rhanarose

Well - I guess I got all the comments I'm going to get on last post - so - I'll update:

First of all - To all of you who tell me ( so kindly, I might add - ) that I don't need to lose weight, you don't understand!! I'm only 5 ft 1 inch tall !! I would feel so much better about my bod if I could just take off 10 lbs. Having said that - I'll say also that it doesn't look like it'll happen anyway. I'd have to give up eating altogether. I already exercise quite a bit, and have been for 25 years ........So, not to worry - I won't end up looking like the pin-thin, anorexic, concentration camp, skeletons (with boobs) that grace the pages of this pinup site...........


* if only my boi would stop drooling over the afore mentioned waifs........ *

So now I'm going to tell you about my fantastic horse - ( I may lose some of you dear readers here, if you haven't already clicked this off after the first paragragh. ) Bye.......* waves *
OK - to recap -
I bought the horse while I was living in England. She was the last of a string of horses - ( 5 to be precise ) I owned during my 4 years in the UK. She was only 4 and 1/2 years old when I bought her. Some said she was too young for a novice rider like me, but I usually do what I want regardless of well-intentioned advice. When we moved back to the US, everyone assumed that I would sell her, and buy a horse back in the US . But NOooooo.........I was determined to ship her over regardless of the $$. So she travelled form England to Amsterdam by boat. Six weeks of quarantine there. Amsterdam to Toronto Canada, by plane. Trailered to Ottowa for another six weeks of quarantine there. Finally arirving in Michigan, again by trailer. A total of 4 months and an (undisclosed ) large amount of $$ later......
At first things went smoothly - she seemed to adjust to her new surroundings after all that travel, quite easily. Then, she turned 6. People who have owned young horses tell me, that 6 is a " teenage " age for them. She started to get naughty - and strong. She would run away with me in canter, and try as I might, I could not control her. I went through a string of instructors - I had them all ride her. they concluded that yes, she was misbehaving, and it was really up to me to be strong enough to ride her through the bad stuff and steer her toward the desired behavior. Unfortunately, I had lost a whole lot of my confidance through all this. I considered selling her, or leasing her out to a more expeienced rider. Needless to say - I was totally discouraged, and depressed..........I also had to deal with the, " I told you so's......"
Well - I persevered. I went back to the strongest of my instructors. She had a real no-nonsense attitude. We decided to give it 6 months of her training Xena, and me taking lessons on a school horse to get back my confidence. After about 2 months, I was back on Xena, taking things very slowly and carefully. Things were looking up. They kept going welll. I was smiling again, enjoying her. I worked hard on her strong, forward canter. I got her head carriage right. I slowed her and learned to collect her stride. At the end of the 6 months, I was actually starting to JUMP her!!
Then my trainer/instructor moved to another barn - far away! My first instinct was to follow her out there, even though it would mean an hour drive each way for me! I thoiught I had to stay with that person who got me through the hard times with Xena - that SHE was the only person who could understand my horse - and ME - and keep us together if problems came up. ( And surely they would, right? )
In the end, I decided that the drive was too far, and that I would probably not be able to make it out there very often, even though the actual board was cheaper. I decided to stay where I was, and see if I could find another instructor who could work miracles with us. Turned out - I didn't need miracles!! Xena and I kept going together, and guess what?!! ]I handled her myself! All that work paid off!!
She has turned into the BEST horse - everyone loves her! She is great to handle on the ground, in her stall, around kids and animals. I took her to a friends' ranch for a week of trail riding this past September. She was the best trail horse too! There seems to be nothing thas she won't do willingly. She walks right in to the trailer, she settles in new places easily, she eats everything - maintains her weight. She doesn't kick, bite, buck or rear....... She loves people - even liitle kids !! I can put beginners on her, and teach them the basics of riding.
Recently, she stepped on a very long roofing nail while I was riding her in the covered, indoor arena at our barn. It went all the way up to her coffin bone! Could have been a very bad infection. The vet injected her with massive antibiotics, and she had to have them intravenously for a cpouple of days. We had to soak her foot in a bucket of warm water 2 x a day. For 3 weeks, she had to stay in her stall with her foot bandaged, while we waited to see if it would become infected. After 3 weeks the vet pronounced her healed, infection free, and ready to ride. Talk about miracles! We really dodged a bullet on that one - Yesterday I took her out of her stall, and ( with some trepidation, I must admit ) - I got on her and rode for 20 minutes. For those of you who don't know this - horses get pretty wired when they can't get out of their stall for long periods of time . She was terrific for me - a little strong, but nothing I couldn't handle .
We have concluded that she is, in fact, the perfect horse! We are made for eachother. I'm so glad we worked through all our issues, stayed the course and saw it through.

So the moral of this happy story is obvious, n'est pas? Apply it to B]your lives!!