The blues

Yes, we did get a chance to ride since my last post but it wasn't until yesterday.  It seems like the more I say I'm going to ride the more all sorts of different things try to get in the way.  Maybe I should start saying that I'm absolutely NOT going to ride?  Who knows, life might start throwing things at me to get me to ride then!  We even rode off our property a little ways!  It was a lot of fun but a little scary too.  The last time I tried riding Traveller off property he bolted out from under me and I was hurting bad for awhile.  This time I think it helped that he had Tina with him, he cozied up to her as if for comfort a few times, and I put a slightly tougher bit on him (an eggbutt snaffle) just in case I needed some emergency control.  I really did my best to stay very relaxed and he actually did very well!  He did swing his head around a lot looking at everything and felt tense under me like he could spook though he never did.  Hopefully with some more practice and life experience he'll mellow out better.  He's such a good horse I have to keep reminding myself that he's rather young and green!

But today I've got the blues.  We have officially decided that it would be better for us and them to find Brother and Nugget more suitable homes.  It just kills me because I've grown to love them so my heart doesn't want to but my head says it's the smart thing.  They need someone who can tune up their training and get them under saddle, someone very experienced, and while at one time I was a very experienced rider it's just been too many years.  They're both just loving being pasture pets for the most part, of course, but I also have to admit that if we're going to put out this much time and money on a couple of horses I'd like to be able to ride them. 

I started today with five emails from people all asking about them which bummed me out.  Two of those are automatically out of the running just because I don't think Brother and Nugget are suitable for what they want.  One wants to know if they're small enough to be used as polo ponies.  I don't know just how small they'd have to be but I kinda doubt that at 15.3 and 16.2 they'll make the cut.  The other really likes the looks of Nugget's bloodlines and would like to use her as a brood mare.  On the one hand I think Nugget's personality would make an awesome brood mare!  She's so sweet and quiet I can just see her loving having foals to nurture.  Unfortunately, though I don't have an eye for judging horse conformation yet, I really don't think she's got the best conformation and she has the defect of roaring.  I've shown and bred Great Danes and I would never, ever have bred one that was less than as close to perfect as possible, completely forget one that had any kind of major defect, and I would like to think that it's the same with horses!

We'll see what happens but I already know without a single doubt that I'll miss these guys so much.  They're not even gone and my heart is breaking.