The perfect horse

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TITLE="Banners"><U>Banners</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:info@equiriders.co.uk" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:info@equiriders.co.uk"><U><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c880ffff00.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Contact Us</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>THE SEARCH FOR THE PERFECT HORSE   </I></div> <div> <I>by Keiman                                                               </I></div> <div> <I>                                                                             <IMG SRC="30388c80.jpg" border=0 width="136" height="200" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></div> <div> <I>                                                                                     </I><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#9900FF" FACE="Georgia" ><I>  Prince when he first arrived </I></FONT></div> <div> <I>It begins when I was helping my mum my mums friend and my sister to look after their horses Jack and Biggy. </I></div> <div> <I>I was doing everything from mucking out to pooh-picking but not riding as I didn't have a horse to ride. My mum said that Jack was available for me to ride whenever I wanted (Jack is my mum's horse but my sister looks after him as he is hers also, so she rides him at every available chance so I didn't get a look in nor did my mum). I felt as though I would be able to look after a horse as I was looking after the other 2. </I></div> <div> <I>I wanted a horse I think but I hardly ever mentioned it. </I></div> <div> <I>Then one morning I was asked to make a coffee for everyone which I was reluctant to do as I was beginning to get fed up of doing everything for nothing but, placed on top of the kettle was this card with my name on it. I decided that I wasn't going to open this card as everyone was watching and I didn't know why, so I continued to make the drinks and my mum was insisting that I should open the card, I still have the card now it is of 2 horses a mare and a foal grazing in a field, I then opened the card it read "After all your hard work and patience you'll soon have your very own we give you stable 5 for one of your own".</I></div> <div> <I>I was stumped everyone was looking at me I had this grin on my face that</I></div> <div> <I>stretched from check to cheek. All I could her was my grandma shouting has he read it?? does he know??. I knew what it meant but I couldn't understand why it was written with my grandmas hand writing. </I></div> <div> <I>My mum then explained they had noticed all the hard work that I had put in to the yard and were going to buy me my very own horse, the reason that it was written by my grandma was because she wanted to help too.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I> THE SEARCH HAD NOW BEGUN!</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Out of the 2 months of looking through several papers and ringing people</I></div> <div> <I>up we had viewed countless horses and I finally got the one I wanted. </I></div> <div> <I>It was planned before I was told that I was to get this grey gelding and it was to be put in a stable. I was to turn up one morning and there would be my horse. Unfortunately that didn't happen as the horse didn't suit the requirements for me,  not a novice rider but I needed a horse that would give me confidence and one that I could trust, as I hadn't ridden for several months. </I></div> <div> <I>We looked into a shortlist of 13 horses thoroughly, amongst them was Rosie an Irish Draught X horse. We rang up and the horse was said to be slightly roach back. When we got there it was not a roach back, the back was deformed, it was a curvature of the spine. It was also total plod and dead to the leg. Not what I had wanted.</I></div> <div> <I>Another one that we saw was called Dara. A typical cob, he was the ugliest horse alive, he had literally a 3 ft head, had just been backed and incredibly green. </I></div> <div> <I>We saw several like this, all asking extortionate prices for horses that were useless just selling them for what the horse is worth to them not a truthful price!. </I></div> <div> <I>I then went to see a welsh section D named Griff he was stunning! The best looking horse we had seen so far. He had papers everything, perfect on sight. He rode like a dream giving confidence as soon as I sat on him. He did exactly as I asked with no question, I was so confident I decided that I was going to ride him out. I did and he was brilliant didn't pull in the slightest. That was it he was to be mine I had decided within an hour of seeing him. My mum was unsure.</I></div> <div> <I>The only faults apparent to him were that he had, had sarcoids. They had been successfully removed the previous year and, had showed no signs of returning.  