However, being a person who a) always wants to learn everything good there is to know about horses, riding, different methods of working with horses and different disciplines and b) who has dreamed pretty much since starting riding 20 years ago of riding western, when my trainer told me she'd like to keep working with me and that the best way to carry on working and studying was to buy a horse...well...I kinda went right ahead and did it.
I wasn't super stupid. I found an ad in my local tack store showing a nice paint horse in a reining class, asked my more-knowledgeable-than-I friend to call the owner for info, asked my trainer her opinion; she knew the person who had been riding the horse and called her for info which came back ok. I checked with my vet and farrier - the vet knew him and indeed was the horse's vet. The consensus was, not a bad choice. So off I went to see him. Toby was a barely 14hh black and white registered tobiano Paint. He was a stallion until October 2011, cribbed, hadn't been ridden for around 2 years - he's 7 now - pretty well bred - his grandsire is QTS Poco Streke who apparently won some APHA titles in 1995 and has sired plenty of good reining horses.
He was living in a pretty run down barn and the first thing he did when I put my hand out to let him sniff was to throw himself to the back of his dark stall. In short, he wouldn't let me touch him. He was skinny, his feet were bad, his owner told us she didn't vaccinate for anything other than tetanus and flu, he was nervous, he was overly playful when she put him in the round pen to the point of aggression, which she actively encouraged. Plenty of red flags, but he was, despite the ribs, scabs and awful feet, a very good looking horse. A bit short and his neck was like two short planks, but I liked him. I didn't see him ridden, but I asked to take him on trial. She agreed, so he was to go to my trainer's barn the next Monday.
This was all back in May. I will do my best to follow up if and when things allow!
