasn't been worked since the show because of his hooves being trimmed and the bad weather we've been having. Can't ride when its pouring out and it has been for days!
- Bogey had to go through the whole show grooming routine - that did take me many hours and he was tied the whole time.
- He had to stand and be patient throughout the whole 2 1/2 hour clinic.

Ok, all things considered Bogey did great, but I was slightly disappointed in him and somewhat embarrassed, horses sure humble you. Thank goodness we did lay down a few killer patterns towards the end, and Saturday will be a continuation of this clinic. Tomorrow really is another day. ;D

First Horse Show of the Season

Today was our first horse show of the season. It went very well all things considered. First off, the weather here has been awful to ride in and because of no indoor - that means no riding, so this was Bogey's 3rd ride of the season. I'm almost ashamed to say it, our third ride and I take him to an open show. Yikes! Do I have a saint of a horse or what?!? Also, since Bogey is seven, he is required to ride in a "big boy bit" aka, a curb/shanked bit. No more two handing it for us anymore. Today was a milestone as it was our 2nd time riding in a shanked bit. Dear heavens, I'm I a crazy person!

All in all it went very very well considering the above! Bogey and I showed in showmanship, senior (18 - 34 years old) western pleasure, and senior horsemanship (without a pattern, since it was sprinkling and it's an outdoor ring). In regards to western pleasure and horsemanship, we had fairly clean rides we fair/moderately good power steering, but ultimately we did not cut anyone off or ruin anyone's rides! Yay us! We also did not have one ounce of silliness throughout the day, that would be justified of a only 3rd ride horse of the season. There were 3 people bucked off and a runaway horse with all the crazy weather, but we were not one of the aforementioned.

The best part of the show was SHOWMANSHIP! My favorite class ever! It was the classic pattern that our open show circuit likes to reproduce time and time again, so we came ready and prepared! Here's what it looked like:



In the above pattern you start at marker 1, trot all the way to the third marker, back to the second marker. Then conduct a 270 degree pivot all in line with the judge and finally walk to the judge and set up for inspection. The number one issue with the pattern in the cleanliness with the back and making sure that your horse's hip is in line with the judge as that will determine your lines. Fairly difficult pattern for a large horse, especially one that you can't see over his back - that is a problem. The best ways to tackle this pattern is make sure you have clean, straight lines in the trot offs, backs, and walk as well as spacing. Make sure you know your horse's stride length and that you are prepared to compensate for the size of your horse when you are spacing alongside the cones initially.

The number one thing I worried about with Bogey was the back, as Bogey tends to swing his hips out towards his right as we are backing. This I have tried to remedy with controlled backing, backing in circles (forcing the issue and creating strength) as well as finally backing along a fence line. It seems to have worked! We got second! My BHF (Best horse friend) got first, and she said that I should have won, also a local trainer said to her client that my pattern was the pattern to beat and that I did it perfectly! Yay for me and the Bogey horse!

We didn't place in horsemanship or western pleasure and had a few break downs in gait, what can I say we both are out of shape! Just wait until we are primed and ready for the next show, we'll be rocking!

Here's a couple win pictures my sister took of my BHF and I and one of me and the Bogey horse! First time wearing my new outfit, what do you think?!?





FYI The dates on the camera are one day off. Those were taken merely hours ago.

Spring Break Part 2

Part one can be seen here: Spring Break Part 1.

Bogey started to feel better around Wednesday, but there is always that question every horse owner has, "Is He/She still lame?" It's almost if we look hard enough we can still see a little limp or a strange turn of the hoof. Finally on Thursday, I felt as if I was making up a bit of the soreness and called my BHF for some riding time.

My BHF has the ultimate horse playground. She has the coolest indoor arena. It is gorgeous inside and has a great sound system, lights, motivational posters/paintings and the coolest ground equipment to work with. She has giant horse balls, a wooden bridge, a trail gate made out of PVC, (How inventive of her husband!), and ground poles abound. It is so much fun to do groundwork there, ride and have fun.

