Well, there've been a lot of things I've been wanting to share lately but decided they weren't significant enough for making an entire thread for them. So I got an idea! Why not make a journal for my Tessa? I can include her training updates, funny stories, pictures, some drawings/doodles of her...whatever I want to share about her for that day!
This post is going to be an introductory-type thing, so if you already know Tess and our story, feel free to skip it. I'll actually start adding new material and updates in the coming days. I'll try to just do a brief overview.
I've loved horses my entire life and once my parents realized I wasn't going to "grow out of it," they agreed to signing me up for lessons. They thought that once I got over the "sunshine and rainbows" part of horses and saw the hard work and ups and downs I'd give up. Haha that wasn't the case. After a few years on lesson horses, I went on to lease a lovely little mare, Maggie. I loved that horse so much, but her owners suddenly decided to sell her and I found out the day before she left. It broke my heart. I started taking lessons on other horses again, but I had to take some time off to grieve because they weren't like Maggie; we just didn't click and I was missing my girl too much. During all of this time my parents had been considering caving in to my begging for a horse of my own- so I could bond with it-truly knowit, not worry about losing it, and have a say in how it was trained and cared for. (Though I had been asking for a horse pretty much since I could talk and had brought it up many times before all of this)They finally agreed that we'd start looking into getting a horse for me on one condition: I had to work for it and continue working to pay for some of the costs. I readily agreed, of course
Well, shoot. This brief overview isn't so brief. Okay, I'll cut to the chase. After months of looking and trying different horses, we found Tessa. She matched everything on the list I had written previously for what I wanted in my horse. I wanted a mare, around 15hh, close to 10 yrs, relational, smart, calm, ability to become an all-around horse. Those were the ones that I weren't flexible on. There were other qualities that my "perfect" dream horse had that I imagined and drew out (literally, lol). These qualities weren't as important as the ones listed above but nonetheless I hoped that I'd somehow end up with this seemingly impossible horse. My favorite horse color was always a red dun tobiano, favorite breed a paint, and favorite markings were a star and snip. Well, I found Tessa's ad on Facebook and she matched EVERY LITTLE THING on my list! She was even local and within our price range! There were 4 people who were already interested in her when I contacted the owners, so my hope of getting her was quickly waning...until the owners replied when they heard more about me and what I was hoping to do with the horse. They wanted her to go to a loving home where she would be cherished and used (she was currently just a pasture-pet with them). Her name with them was Crush (her registered name is JL Orange Crush Kitty, so that's where they got THAT name). Needless to say, I wanted to rename her. I find many of my animal's names after my favorite books-I find that my animals fit the characters in many of my books. When I first got her I was torn between the name Dove from Scorpio Races (Dove is the smart, sassy, lovable dun mare in my long-time favorite horse book) and Tessa from The Infernal Devices (Tessa is an independent, smart, strong young heroine from the book). I decided on Tessa ;-)
Well, fast-forward a year and a half, and here we are! I work at the stable Tess is boarded at; it's only 10 min. from my house! When I first got her she wasn't muscled very well and not very knowledgable on anything more than simply moving through the gaits in a straight line. My trainer/stable manager/friend works with us occasionally since I don't have all the knowledge to take Tess where I want to by myself. Tess has taught me how to be a much better and more confident rider. Not how you'd think, though...Tess has a lot less experience than we originally thought and a lot more, well, sass lol. She's super sweet and smart and works her little heart out! But she's also SUPER sensitive and will definitely test her rider. This forced me step up and be the leader she needs me to be. Most of the horses I'd ridden before her were lesson horses and were pretty much push-button horses, so it wasn't a real big battle for dominance. Of course, some of the lesson horses had a bit more spunk and would feel out if you were fit to be a leader. My Maggie was definitely like that at first haha.
Well, I've been doing a lot of Dressage with Tessa since it works on her carrying herself properly and going through some complex movements. We've jumped a little and I want to go back and do some more jumping but for now I'm really enjoying where we're at! Anything learned doing flat work translates into jumping anyways. My trainer is impressed with how well Tessa is carrying herself now and what a good team we are. It always feels good to hear that after all the hard work I've been putting into my girl! She even told me that we're becoming so in sync that she can't even see the cues I'm giving her all the time (this coming from an experienced eye)! Whoo hoo! Planning on showing her Spring/Summer 2017.
It has definitely been a journey getting to where I am now with the horse I am blessed to call my own. As a Christian, I see God's hand working in all of the circumstances that led to me having Tessa and the stable we are at now. There were a lot more ups and downs and quite a bit of heartbreak of losing horses that I didn't include, because that would just take too long to go through haha. And I'm not naive enough to think I'm the only one who's had to deal with some tough stuff or to think that everyone wants to hear every single little detail of my life. :wink: When I was little I used to pray for the "perfect horse." And though no horse is perfect, Tess is definitely my answer to that prayer. I'm not saying that if you pray for a horse it'll happen or that you get everything you want through prayer. Just sharing that God worked a little miracle in my life!
