Deja Vu

It was exactly a year ago that I had just started the search for my next horse.. here we are again, now on the search for Derek's next horse.  I had plans to start riding every weekend that I could, not driving all over the state!  Lets hope we dont have to drag this on for months and months, but the pickin's are slim right now in our area and although I'm seeing some great horses out there, they are far enough away to warrant overnight trips!  Maybe the plus side of that, is that Derek & I can have a bunch of mini-vacations coming up..   Always trying to find the bright side of the story!

Horse #1 was supposed to be a 15.1h 8yr Palomino gelding.  I saw this picture and immediately liked his build.. just look at that butt!  He was up in Mt Vernon, $2000 and he had a lot of trail experience that we were expecting in Derek's next horse. 

When we arrived, he was MAYBE 15h at the whithers, but he had a much bigger dip/sway back than it shows in this picture and his actual back was probably only 14.2..  He was short!!  He was well built though, stocky little bugger and he was very sweet and calm.  Stood quietly as we fiddled around and looked him over etc.  At this point, I was already 75% sure he wasnt going to work, I just felt he was too short, but Derek was OK with it, so  we put Dereks saddle on him, seemed to fit okay and then I bridled him and started to lead him around. 

His energy gears kicked in as soon as I started to lead him away..  He was a bit antsy, wanted to move and wasnt too keen on standing still.  I led him over to an area where Rachel (my friend) could get on him.  She offered to come along and ride the horse for Derek so we could see how he moved and just watch how he behaved under saddle.  He was pissy when I tried to move his body over to Rachel, he started moving as she mounted and she almost came off, but finally prevailed and was on his back.  By this time I was 95% sure I was not liking this horse.  Rachel rode him off and he was full of it.. he was wanting to trot, lope, his head was straight up the entire time and he just wasnt relaxed and laid back at all.  Rachel had a decent ride on him, but come to find out he basically has had 6 months off and he would require someone else to get the kinks back out of him before he was ready for Derek. 

I was 100% sure by the time we unsaddled him, that I wasnt going to be ok with buying him.  Derek and Rachel really liked his ground manners and were quite impressed by that and Rachel even thought he was worth a 2nd look out on a trail ride.. BUT in reality, we need a horse that can sit for a couple months and be the same horse as it would be if ridden daily...  Derek doesnt have the ability or want-to of riding a horse like that.  So the search continues..