Fast forward to summer of 2007. I am married and have two toddlers at home. Horse-craziness has been back full-blast for several years now - I even bought a halter for my future horse. I start leasing a black Morgan mare named Shadow that is living at the base stables (for those that don't know, most Army and ex-Army bases have horse stables!!). Shadow has some issues - she will not stand for mounting, will not allow you to pick up her hind feet, and likes to go faster than a newbie should be going when not dangling from the end of a longe line. Even with her quirks, Shadow was a sweet girl and I offered by buy her. Her owner wanted $3500 - too much. So I started horse shopping.
Shadow
It wasn't too long before I saw a Dreamhorse ad for a 4 year old, Standardbred/Morgan mare. This mare was everything I was avoiding due to my father's cowboy advice (your first horse should be a 20-year-old QH gelding). I answered the ad anyway, as the woman clearly adored this young mare. I went to meet Karma, and we clicked. She was young, but she was level-headed, sound, barefoot, and slow. In fact, she had originally been purchased for the woman's 9-year-old daughter, but the daughter preferred her mom's (faster) gelding. We scheduled a vet check and I brought Karma home to the stables a week or two later. I didn't own a saddle, so my first several rides were in a bareback pad - and Karma was amazing. She never offered to run off or do anything remotely scary. A few weeks later, I bought an old English saddle that happened to fit Karma very well. I met a lady named Judy, who owned two horses of her own. Her youngest was a half-Belgian gelding whom was in trail training. She offered to trailer us to a local poker ride. We had a blast! We went over logs and through a belly-deep river crossing. The only time Karma hesitated was walking over a bridge but she went with a little coaxing. She was so fantastic I even had someone offer to purchase her after the ride. It was a great day.
Ready to go! Yes, she is quite lovely.
I started taking lessons with different people - let's just say that knowing how to ride doesn't make you a good instructor. One of the folks was helpful but most were a waste of time and money - and actually made me nervous to ride my horse, who had a HUGE trot. And Karma started to develop bad habits. It was a slow thing, but once it happened, I didn't know how to correct them. For instance, I had Karma professionally hauled to a vet clinic once when I was afraid she was colicking - and my once easily-loaded horse had to be tranq'd in order to get into Judy's trailer to be hauled home. She never loaded easily again and would kick the door of the trailer while hauling. She was still a great horse, but I was beginning to become afraid that I wasn't good enough for her. This turned into a vicious cycle of me doing almost nothing with her, for the fear that I was doing the wrong things. While this was going on, I had a surgery on one of my feet that didn't go as well as hoped, and now affects my hips and back - this made me clumsy while mounting my tall (for me) horse, which in turn caused her to move while mounting *sigh*. This all happened over several years, and it got to the point that I would only ride her about twice a year. She was still *mostly* well-behaved during these rides. It made me feel so guilty that she was basically wasting away as a pasture pet when she could do much more. During this time, I became very interested in endurance riding, but I just couldn't see a feasible way to get from where we were to my eventual goal. I did buy a lot of the necessary gear though - Sensation saddle, beta biothane tack, etc :)
Me and Karma after the Veteran's Day Parade 2011
I was discharged from the Air Force due to the afore-mentioned surgery and after effects in January 2012. I had to get a civilian job and was working as many hours as during my AF career, which meant I had little time (and a convenient excuse) for riding or working with Karma. I still hung out with her and she was still a total pocket pony. In Sept of 2012, my husband started gearing up to get us back 'home' to Florida. We'd been gone for 12 years, and it was time to move closer to family. Our income during this time had dropped by 1/2-2/3. We had no idea exactly what would happen after we arrived in Florida, but we knew we wouldn't have the money to board Karma. I talked to my friend Judy. I told her what was going on and that I needed to find a home for Karma. I wasn't asking for any money, but I would not let her go to just anyone. Judy told me she'd help me find her a good place. A couple of weeks later, a girl came out with her mom and trainer to try Karma out. Karma ended up going home with them a week or so later. She's doing great, and has a little girl to love on that loves back on her. She's in hunter/jumper training. If for some reason she doesn't make it as a hunter (if she starts disliking her job), Judy will find her another home.
Karma and her new BFF
Anyways, I was so bummed that I didn't even think about horses again for 8 months. Then, I started getting cabin fever and realized that I really needed to go riding. I have found a great trainer (a real trainer!!), and have had 8 lessons so far. I'm comfortable trotting now - I have even jumped (!!!), though I still have a lot of room for improvement. Marie, my trainer, told me that I'm ready for a schooling show but with school shopping this month, I really shouldn't - and so, I won't. I will still accompany them to the show though :)
Plans for the future: I will not get another horse until we are back out of debt. I'm currently using my GI Bill to get my bachelor's degree in Accounting and Health Science - this will actually pay for my lessons and help us get out of debt faster. I may start volunteering at a large animal vet clinic after the kids start school - this is actually what I would most like to do with my life, but it would be dumb not to take advantage of my GI Bill after I paid into it. I will continue to take riding lessons until I get another horse of my own. I'm currently taking one lesson a week but hope to go up to two per week in the next couple of months.
Me and my usual lesson buddy, Eclipse - please excuse my chunkiness!
So, that's about it. Long and whiny, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed with how I handled the first shot at my childhood dream. Mostly this blog will be about my continued progress during lessons and any extra-curricular horse stuff I can manage to squeeze in. Btw, if you are a horse fanatic with a tolerant spouse, please be sure to give them an extra hug. I cannot imagine what it must be like for those that don't share our equine obsession - to see the money, blood, sweat, and tears that go into horses but not to understand/share in the joy. The time away from them, if they aren't horse people too. I love you, babe! Thank you for letting me take what little extra(?) money we have and throw it away ;)PS. To those whose blogs I follow - I have been reading your blogs anonymously for years - just in case you were wondering!
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