I think I found him!

Well they say silence speaks a thousand words. And whoever ‘they’ are…they’re right. As always, my silence has meant there have been many changes in my life. The loss of one horsey love and the gain of another.

After a really amazing time with such a super once in a lifetime horse there were lots of changes going on in my life which meant Woody went back to his owner Amy and I moved back to Ireland. For some reason I didn’t feel as sad saying goodbye to Woody as I was to Beau, I think because I’m very close to Amy so I knew we would be in touch all the time and I knew exactly the type of fabulous life she would give him. They’re now riding up a storm in the south of England and I’m loving seeing their regular updates...social media is the bomb diggidy!

Ireland was a whole other ball game. I wasn’t sure if they knew how to SPELL dressage, let alone know what it is. How wrong I was! Good aul Judy Reynolds has put Ireland on the dressage map and there is more and more interest growing over here. I was nervous about leaving a country with SO many fantastic trainers and opportunities but I really feel like I’ve landed on my feet with my yard and trainer, Sandra Blake Farrell. Not only am I learning SO much from her, she is totally sound too…..someone ring the GIRL CRUSH alarm (insert blushing emoji) . Sure, Ireland is a little less Pikeur and a little more Primark. But I came back because I missed the people and the proximity of everything. That is unless, of course, you want to still compete British Dressage in which case you need to commission planes trains and automobiles to get you there (I WILL do it).

Anyway, I digress. So. There I was. Twitching away without a horse to feed my habit. Lots of changes going on. I’m sure that’s when drug users feed their habit…when there’s change or stress. So I did the same. I fed my habit. I decided to book a flight over to Holland to go horse shopping. Best. Weekend. EVVEERRRRRRR. I met up with a couple of great dealers who showed me around. If I’m completely honest I had been online shopping for about a year on www.sporthorses.nl (it’s like ebay for horses). I can also say I’m now 99% fluent in dutch….Paard (horse) Te Koop (for sale) Dressuurpaard (dressage horse)….you get the drift. There was one horse I had saved in my ‘favourites’ and had enquired bout him. He was out of my budget but they had others to show me. So, armed with my hat and my boots I went on my own little road trip across Holland and Belgium to try out horses.

 

If anyone is thinking of getting a horse, I would highly recommend doing this. There are lots of good and bad points to buying abroad, which I won’t list here but you can find more about them on De Google. Everyone has a different idea of what is right for them. For me, I wanted something that could hit the ground running. I was starting to compete Advanced Medium and it was REALLY exciting and the prospect of going back to prelim, for me, just wasn’t going to work. But I did go with an open mind and tried both youngsters and older more advanced horses. And literally fell in love with every one I tried…sigh. There are FANTASTIC horses in Ireland and the UK and I’m all about supporting home grown. But I’m also about supporting my wallet and quite frankly I never would have been able to afford a horse at the level I wanted in the UK.

Furst Romanoff: Furst Romancier x Royal Hit

So trying out horses is the BEST FUN EVER!!! Over the weekend there were three that stood out. One was a lovely bright bay Spielberg gelding. Super correct, trainable and made me feel like a good rider. But for his level he was a little out of my budget. The second was a 4 year old gelding who had been bred for jumping but just wasn’t really good enough. Gorgeous mover, tried his little heard out and I went back to see him again and rode him around in an actual thunder storm. Shit the bed, but he was super. I also went to see the horse who I had been perving over for months, a 6 year old by Furst Romancier with Sandro Hit on the dams side, but who was out of my budget. And of course, fell in love with him. He was a little bit cheeky and I liked that about him. But tried everything I asked of him. Has a lot of the advanced movements there but is still super young and inexperienced so it will be about reigning it in for a couple of years until he’s ready. So he was expensive. But I loved him. He had a FAB face and god knows I love a good looking creature. So I did what any responsible person would do and googled as much as I could until I found something which would tell me to buy him: "Buy the most expensive horse you can afford because the price of purchasing a horse is the least expensive aspect of horse ownership." OK Robert H Koontz DVM from www.ckequinehospital.com, I will. Thank you for your professional advice.

 

Hello Neighbour

‘Romy’ arrived fresh off the boat on Wednesday 6^th July 2016. He travelled a dream. He settled a dream. I have now turned into an overly paranoid owner because he’s been SO good that I just keep thinking something bad is going to happen. OK he eats everything in sight so I will need a rug budget capable of servicing all the horses in Ireland combined. But if that’s his ‘bad’ bits, then that’s AOK with me.

 

 I’ll leave our progress for another day and finish today’s post off with some photos of the gorgeous man doing what he does best….LOOKING GORGEOUS!