I took Bogey over to her house on Friday afternoon and he was feeling good. She said that she thought he looked so good, he's a little portly, but when you are almost 16.3 and such a long bodied horse a little weight on you makes you look less like an gangly two year old. Bogey by the way is a fit/thinner 1313 lbs. I wonder what he is at right now with his minor hay belly and chub.

Bogey and I went into her arena and did a bit of lunging as he was a bit amp-ed up. I follow Clinton Anderson's methods of lunging for respect as I don't like to make Bogey do mindless circles over and over again, as he was a lunge liner as a yearling and does have some arthritis and degeneration in his hocks and rear pasterns.

After the lunging my BHF came out with her new gelding Truman. (He is a baby-doll faced 4 year old AQHA that is the sweetest boy ever.) She did the same lunge work with him and then showed me her groundwork that she does.

She puts Truman into small trot circles. She has him do this quite close to her as she can bump up his momentum, his belly and work on his face. Truman has a tendency to lower his head way too much and become heavy on the forehand. The groundwork exercise is a simple way to manuver his body and control all of his body parts as a great warm up. It also doesn't take much space, so if you are pressed for location (or have too much mud around! ;D) you can still do the exercise at a slow controlled pace. She does this both directions and then moves him up to a controlled lope. While doing the circles if he is looking like he is holding himself up and moving correctly she lets out the line and allows him to move into a larger/straighter circle. This exercise helps with lift and some drive, but mostly with control of the feet and strength in crossing over and deepening the hock. Also, this exercise can easily be modified to your desire.

I'll see if I can get a video of Bogey and I showing this exercise sometime this summer. (I need to invest in a good video camera).

I'll go through our riding exercises and fun in the next post. :D

-Amy

Spring Break Part 1

Since my horses are over two hours away, my spring break was a joyful time of reconnecting and re-establishing manners. Bogey was a saint for most of the break and Nancy was a little more naughty than usual, but overall they both were great.

The first day of my break I had my farrier KH out to trim Bogey's hooves. They had gotten quite long as KH wanted to give Bogey a longer interval to see how his feet naturally progress. Bogey is a high/low horse with a negative planar hoof and one that has correctly positioned coffin bone. This makes one hoof stack up tall with a large quantity of heel and the other to splay out forward with low heels. Both very difficult to work with and remedy. The splayed out hoof also is slightly pigeon toed and he paddle foots with that one when it is too long.

KH took this interval to see where we've progressed and how Bogey naturally works his own feet. My farrier believes in a natural balance hoof trimming with modification. He's not afraid to put a package of shoes on, but prefers to see where the horse naturally do best, whether with shoes or without.

After the trim, Bogey was a bit sore and landed a bit toe first on his splayed right fore hoof, which was not fun. We called it good as he was sound enough and KH told me to take it easy for the next couple of days and give him a two day rest. Not a fun way to start out my break, but all for the Bogey horse.

The two day break turned into five day break and my spring break was almost over. During Bogey's slightly off period we did work showmanship set-ups and I have to say he is doing famously. He understands clearly which hoof I am asking him to move and is stacking up fairly correctly every time. I'm very excited about that!

During his break I did give him some bute and found out that he has an unusual response to the drug. Bogey completely mellows out and takes a nap. All of the other horses I've worked with become completely bonkers after having some bute. It's nice to know that my horse is such a light weight. Or as my BHF (Best Horse Friend) states, "He's a cheap date." Good gracious Bogey, what shall we do with you!?!

I'm going to have to put these postings into a series of Spring Break horse fun, as I can't use up all my good material in just one. :D

I also have some additional ideas and backtracking to do and look into. <--- Note to self.

-Amy

Spring Break Part 2

Monday Not as Planned

Well Monday was not as planned. The heat index was over 105 degrees and I'm not fighting with Bogey and trying to bring him back in that heat, so he got another day off. On Sunday I did take him out and hand walk him and lunge him a little and I saw some improvement so hopefully it is noticeable and not just me being "Bogey blind".

Today we are going to start riding again, there were thunderstorms this morning and more planned for the evening so hopefully it will cool off a little and I can get out and ride.

At this mornings feeding Bogey did have a little fill in his legs, which I'm thinking might be due to the humidity and weather so I'll walk him out this afternoon and see if it goes away.

