Take the leap

How do you know you trust your trainer?

Agree to a lease on a horse you've never met based entirely on her suggestion.

It always seems to go this way.  Lots of planning and long, drawn out decisions are clearly not my style.  No warning, just suddenly, a horse!

I got an e-mail today asking if I would be interested in leasing a Prelim level horse for six months, possibly more.  Considering my shaky confidence and desire to jump again I was quick to reply that yes, I was interested.  A couple e-mails later and we're now organizing when this new horse will be shipped to the winter barn for introductions.

What do I know about this horse?  His name is Bentley, he competes at Prelim, he's a grey TB gelding that is about 16.1h tall and 14 years old.  I did find some video of him on youtube.



 

I can work with this. Especially as I'm looking to go Novice and maybe move up to Training. He won't even notice that.  I'm still in school, so I won't be focused on competition. Fiona's junior rider from last season is interested in sharing him for the summer, so that will keep the pressure off of me for exercise and schooling.

Of course that means that I need to find a new home for Fiona.  A little goading is probably what I needed, as I've been procrastinating and avoiding the situation.  Fi got her mane pulled, her tail clipped, and her ridiculously hairy self trimmed so that she looks civilized again today.  She does love the primping and was strutting around like the ring was her playground.  The strutting came to an abrupt halt when someone started resetting fences.  As several people noticed, her expression was very much 'no no no you promised!'.  It reinforces the idea that she'll be happier if she never has to worry about jumping again.

The weather continues to be glorious.  I think I'll dare the outdoors tomorrow.  Today the Princess was feeling rather frisky so I decided to be a wimp.  I'm nervous when there are big snow banks that keep me from getting out of the way of rude cars.  I'll try again tomorrow.  Daylight savings is here again, the sun will still be up when I go out.

Time to find the sunglasses.  I will actually see the sun!