My photobucket account has been acting up, so I don't feel like struggling with that right now to upload some pictures. I have tons of pictures of her on her profile page if you want to see my beauty:wink:I'll try to post some new content tomorrow...
This post is going to be an introductory-type thing, so if you already know Tess and our story, feel free to skip it. I'll actually start adding new material and updates in the coming days. I'll try to just do a brief overview.
I've loved horses my entire life and once my parents realized I wasn't going to "grow out of it," they agreed to signing me up for lessons. They thought that once I got over the "sunshine and rainbows" part of horses and saw the hard work and ups and downs I'd give up. Haha that wasn't the case. After a few years on lesson horses, I went on to lease a lovely little mare, Maggie. I loved that horse so much, but her owners suddenly decided to sell her and I found out the day before she left. It broke my heart. I started taking lessons on other horses again, but I had to take some time off to grieve because they weren't like Maggie; we just didn't click and I was missing my girl too much. During all of this time my parents had been considering caving in to my begging for a horse of my own- so I could bond with it-truly knowit, not worry about losing it, and have a say in how it was trained and cared for. (Though I had been asking for a horse pretty much since I could talk and had brought it up many times before all of this)They finally agreed that we'd start looking into getting a horse for me on one condition: I had to work for it and continue working to pay for some of the costs. I readily agreed, of course
Well, shoot. This brief overview isn't so brief. Okay, I'll cut to the chase. After months of looking and trying different horses, we found Tessa. She matched everything on the list I had written previously for what I wanted in my horse. I wanted a mare, around 15hh, close to 10 yrs, relational, smart, calm, ability to become an all-around horse. Those were the ones that I weren't flexible on. There were other qualities that my "perfect" dream horse had that I imagined and drew out (literally, lol). These qualities weren't as important as the ones listed above but nonetheless I hoped that I'd somehow end up with this seemingly impossible horse. My favorite horse color was always a red dun tobiano, favorite breed a paint, and favorite markings were a star and snip. Well, I found Tessa's ad on Facebook and she matched EVERY LITTLE THING on my list! She was even local and within our price range! There were 4 people who were already interested in her when I contacted the owners, so my hope of getting her was quickly waning...until the owners replied when they heard more about me and what I was hoping to do with the horse. They wanted her to go to a loving home where she would be cherished and used (she was currently just a pasture-pet with them). Her name with them was Crush (her registered name is JL Orange Crush Kitty, so that's where they got THAT name). Needless to say, I wanted to rename her. I find many of my animal's names after my favorite books-I find that my animals fit the characters in many of my books. When I first got her I was torn between the name Dove from Scorpio Races (Dove is the smart, sassy, lovable dun mare in my long-time favorite horse book) and Tessa from The Infernal Devices (Tessa is an independent, smart, strong young heroine from the book). I decided on Tessa ;-)
Well, fast-forward a year and a half, and here we are! I work at the stable Tess is boarded at; it's only 10 min. from my house! When I first got her she wasn't muscled very well and not very knowledgable on anything more than simply moving through the gaits in a straight line. My trainer/stable manager/friend works with us occasionally since I don't have all the knowledge to take Tess where I want to by myself. Tess has taught me how to be a much better and more confident rider. Not how you'd think, though...Tess has a lot less experience than we originally thought and a lot more, well, sass lol. She's super sweet and smart and works her little heart out! But she's also SUPER sensitive and will definitely test her rider. This forced me step up and be the leader she needs me to be. Most of the horses I'd ridden before her were lesson horses and were pretty much push-button horses, so it wasn't a real big battle for dominance. Of course, some of the lesson horses had a bit more spunk and would feel out if you were fit to be a leader. My Maggie was definitely like that at first haha.
Well, I've been doing a lot of Dressage with Tessa since it works on her carrying herself properly and going through some complex movements. We've jumped a little and I want to go back and do some more jumping but for now I'm really enjoying where we're at! Anything learned doing flat work translates into jumping anyways. My trainer is impressed with how well Tessa is carrying herself now and what a good team we are. It always feels good to hear that after all the hard work I've been putting into my girl! She even told me that we're becoming so in sync that she can't even see the cues I'm giving her all the time (this coming from an experienced eye)! Whoo hoo! Planning on showing her Spring/Summer 2017.
It has definitely been a journey getting to where I am now with the horse I am blessed to call my own. As a Christian, I see God's hand working in all of the circumstances that led to me having Tessa and the stable we are at now. There were a lot more ups and downs and quite a bit of heartbreak of losing horses that I didn't include, because that would just take too long to go through haha. And I'm not naive enough to think I'm the only one who's had to deal with some tough stuff or to think that everyone wants to hear every single little detail of my life. :wink: When I was little I used to pray for the "perfect horse." And though no horse is perfect, Tess is definitely my answer to that prayer. I'm not saying that if you pray for a horse it'll happen or that you get everything you want through prayer. Just sharing that God worked a little miracle in my life!
My photobucket account has been acting up, so I don't feel like struggling with that right now to upload some pictures. I have tons of pictures of her on her profile page if you want to see my beauty:wink:I'll try to post some new content tomorrow...