That's all on the Bogey front, hopefully riding time today, but I'm not going to push it if the fill does not go away.

Hocks Are A Go!

Bogey got his hocks done this morning. Dr. Kittleson said that his right hind was very dry and it needed it badly. The left wasn't as dry but she said there might be arthritis starting in the fetlock joint so he's not on a joint supplement as well.

All in all, it wasn't too expensive, only $90 for both of the hocks done. I also had her do shots and float his teeth. He has the softest teeth around, hooks and sharp edges every year to file down. He was fairly well behaved, balked a little at going into the examining room but after that is was fine. She didn't even sedate him for the injections, he just stood there like a champ.

He'll get the rest of today, Saturday and Sunday off to rest and I'll slowly start him back up on Monday.

I don't want to count my chickens before they're hatched, but he looked like he was moving better already - just walking back to the barn! I'm excited to see how great he'll move after this!

Skys the Limit

Tonight I had another video consultation session with Jamie Novak. We only did a half session because we both could see from the video that Bogey was hurting and decided we are taking a short break until his hocks are done on Friday.

Well for some background information on the video. My sister and I shot the video on Sunday late afternoon, it was hot out and Bogey was hurting. I didn't realize/acknowledge the fact until half way through the ride. On Saturday, I took Bogey over to a friend's house to ride and she just had new sand put into her arena, needless to say it was deep and not good for Bogey's already sore hocks.

The ride on Sunday was filled with refusals to go forward, me nit-picking and picking fights, and Bogey not doing his best. For the video it catches a segment in the middle that doesn't look so bad.



Jamie wanted me to go even further and do more of what we are doing, the serpentine and donut shapes at an increased level of headset. She explained what she'd like to see in a super low dressage headset to have him learn to break at his shoulder point and not 12 inches from his poll which he is doing now. This will help him create lift from the shoulders and the rock back.

For me she wanted me to roll my shoulders back and open my rib cage. This has been a problem of mine for years and since I've always ridden young green horses I hunch over just waiting for something to happen - not good. So we'll have to work on that one!

I asked her about his talent level and what caliber horse he is. Now mind you this is the horse I bought off of videos and spent pennies on. She said he was most definitely an amateur breed show level horse and if she got her hands on him for a while she's thinking and open caliber horse! Isn't that exciting! She said he has a lot of talent and she loves his look and his movement. Now I asked her if she was just saying that and she wasn't, she was being totally honest! I think that is amazing - so the sky's the limit where Bogey and I are concerned!

Ride the Right Horse

Right the Right Horse by Yvonne Barteau is a wonderful book to any horseman's collection. I just wanted to put this in here because this is the second time I have borrowed the book from my local libraries and I need to go out and purchase one of my own. I thought this book would be a good one to read only once, boy was I ever wrong. This is a wonderful book to deal with horse personalities and your own riding styles based upon your personality and your horse's.

My previous horse Tater Tot, was a Social/Challenging Mix. With this personality type he loved to talk with all those around him and did not like leaving his buddies. The challenging portion of him allowed him to tune out and disregard some cues and "do his own thing" many times. He never pushed the limits, but he did go right up to them.

Bogey on the other hand is a Aloof/Challenging Mix. He shows the Challenging portion when he pins his ears back at meal times and likes to "test" you to see how much he can get away with during the day. The Aloof portion of him brings in a component of not caring about the world around him. When we moved him to the boarding barn in Winnebago he called out once to the other horses and that was it. No other expressions. I haven't heard him make any noise at all, now that I think of it, except for that one time upon his new arrival.

This will be an interesting personality type to work with because of the disassociation from me as well as the testing. I love having a puppy dog type horse, which was Tater Tot, but who knows how this one will go. It is probably best that he is an aloof type because I am gone at school most of the year.

***I need to tell about how my week with him went, I only got to see him about 3 times, which was a bummer.

Second semester starts tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it. I'm a homebody and really would like to be home right now, but I have to be at school. One good thing though, a friend of mine has the pre-calculus book I need and she'll let me borrow it - for FREE! That's a $40 I don't have to spend.

I think I'm going to wind down and have a quiet evening alone with a couple books. This coming semester will be tough so I better study more. Who am I kidding, I better just study!