The  fault within himself was that he bit if given treats, which is a small price to pay for a superb horse, it wouldn't be difficult to not give</I></div> <div> <I>him treats!!!!. </I></div> <div> <I>As it happened we were planning on buying this horse after we had spoken to the vet about the sarcoids! The vet let it slip whilst we were talking to her that this 7 year old welsh cob has arthritis. </I></div> <div> <I>That was it the best horse we had seen and it had arthritis we were still planning on buying this horse only if the owner told us when we asked. We did ask and she denyed any knowledge, that was it we couldn't trust her. We were all upset as this horse was the best. He was wonderful but had too many medical problems at 7 years old, as I wanted a horse for doing a bit of everything it was decided that it would be unfair for us to purchase this horse and ask for it to do the things we wanted of it.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>I then decided after that I didn't want a cob so we went to the other end of the scale sleek Thoroughbred's!</I></div> <div> <I>It was a mistake! I had a mare on loan and within the first 2 weeks she had, bolted, chucked me off and had started to knock my confidence, she couldn't walk in a straight line either so she went. </I></div> <div> <I>It wasn't the horse I wanted. Her name being Chloe she wasn't very nice and had an evil look about her.</I></div> <div> <I>By this point 2 months had passed and after travelling all across Yorkshire looking for the perfect horse we were starting to get tired and fed up. I felt as if I wasn't supposed to have a horse.</I></div> <div> <I>It was upsetting we had seen so many horses, our heads were spinning, the phone bill was sky-high and the amount of papers we were getting increased. My mum was starting to get angry and upset.</I></div> <div> <I>On the Wednesday evening as usual we got the paper and began to scan through. A Welsh cob 15.1 was there, we rang it up and made an appointment to see it on the Thursday after school. It was about 50 miles away and when we got there the vet had checked him over and had injected him with flu and his Tetanus. By this time it was dark and starting to get cold so he was tacked up and I rode in the paddock with no lights just the light from the street. </I></div> <div> <I>He was brilliant but I was unsure this was too good to be true "what if? what if?" kept going through my mind. I was unsure I had been let down too many times and I didn't want to get attached. </I></div> <div> <I>My mum didn't ride him but she knew he was right. She came over to me and said "he's brilliant, the owner has apparently been asked by a college for him".</I></div> <div> <I>That was it my mind was set if a college wanted this horse he must be good. I said we'd take him.</I></div> <div> <I>He arrived on the Saturday 2 days later.</I></div> <div> <I>He was now my horse. </I></div> <div> <I>From when he was young he was brought up in a field having to fight for his food, so when you fed him he was nasty. The blacksmith that had done his feet once when he was around 4 years old burnt him with a hot shoe, from this bad memory, he wouldn't let anyone new pick his rear feet out without a fight. </I></div> <div> <I>He had us up against the wall, on some occasions but never hurt anyone. He is the king of the field and he will go for the other horses when its time to come in for tea.</I></div> <div> <I>This was to be my perfect horse supposedly. </I></div> <div> <I>He was new and came across nasty, Prince and I soon bonded and he got upset if I left him, he was known on the yard to be nasty and possessed it was horrid.</I></div> <div> <I> A couple of months later he started to come right and by the spring the nastiness had gone and we started to work.</I></div> <div> <I>I have never ridden a horse so willing or one that wants to work, be schooled as much as he does he was definately the best choice. </I></div> <div> <I>By then he had lost all his attitude towards me and the people who looked after him and left the others alone.</I></div> <div> <I> He still has little tantrums but only with the blacksmith, where he'll stamp a foot or pull a face but, as long as you talk to him he's fine. He settled down well and has become the best horse that I could want or wish to have. I wouldn't swap him for the world he's PERFECT!!.</I></div> <div> <I>Now he is part of our family. He is a funny intelligent horse who loves</I></div> <div> <I>to be ridden, he has brought me a lot of fun, and at the first show we ever did he jumped 4 clear rounds out of 4 and got placed 4th with a rosette. We also had 2 clear round rosettes.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>This year we were planning to do better and more!!</I></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I><IMG SRC="30463bb0.jpg" border=0 width="99" height="187" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="stories.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Readers Stories"><U><I> <img src="HTMLobj-973/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="67" height="35">  </I></U></A><I>  </I><A HREF="mailto:info@equiriders.co.uk" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:info@equiriders.co.uk"><U><I> <img src="HTMLobj-974/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="67" height="35">  </I></U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>