On flipping horses

Every once in awhile I sit at my desk under the fluorescent lights and imagine myself at the barn working horses and teaching lessons all day long. I choose to forget about the mud and flies and mosquitoes (they hatched btw) and just think about the grass and arenas and the hard working horses. I imagine waking up early and feeding the ponies, doing a few chores, and picking my first victim for daily training. 

I would work three horses before lunch, lunging and/or riding. I imagine having a stable of green-ish horses. Maybe some cheap babies I picked up and a couple of retraining projects. Maybe even just horses with the temperament to be a lesson horse. After lunch I would do barn-manager things (especially in the summer), and then have a late afternoon training session before tucking everyone in for the night.

In this life I would be able to make a living training and flipping horses, hopefully to a wealthier clientele than the one from which I purchase the projects. Those of you who know anything about horses are laughing now, because this is a fantasy land. Lets talk about what's really happening right now.

Gracie was cheap. She has a good temperament and seems sensible. As I continue along the path I think these qualities are the underdogs. Forget pretty and movement, if they aren't sane they aren't interesting to me. I think I've only ever really ridden one questionably sane horse, she went by Joni.

Joni was a roan of some sort [colors aren't my strong suit]. She started out really nicely. She was very green, but she wasn't especially reactive and she was sweet.

Then I went to Texas for the summer. Joni was leased out to a mom for her daughter to ride. They went out into the field (we were next door to a hunt club), and taught her how to refuse jumps. We didn't realize this for awhile. When I came back I tried to pick up where I left off, but she wasn't quite as willing to do anything. A few more bad experiences, including a crazy friend of a friend of the owner who flipped her over backwards, and she wasn't quite the nice pony I was anticipating. But I persevered, and kept trying to ride her through her silliness. She had several really good days where we could go out trotting through the fields by ourselves, and then the next days she would throw a fit leaving the arena. 

This all built to a crescendo when my friends and I went on a short trail ride out to a huge field. We were trotting around the field in a staggered group after a long warm up. Joni was a bit flightly, but not unmanageable. So at the end of our ride, we trotted up a long slope in a group, with Joni leading. And boom. She bucked me wayyyyy up in the air and galloped home. Out of nowhere. She was fine, and then boom. The next day she was fine. And maybe I gave up too easy, and maybe she was crazy. Who knows. 

Anyways, that was quite an aside. So Gracie seems to be pretty sane. That's definitely a tick in her box. Green is ok, crazy is not. Unfortunately she came with a flesh wound, which became infected after a few days. Enter the vet. So I bought this horse with the intention of reselling her [for a profit]. Time and money dependent folks. So now I have certainly increased the dollars I have spent on her, and I still don't have a timeline for selling her or possibly Oberon. Whew. Where is that fantasy land again? Just a fierce reminder that horses eat money and release it as useless poop.