Kinsey Sold

Well it is both with sadness and relief that I report that Kinsey has a new home. She will be leaving in the next few days to go to Illinois to start her new life. One where it looks like she will be used and well liked. I am excited for her, sounds like she is going to be doing a lot of trail riding.

I promised R that I had learned my lesson. What lesson? I think it can all be summed up with phrase: "Buy the horse you can ride now."

Buying a horse is exciting and exhausting. We often feel many things when looking for a horse. Grandiose daydreams of riding down the trails on a big black horse (ehem). Pressure from a trainer or friend to buy this or that type of horse. Thinking that we will "grow into" a horse. Plus just general antsyness to get a new horse.

Abby is an eye catching, a big black Percheron. She has a sweet temperament and I admit, I get romantic thoughts of knights of the round table when I ride her. Or rather when I have ridden her. She is HUGE though, and has grown since I got her. I figured if I had problems my old trainer could help me. WRONG, she turned out to be pycho, the trainer not Abby. So I have a big horse that I can't ride.

Mistakes
* I could only barely ride her when I got her.
* I fell in love with the idea of riding her.
* I didn't make sure that she would do what I wanted her to: ride outside and trail ride.
* I was depending too much on help from an outside source.

Kinsey was not as appealing to me. I know that is horrible to say, but I just never did click with her. For the first few months I didn't even feel like she was mine. I sort of felt trapped in to buying, not only her, but a horse. I didn't think I would find someone to let me ride their horses because of my size. She was smaller and I was told that she rode well, so I thought it would be a good match. I thought that I could ride her by spring. Guess what? Not so much.

Mistakes
* I didn't think for myself and I didn't heed my gut feeling.
* I thought she would be a great horse for me in a few months.
* I was antsy to get a new horse.
* I didn't see her ridden, although I did afterwards and it went well for awhile.
* I was just not ready for a horse yet, I still had my own issues.
* I didn't wait until I saved up enough money to be able to look at a reasonable price range.
* I didn't have clear focus of what my next horse should be like.

So in short, I could not ride either of these horses when I got them. HEED MY MISTAKES. Really I do hope that this post helps someone, keep your logical mind in the forefront when choosing your next riding partner. Although as my trainer told me today, "Some people just have to learn the hard way." Yup, some of us do.

So am I looking for another horse? Only half heartedly. I think *sniff, sniff* as much as I love her, Abby needs to go too. We are going to see if we can get her to R's so I can work with her. I love her something awful, but she is just too big. She is about 17hh now I am really want something around 14hh. She is an expensive pasture pet and I really think she needs to do something. She is still young and very healthy. Why just let her sit around.