ChristineCorp
Well-Known Member
We have a gorgeous, quality, 15.2/3 gelding who's been with us 10 years so he can't be that bad. Add in the fact that my daughter's blind and can do everything with him herself including lungeing and long reining and I know you'll wonder what my problem is.
We've had him since a 3yr old and apart from the backing bit we've done everything ourselves. If you really think about the limitations of the disability he's missed out on a chunk of life. I've had to pay people to hack him out so he's not perfect in traffic because I don't have long pockets but it's something that would disappear with regular hacking. He doesn't jump either for obvious reasons.
What he is very good at is sussing out people's limitations and doing no more than he's asked for or making it hard work to ride him. Nothing nasty at all, just lazy, bored call it what you will. We've been very guilty of putting him to one side in favour of her other horse which sadly died last month, so now he has to do his bit.
He's not difficult every day and he's safe to take to competitions. His dressage scores have been 65-75% at prelim. Last year he won the blind riders championship at RDA nationals with 73.13% from list 1 and 2 judges.
When we're being sensible we know we should let him go, then he's brilliant and we change our minds. My husband and I are 'senior citizens' officially and we have days when we feel we'd just like something that's easy and enjoyable, then someone tries to ride him and we get angry about their poor skills and decide to keep him. At 60 I can ride him, he loves his lateral work and would do elementary with the right rider.
I don't know what to ask for him and half of me doesn't want the hassle involved with selling. I need something nearer 15 hands because I believe his size is the problem and I'd like to have a perfect world where I could just swap with someone. If I lived in an area where people were capable and competitive I'm sure I would have lots of free help, but that's not going to happen here.
All ideas welcome. I can't loan him because we need a horse so please don't suggest that.
We've had him since a 3yr old and apart from the backing bit we've done everything ourselves. If you really think about the limitations of the disability he's missed out on a chunk of life. I've had to pay people to hack him out so he's not perfect in traffic because I don't have long pockets but it's something that would disappear with regular hacking. He doesn't jump either for obvious reasons.
What he is very good at is sussing out people's limitations and doing no more than he's asked for or making it hard work to ride him. Nothing nasty at all, just lazy, bored call it what you will. We've been very guilty of putting him to one side in favour of her other horse which sadly died last month, so now he has to do his bit.
He's not difficult every day and he's safe to take to competitions. His dressage scores have been 65-75% at prelim. Last year he won the blind riders championship at RDA nationals with 73.13% from list 1 and 2 judges.
When we're being sensible we know we should let him go, then he's brilliant and we change our minds. My husband and I are 'senior citizens' officially and we have days when we feel we'd just like something that's easy and enjoyable, then someone tries to ride him and we get angry about their poor skills and decide to keep him. At 60 I can ride him, he loves his lateral work and would do elementary with the right rider.
I don't know what to ask for him and half of me doesn't want the hassle involved with selling. I need something nearer 15 hands because I believe his size is the problem and I'd like to have a perfect world where I could just swap with someone. If I lived in an area where people were capable and competitive I'm sure I would have lots of free help, but that's not going to happen here.
All ideas welcome. I can't loan him because we need a horse so please don't suggest that.
