So it’s coming up on the one year anniversary of when I bought my first horse, Taylor Made Suede, and the one year anniversary of my ‘getting back into the horse world’ has just past, and it got me to thinking about how this website got started and everything that has happened in the past year.
Every once in a while I have thought about starting a journal, but then think, who would be interested in reading that. Then I remembered something a lady said to me recently at a tack swap meet and I thought, well she might be interested and if that one person is, maybe there would be others. So here goes…
January 2008, I placed an ad on bend.craigslist.com asking if there was anyone out there who might be interested in teaching me about horses, not just how to ride, but how to take care of them, with the idea of someday owning one of my own. Well, a lovely lady, named Kimberly McDonald, answered my ad and we met, started talking and I started going out to her place to learn what she could teach me. I learned from her for a couple of weeks, but then I got a job and our schedules no longer matched. However before we parted ways, she took me to a trail course playday at Rolling M Ranch out in Sisters and introduced me to Shari Magurie. Shari mentioned that I should come when I had time. I not normally an outgoing person and going somewhere when I’ve only met the person once (and barely spoke too) isn’t soemthing I normally do, but mustering up as much courage as I could, that following weekend, I did.
I don’t remember exactly what we did that first day, but during the weeks that followed I started learning; ground work, how to work a horse on a drive line, to ride again and before long Shari said “I think you’re ready for one of your own”.
(Heart stopped. Did I hear her correctly?)
I had thought for sure that it would be at least a year before I was ready for one of my own. But here it was, the middle of April, and did she just say “I was ready for one of my own?”! Not just any horse, she said, but “one who has had little handling, hasn’t learned any bad habits and one you can train”.
(Heart Stopped. Seriously! You want me to buy an un-trained horse and I’m going to teach it! ME?!)
Am I really ready for this? I said.
Yes, she said, I’ll be with you, every step of the way.
(Seriuosly! Me?!)
So I started looking and on May 14, 2009, we found “Taylor”. Actually I don’t know what his name was when we went to go look at him. I don’t remember much of that first day I saw him. Love at first site.
I had talked to a lot of horse sellers, looked at a lot of horses, in-persons and on the Internet. But from the moment I saw him, as were were driving up the road, everything else stoped. You know that “ahhhhhhh”, angels singing, clouds parting momement”, that was it, I had no hope of not buying that horse.
Two days later we went and picked him up. Him, who had for the last year spent his days roaming 600 acres with no one to bother him but cows. Him, who had, but for one time in his life, and a few young age, had never seen a trailer, let alone been in one. 1200 pounds of trailer-kicking horse.
Lovely, peaceful ride home. Yeah, Right.
He settled right in. Spent his next few days vacuuming up hay, napping and getting use to me interrupting his napping and eating. Because of my work schedule, that following week, not much else was accomplished, other than my learning to groom him and that he HATED having his feet or ( I repeat, HATED) having his back legs touched.
(I was quite plesantly suprise at how well he adjusted. He went from roaming 600 acres to livivng in a stall-and-run with very little fanfare and stress. good omen!)
People told me that looked just like horse, Spirit, from the movie. I hadn’t seen the movie, still haven’t. But I’ve seen clips since then and they are right. Could be his brother.
About a week after he was home, I was listening to a Colbie Caillat cd when the song played and it hit me. I had just bought a horse, me, I just bought a horse. I own a horse. My first horse. And he was Taylor Made for me. (I had to pull over to wipe away the tears. )
more to come…