Start of a Journey Part 1

This is a start of something new. Oh, those old cliche' lines! I decided to start this blog to journal about my trials as a college student that lives 2 1/2 hours away from her brand new horse. Also, I wanted to log our training journeys together. This will just be a journal for myself, to get my thoughts on paper, and if people read it, why not? Now, onto the beginning.

It all started with an ad for a horse.

Well it probably started earlier than that, and I'll have to do some back-tracking later to tell my story completely, but my journey with my NEW horse started with that ad.

I just noticed it one day and he just struck me as something special. He was out of my price range at the time, (the price dropped $2000 in 2 months of watching the ad) but I just couldn't stop going back and looking at it. Another reason why it kept pulling me in is because I know a horse that is by the same sire, same color and everything that I just "clicked" with this past summer. After watching the ad and emailing the owner, I kind of felt like this one was the "one".

I called the owner multiple times and after the price drops I decided to make an offer.

Now, you all must realize that I am probably one of the world's worst horse buyers (or maybe the best from my perspective). I am the person that emails multiple times (not the same questions, but a TON of questions). Calls multiple times asking different questions, calls the trainers multiple times, and searches the internet for every scrap of information I can find on the trainers, owners, and the horse itself. I want to know EVERYTHING about the animal I'm purchasing before I even begin to think of an offer. I collect this information on folders on my computer as well as a hand written manilla folder I have in my files. I did this with the first horse I bought when I was 15 and it really works well for me because I was prepared and knew exactly what I was getting into. (That first horse was also my best friend, but we'll get into that later.)

After all of that anal knowledge based research, I made an offer on the horse. Now, the owner had disclosed that she really needed to sell the horse since her daughter couldn't ride him and she couldn't afford the training bill each month, so I knew I could get a deal. I also had an "ace in my pocket" in the respect that I could and would walk away from the sale if it wasn't for me. Then I did a lot of praying about it and asked God, that if this horse wasn't for me to just have him sell or my offer not work out, but if it is let me get him for "XXX" price.

Well I called and made an offer right before Thanksgiving weekend this past year. I really really low-balled it, and I'm so horrible for doing it, but hey, I'm a cheap broke college student who goes to a VERY expensive private school. I offered 1/2 of their final drop in price $1500. I know, I know! Only offer 10-15% off the asking price, I did read Bob Avila's Be a Smart Horse Buyer book. But, it just felt right to me.



Well, of course the owner would turn down that offer! I would! The thing I had going for me was a re pore of phone calls, a solid offer (albeit cheap offer), and the ability to walk away! There are tons of horses in this world you don't have to settle for the nag when you can have your very own Trigger. That's the trick folks, don't settle for anything but what you want exactly, because it may take a while, but you'll find your dream horse.

Time passed after my offer, I think about 3 weeks, and I get a phone call from the owner. I am very VERY VERY bad about answering my cell phone, just ask my roommates, but I will get back to you eventually, just leave a message! Well, the owner left a message on my phone stating that she had talked things over with her husband and was wondering if I was still interested in the horse. HECK yeah! I was, but as a buyer - never be to eager. Well I didn't get the message till the next afternoon because I had 2 orchestra concerts that day to play for (more on that later as well). And, then it ended up being a Monday afternoon after class. I checked my email and she was still wondering if I was interested and if I got her message. Buyers, watch out for this, this is the classic I want to sell you my horse. Remember, never be too eager to buy.

I called her back that afternoon and chatted a little, keeping things light. She then told me she had talked things over with her husband and was wondering if I would be able to buy him for $2000. I said I couldn't, but my offer of $1500 would still work out. She TOOK it! YAY for me! I was so excited, but then don't get too excited buyers. I still had to talk things over with my family and find a ride for the horse. Well it all came together and I found a ride for him from an awesome gal named Jodie check her out if you need a horse trained and you're in southern MN.

Bogey arrived home on Christmas Eve to Albert Lea and then I got him on Christmas and hauled him over to the boarders the day after. He was a true Christmas present to me.



Part 2 Coming right up!

(Dang, I use too many cliches' haha!)