Ali16
Well-Known Member
In December I gave in to my temptations... and bought another horse after promising not to.... Woops. These things happen.
The proviso was that I didn't spend very much money and he/she could live out and didn't cost much to keep.
Soooo, after trawling the internet for something that fit the bill, I went to see Frank and fell in love. You might wonder why when you see the picture below, but he was so kind and genuine that I couldn't resist. It was a gamble, as I didn't see him jump or work in a school, but he looked very sound, moved well and was good to hack out, even though he wasn't in regular work (and hadn't been for the last 2 years). He's a 9yo, 15.2hh, Appaloosa x NF.
When I got him home, he had a clip and a bath and we soon realised that he was a very nervous boy and needed to take things slowly and be given a lot of love and confidence. He was very spooky when ridden and I am fairly certain he hadn't done much (if any) school work before. Canter was *interesting*, and it was a challenge to get around the school without spinning when he spooked!
Despite all this, he showed how willing he was to learn new things and progressed quickly with both his flatwork and jumping. The first time we faced him with poles on the floor he had a nervous breakdown. We worked slowly, using free schooling over fences, small grids and other simple exercises to get his confidence up and eventually he felt strong enough to take drag hunting - admittedly we only did one line as he wasn't fit enough to do the whole day, but my GOODNESS did he jump well! That was when I first felt his scope and how smart he could be.
I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to event him, but I really wanted to get out to some dressage and show jumping competitions first. Basically, this didn't happen due to various issues with other horses, transport etc etc. But we did go out XC schooling a couple of times and Frank decided that the novice fences at Boomerang were perfectly doable
SO, after a bit of umming and ahhhing, we decided to bite the bullet and go for our first 80cm event at Aston. I went with no expectations at all, and really wanted to see how Frank coped with a show atmosphere.
So, when he pulled out a very sweet dressage test for 34.5, I was thrilled. Spooking is well and truly a thing of the past & the only way his tension showed was by curling up in front and becoming unstable in the contact... we can work on that!
THESE PICTURES ARE BY LOTTIE STANYON & I HAVE FULL PERMISSION TO POST!
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I was sure that the SJ would catch him out and was concerned about the number of fillers, but I needn't have worried - he flew round (with a little peek at the first!) and just had one rail. He tried his little heart out
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Onto the XC - I was thinking that he might have a good old look at quite a few of the fences, but he was so brilliant at fences 1-5 that he lulled me into a false sense of security and we came too fast to the corner - he saw it too late and he just glanced off. Bother. I re-presented and he popped it beautifully! He flew round the rest of the course so well - he's going to be a XC machine!
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Finished out of the running, but it was definitely an educational day for both of us and I literally couldn't be more happy with my little white horse I have so much love for him I think I might burst! Ever since I was little I wanted a lovely white horse - now I have one! Officially he's *meant* to be for sale (part of the deal with the husband) but I'm not advertising him yet
... sssshhhh
A little video of our day featuring more gorgeous pictures by Lottie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIOhDzR0GT4
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The proviso was that I didn't spend very much money and he/she could live out and didn't cost much to keep.
Soooo, after trawling the internet for something that fit the bill, I went to see Frank and fell in love. You might wonder why when you see the picture below, but he was so kind and genuine that I couldn't resist. It was a gamble, as I didn't see him jump or work in a school, but he looked very sound, moved well and was good to hack out, even though he wasn't in regular work (and hadn't been for the last 2 years). He's a 9yo, 15.2hh, Appaloosa x NF.
When I got him home, he had a clip and a bath and we soon realised that he was a very nervous boy and needed to take things slowly and be given a lot of love and confidence. He was very spooky when ridden and I am fairly certain he hadn't done much (if any) school work before. Canter was *interesting*, and it was a challenge to get around the school without spinning when he spooked!
Despite all this, he showed how willing he was to learn new things and progressed quickly with both his flatwork and jumping. The first time we faced him with poles on the floor he had a nervous breakdown. We worked slowly, using free schooling over fences, small grids and other simple exercises to get his confidence up and eventually he felt strong enough to take drag hunting - admittedly we only did one line as he wasn't fit enough to do the whole day, but my GOODNESS did he jump well! That was when I first felt his scope and how smart he could be.
I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to event him, but I really wanted to get out to some dressage and show jumping competitions first. Basically, this didn't happen due to various issues with other horses, transport etc etc. But we did go out XC schooling a couple of times and Frank decided that the novice fences at Boomerang were perfectly doable
SO, after a bit of umming and ahhhing, we decided to bite the bullet and go for our first 80cm event at Aston. I went with no expectations at all, and really wanted to see how Frank coped with a show atmosphere.
So, when he pulled out a very sweet dressage test for 34.5, I was thrilled. Spooking is well and truly a thing of the past & the only way his tension showed was by curling up in front and becoming unstable in the contact... we can work on that!
THESE PICTURES ARE BY LOTTIE STANYON & I HAVE FULL PERMISSION TO POST!
[Content removed]
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I was sure that the SJ would catch him out and was concerned about the number of fillers, but I needn't have worried - he flew round (with a little peek at the first!) and just had one rail. He tried his little heart out
[Content removed]
Onto the XC - I was thinking that he might have a good old look at quite a few of the fences, but he was so brilliant at fences 1-5 that he lulled me into a false sense of security and we came too fast to the corner - he saw it too late and he just glanced off. Bother. I re-presented and he popped it beautifully! He flew round the rest of the course so well - he's going to be a XC machine!
[Content removed]
Finished out of the running, but it was definitely an educational day for both of us and I literally couldn't be more happy with my little white horse
I have so much love for him I think I might burst! Ever since I was little I wanted a lovely white horse - now I have one! Officially he's *meant* to be for sale (part of the deal with the husband) but I'm not advertising him yet ... sssshhhh
A little video of our day featuring more gorgeous pictures by Lottie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIOhDzR0GT4
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Did you bleach him? He looks awesome!
But he was very complimentary when he gave us a lesson the other day & we taught Frank leg yield & shoulder-in in 10 minutes flat!
