And then there were two!
I've
been thinking a lot about getting a second horse, partly to take the pressure
of Romy slightly and partly to keep me in the saddle when he has well deserved
breaks throughout the year. I had considered quite a few horses but none of
them were right for some reason or another. It brought me back to the time when
I was buying my first ever dressage horse (see the first posts in this blog!).
There was one horse in particular who I already envisioned stabled beside Romy.
I had started to slyly purchase some new matchy matchy sets before the horse
even had been through the vetting. So no, you can't teach an old dog new tricks and you
can't teach an old....wait....a slightly middle aged Victoria a lesson
either.
And
then, just like that (with a bit of help from my friend, Glass O'Malbec) I had
agreed to buy a horse, unseen and unbroken from a seller in the UK. She was a
gangly ginger who trotted like she was on air. And nooooo, I don’t want people
to think it was a flippant decision made off the back of a fuzzy feeling from
the wine, it was something I had been thinking about for a long time and she
just came along at the right time. So it all moved pretty quickly, and before I knew it I was responsible for feeding 5 mouths (two big fluffies, two small fluffies and me). My fluffy family is ever growing, and something tells me I’m not quite done.
Luna is a ~16.2 three year old by Valdez (Houston)
out of a Westpoint elite mare. Her family tree has a lot of fancy schmancy names in
there, not least the world famous Jazz who I think she probably gets her looks
from...the big tangerine! She bounded off the lorry to our yard just outside of
Dublin and I must admit I felt like I had cartoon googly eyes popping out of my
head at the sight of her skinny, immature body but I was promptly told ‘Don’t
worry Victoria...you’re a feeder, she’s gonna be juuuuust fiiiiine’ so I ate
myself some cake and chilled out.
Her first couple of months with me have
been really lovely and developing a bond with her before she is backed has been
a real pleasure. I have to admit, having people around me who had experience
with starting youngsters made a huge difference because I was definitely a bit
blind to a few things. In fact, I remember mumbling to myself ‘I need to buy a
book about babies’ when I first held her leadrope after she came off the lorry.
I don’t really have a clue but I have a support team around me, not least Sina,
Lucy and Kevin at Greenogue who were really helpful and offered constructive
advice such as ‘you should long rein before you lunge (who knew!)’ (after I proudly declared 'TODAY I TAUGHT LUNA HOW TO LUNGE') and ‘maybe
don’t use your PS of Sweden bridle the first time you try to put a bridle on
her...babies break things’.
I made a promise to myself that I won’t
back her until her fourth year because I’ve seen too many horses have issues
from being backed and pushed far too young so I’ll wait until next year and
then hopefully she’ll be a little more mature and ready to start flicking her
toes in all the right directions! So she spent a month with me, learning how to
be groomed, how to be bridled, lead to the field, walked over poles, long
reined (kinda), and get used to something going under her belly and my GOLLY
was she a little dote about it all. Day 2 I thought to myself ‘what have I done’
after she nearly skinned me alive pulling away on the leadrope but that day I also
learnt to NEVER lead a youngster without gloves. We’ve both been learning and
by day 3 I was back believing in my little tangerine. After that month I turned
her away to grow and mature and while I was actually much sadder saying goodbye
to her than I expected to be(she’s literally ten minutes down the road from Romy) I was also happy
for her to be part of this new herd and proud of myself for doing what I
believe to be the right thing for her.
Luna, my little girl who loves a cuddle
and a scratch on the head, I can’t WAIT to see what the future holds for us,
even if Romy was wholly unimpressed with you (the only horse I’ve ever seen him
to turn away from...it’s like he knew).
I’ll post again soon about a recent
competition I did with Romy. *SPOLIER ALERT* he took home the red!
Till then
V & R & L
x
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