Well here's my story and a bit about me.
I got my first horse in 8th grade as a Christmas present. I'd been begging and saving for years to get a horse. His name was JR and he was from the orignial Aladdin Arabian line. We got him for free from a guy who neglected him and JR was about 24 at that time. JR sat in a stall all day and was lucky if the owner came out to toss food to him. I owned JR for a month before I walked into his stall one morning to give him breakfast and found him dead.
About six months later my great-grandfather found Storm's advertisement shoved near the back of the tack room news at the local tack shop. I didn't think much of him. He was advertised as a 6 year old gray gelding. His owner wasn't very horse experienced so he was never really trained. He though any leg pressure was go faster. When you asked for a canter he'd get carried away and take off. He was terrified of dogs and four wheelers when I got him. I thought he didn't have much personality when I first rode him (boy was I WAY off!) but I bought him for 800 anyways. Anything to have a horse that was young! I passed up a lot of nice older horses because I didn't want to have to deal with more death.
I owned Storm for 4 years before I found him out in the paddock (we moved to a new house and the people thew old machines out there. We thought we got all the nails but not) with a 9 inch long nail straight in the middle of his belly straight in. He died of internal bleeding about 4 days later. The vet wasn't sure if he'd punctured his stomach or not and we couldn't afford 5,000 dollar surgery. I wasn't there when he died.
He died March 23, 2009. I miss him a lot. He'd morphed from a naughty horse who pretty much only new to go faster to a horse who knew leg cues, jumped 3 foot, did barrel the best he could (he couldn't ever top 21 seconds.. just not fast enough), could trust him with kids, was a awesome with traffic and dogs, and was my best friend. Seemed like the long I owned him the more he became everything that I wanted. I've canvased the paddock countless times with a huge magnet and pick up at least 30 handfuls of nails.
During the time I had Storm my grandmother bred Brego (in avatar) for me. Brego, or as I call him Bre, is about a year and seven months now. He's spunky, got an attitude (swoon!), and acts like a puppy with me. I love him so much. He's an Appendix QH. I cannot spell his sires first name but I'll find it out. Lol He's got awesome barrel horse lines on his sires side and some well known racing names on his dams. I have high hopes for him. I'm hoping he'll be a good jumper and decent dressage horse.
I know everyone looks at me funny when I saw I want to do those with him.I ride both English and western. Jumping is my passion though I'm drumming my fingers waiting on Brego to grown up. About 5 years before I can jump him. *sigh* But I'm taking it slow with him. I want him to last. Umm most of my first rides were snuck on the back of my mom's cranky mare Ginger. I was told she was too dangerous to ride. Pfff. Ginger is 95% show and not much action. She tries to intimidate you into getting off her. Once you ignore that she's a pretty sweet little mare. I remember when I didn't know how to cinch the saddle so I rode her bareback and bridless. I ended up on the ground a lot from her goes one way and me the other but it was fun and I didn't get hurt. I was told I would never be able to ride her but I'm the ONLY person who rides her now.
I have a thing for proving people wrong. I was told I'd never make a good jumper with my long legs. Check tossed that one out the window.So if you read all this kudos to you!
