VCBH: Interested Parties

So way back in week seven of this tortuously long blog hop I have going we talked about the Pros of our current horse. Some of us experienced these pros after buying our horse. Now I am curious, what made you interested in your current horse that lead you to buying them in the first place?

This is a really interesting idea for a blog hop topic! 

I always end up with horses based on some weird turn of events. I've never had a "normal" horse shopping experience where I tried multiple horses, had a checklist, budget, PPE etc. and Katai was no different. I'd had a couple of tough decisions to make about horses such as the decisions after Sora hurt herself and deciding that Myshla was just too small. I'd decided after having Myshla that I wanted a pony and since I still owned Myshla and didn't really want a second horse I was only casually looking. I was looking through Horse Clicks and stumbled over an ad with this picture. 

The ad listed a 13.1 hand pony for sale at $400. It stated that she was untrained and half Haflinger. She also just happened to be about half an hour north of where I was living at the time. I held out. I KNEW that I didn't need another horse, I really didn't want to start and train another myself after dealing with Sora's issues and I really wanted a pony that was closer to 14 hands.

A few months later as I was getting more convinced I could handle having two horses and was also pretty sure I was going to find a little girl home for Myshla I decided to start looking more seriously. I wasn't having much luck with the searches I was doing so I lowered the height I was looking for and there she was again. At that point I had nothing to lose by going to see her and I was pretty sure that since it was going into winter, late September, and she had been listed for a few months that her owner may be willing to take a deal.

I went to see her and I wouldn't say I was blown away but she was what I was looking for. She was reasonably calm and despite having not been handled much, or correctly, she picked things up pretty quick. I asked for her to yield her shoulder and she thought quietly about it and although she resisted a little she figured it out without a blow up. I could do almost nothing other than lead her so I played around with groundwork as much as I could. It was her mind and her Haflinger heritage that actually sold her. 

That and the fact that her teenager owner accepted a trade of a whole bunch of extra, horse sized English tack for her instead of cash :)

After her purchase I struggled with several things including intermittent lameness, rearing, lack of any ground manners, two 4+ hour trailer loading experiences, and much worse/tighter/shorter gaits than I hoped she'd have.

 The lameness turned out to be thrush which is now completely gone, the training issues went away with, guess what, training and time, and her gaits have improved immensely now that her feet feel better and she's got some strength. She went from a fairly naughty, headstrong pony with attitude to one of the quietest, bravest, calmest, smartest equines that I've ever had the pleasure to work with. She also grew around an inch and is now 13.2 1/2 - 13.3 hands

My plan was, and has always been, that I COULD train her for a little kid. Get a good return on investment and buy myself something else but honestly, this pony has stolen my heart. I'd hoped from the beginning that I'd keep her and earlier this week I had a whole post typed up about how I know she is my heart horse and how I plan on doing just that but then it disapeared. She has made riding fun for me again after a few bad or scary experiences. I no longer want to go to the barn because I love horses or know I need to train her or myself, now I'm going because I want to ride HER, spend time with HER. 

I need to get new pictures since she is really developing a top line and has filled out a lot since even the most recent photos I've posted. I'll try to post an update after my lesson on Thursday!

Ponies are People Too

Things have been great recently! Lessons have been rolling along smoothly and the pony is giving up some of her tension and misbehavior for compliance and sweetness :) 

On the unhappy front I had "the talk" with J and while I had to pry it out of her she did say that she thinks Katai is too small and that she wants to see me on something bigger and more talented. In a way it's a huge compliment that she feels like I have the skill to make some progress in this sport. 

I have put even more thought into it but ultimately I feel the same as I did before. I realize that riding a pony isn't everyone's cup of tea and if anyone would have asked, before even hearing what J thought, I would have guessed that she would have said Katai was too small. I mean she doesn't have more than one or two horses below 16 hands and the horses she has her more talented clients on are all closer to 17 hands. Plus we are talking dressage where a 15 hand horse is considered a pony. 

I have also always had in the back of my head the thought that if riding Katai stops being fun or I feel underhorsed I can find her a little girl and I can move on. I don't want that right now though. She brings a smile to my face every time I ride her and unlike some ponies I've ridden she never feels small when I'm on her back. In fact she feel like a much larger horse. 

Just to be sure I went and did all the research on sizes again and I'm currently well within the guidelines on size. Plus, by the time I finish prep for the Ragnar I'll be even lighter! She's never shown any discomfort in her back despite being young and asked to move a different way then she would out in the field and I'm constantly checking her over for any discomfort.

Who could ever turn down this face (she's unhappy because I'm taking the picture right after she finished pooping. So rude of me)

Ultimately it comes down to what I want vs what other people think I should want and I've never been good at standing my ground. When I first got home after that conversation I did some horse shopping just to see what would happen and while there are some beautiful horses out there that I would die to own they are all WAY out of my budget, 25,000-50,000,  now or anytime in the near future. Frankly, riding Katai is soooooo much fun that I'm going to be extremely picky if/when I ever horse shop again and since I'd really like to stick with ponies it really wouldn't answer J's wish for a larger horse beyond maybe a few inches.

Just because I've been obsessing I'm going to share with you some of the examples I found of adults riding small ponies successfully. Just for comparison Katai is about 13.2 1/2 hands, five years old and wasn't really started until she was around 4.5 years. I am 5'4" and, as they would say on some of the forums I've been perusing, just over 9 stone.

This is a 14 hand Arab cross with a rider that is the same height as me but slightly heavier. She competes endurance and in this picture the horse is 21 and still competing to this day at 23. Has never had an issue with her riders size.

14 hand pony with a rider that is three inches taller than me and also a fair amount heavier (with my comparison picture :). They have been competing at advanced dressage in Europe and scoring upper 60s.

13.2 hand pony that competed for almost 20 years in endurance with this rider who is my height but a little heavier than me. Again, no soundness issues.

13.3 hand pony with a rider about and inch taller than me and again heavier. This has been her main mount for the past several years  and no soundness issues.

As always reining horses come up with a common height of around 14-15 hands and riders around 215 pounds at times and they are asked to be quite athletic. Iclandics are often ridden by people much larger than me and I know a few that are going strong at 20+ years. Finally, Paso Fino horses were mentioned and are a similar situation to Icelandics in that they are small and often carry large men.

I am very good at obsessing :)