September was busy too!

Hoping things will slow down a little now, but I think we've been hoping for that for most of this year!

Katie has loved all things to do with horses for about 8 or 9 years now.  She started with riding school lessons, as many do, in various establishments, riding a good variety of lovely, wonderful horses.  She's always favoured the slightly speedy, quirky and unpredicatable ones - zippy little Welsh ponies, and unpredicatable and beautiful Arabs.  The last riding school she attended saw her also competing there.  The most memorable times being her coming 2nd in cross country, 1st in dressage (and over all 2nd in competition) on said Arab.  Then, as luck would have it, she began to ride a local pony every day, learning so much about stable management, horse care, jumping and generally having a nice time with him.  During the last 2 1/2 years of local pony riding, we began to think more and more seriously about buying Katie her own horse.  Fools we may be, especially as she practically had a free pony to ride.  Unfortunately, this isn't always as brilliant as it may seem.  The pony would always belong to someone else, and therefore the final decision on everything was the owner's decision, which could at times, become a little frustrating.  As it happens, in September, we decided the time was right to buy a horse, and as things progressed we were asked not to return to ride the local pony.  It was quite upsetting and out of the blue - 2 1/2 years of getting to know a friend and then suddenly no more.  We were quite prepared to have continued riding the local pony for a while rather than just leave, and the owner was aware of that.  In hindsight, this would actually have been quite time consuming (and I'm not sure we'd have enjoyed mucking out twice every day!).  We said our goodbyes and will always have our memories (like his ears pricking up when we approach his stable, the whinnying when we turn up unexpectedly at his field).

We now have Jay.  He's a handsome 15hh horse.  The beam on Katie's face the times she rode him at the try outs said it all.  He comes with his own set of mini problems (hopefully mini anyway), as all horses probably do.  He hasn't been ridden steadily for months, as far as we're aware, and needs his top muscles building up.  Exercises, being ridden and a correct fitting saddle will all help with this.  He's jumping, but at present only straw bales, and I don't feel we should rush him into too much strenuous work just yet - build things up gradually.  He seems to love being ridden, ears pricked, attentive, and at times excitable (which Katie seems to find fun (there's me with my heart in my mouth)).  He's quite sensitive too - but responds well to calm and gentle words.  We've had Jay 4 weeks and are bonding with him very quickly.  Not only that, Katie's confidence in her own riding has grown tremendously in this short time.  So far she hasn't been fazed, taking things in her stride and plans what she's going to do to improve not just Jay but her own riding as well.  Next step - lessons, then back to the shows I guess.  Here's to the future of Katie and Jay.