Jedi the impulse buy

Well, once again its been a seriously over the top time since I blogged last. I've managed to buy a new horse, exhaust all known options for Tux's future, and little Uno has improved more and more. And I've popped a bit of judging in there while I'm at it!

First things first....Tux. After a week of work at Ben Netterfield's place, Ben rang me to give it to me straight. The horse is unbelievably reactive, quite tense the entire time, and pretty much unsalvageable. Ben was incredulous that I had gotten around several horse trials on him. I guess when you don't have any other options you just kinda keep doing what you're doing.

The gist of my conversation with Ben was that the horse was pretty much a write-off and probably dogmeat. Extremely depressing.

While mulling over my options, I did the only thing a horse person can do to feel better, window shop some horses. I ended up giving James Arkins a call about a prospective pony he had for sale for a reasonable price. James is a World Cup showjumper with a nice place up near Moss Vale. No, that horse was sold, he said, but he had a couple of others I might be interested in, one in particular that was a lot more talented than the one I'd seen advertised.

Well, I thought, I'm going to be up at Berrima on the weekend judging anyway....maybe I could pop out to have a look. No harm in that, surely! And as we talked a bit more, I told James about Tux. He knew Tux's breeder and full sister and maybe I should bring him up for James to try out while I'm off judging....Sure!! Suddenly things were looking up for Tux. After checking the plan with Ben (I had not come across James before so wanted a bit of a reference), who said James was a fan of crazy ponies and was really very good at riding them, I thought screw it. Let's do it. So, I picked Tux up from Ben's yesterday morning and drove up to Moss Vale where I left him for the afternoon.

Judging was a pretty fun deal. A good class with some quality horses, though it got a bit hot with not much breeze. I still marvel at how many riders throw away marks for nothing - don't maintain their halt for 5 seconds, don't show any lengthening (not medium, just lengthening people), don't show a clear transition between free walk and medium walk....meh, accuracy is always the bane of my existence too.

After judging for 3 hours, I got a call from James. Tux was a no-go. Bugger. Basically, James has two categories of horse he takes on: the ones quiet and calm enough to sell on, and the ones that are pains to ride but are freak jumpers and therefore worth the effort. Tux didn't fall into either category, even for free. Bugger.

Ah, well. We tried. So I drove back up to James' place and thought I'd just have a ride of a couple of his horses to see what he had and keep my hand in. At this point, other than trying out a very unsuitable TB in Wollongong last Wednesday while I was there for a conference, I hadn't ridden for over 3 weeks.

I hopped on the first one but he was very green, very OTTB. Nice enough but I knew after 2 minutes he wasn't worth pressing on with. In the meantime, I was plied with beer and really lovely company and was having a really good time. It was a good end to a long day.

Then we saddled up Thunder (the boys really do know how to name their horses....they even have one called Doreen). James hopped on (without a helmet!!!) and showed him off. I could tell he really liked the horse and I immediately saw why. They'd only had him a couple of weeks, bought him unraced at the sales, but he was already showing softness, rhythm, balance and straightness beyond the norm. And with really quality movement to boot. My interest grew.

Then James started casually cantering around and popping over some jumps. These guys have a very different reality to you and I (unless you're a World Cup showjumper too!). He thinks a small jump is a metre. So, he's popping over jumps and asking us to jack them up and suddenly the jumps were over 1.20 and at least as wide. Thunder has no trouble and jumps them just the way he'd been jumping the smaller ones. With no heat, fizz or stress. Very interesting.

I hopped on (with 2/3 a beer under my belt by now) and felt this supple, attentive horse under me. It's a massive difference sitting on a decent horse after Tux and all his craziness! Bit of a trot, nice and forward, holding the rhythm fairly well, adjusting his stride a bit with no fuss. Some transitions with no fuss. Popped him into canter (still working on that transition but hey, who isn't!) and it was so balanced and comfortable. I was really liking this guy....then I jumped him. Just once. But it was awesome.

I made James an offer. He accepted. And, after another hour of hospitality (no more beer but plenty of garlic prawn pizza!), I was loading Tux and Thunder (who I immediately re-named Jedi) onto the float.

Crazy or what. But hey, the usual rigmarole of vet checks and second rides hasn't worked for me so well in the past. This wasn't a huge amount of money. Not small, but not huge. So....fuck it. Ha! This is a pic from this morning:


Uno is coming along pretty well. Latest pic of his wonky front legs:

Currently, he's on a pretty intensive treatment regime of redlight twice a day with pink goop applied after and Bowen therapy on his knee and redlight on his Ting and acupressure points every other day. He seems a lot less sore on it and is starting to put his weight on it while he paws with the other leg. All good signs. Happy days.