The Search.....

Oh Boy, how many magazines did I check out?

I remember sitting with Kate one day having searched through the Sale section in Your Horse, ringing what felt like loads of possible horses but in fact was probably no more than 6. That's adrenaline for you, once your mind is made up, you want want want!

At that time my focus was on buying a willing happy hacker. Never having had lots of experience at schooling and being generally crap at canter in the school I was well aware of my own level of ability - that being mad fun over the countryside, jumps included and I didn't want to over horse myself. Also, I was well grounded from the point of view of giving a horse a great home but not holding them back if my ability or limited time wouldn't afford them the career they deserved.

I rang loads of people but the search pretty much comes down to just 3 visits.

Firstly, I went to a stables with Kate and rode a dark bay mare, about 15.2hh which was fun but she really was too small for me so although I was extremely excited as she was the first I tried I knew I had to say no.

I rang loads after that and you very soon get to know the honest people from the dealers pretending not to be and you certainly get a feel for the kind of people you would or wouldn't feel comfortable meeting. The horsey world can be rather strange and over the years I had at least got wise to that! With having only weekends to look, often by the time I got ready to visit the horse was promised to someone else or I got the impression the owners weren't quite what I initially thought they were - and if that's the case, who knows about the horse.

At one point during the search I had a week off, and I was determined to work out once and for all what kind of horse I wanted to buy. I rang an owner and arranged to look at a dark bay gelding in Kent. I met him in the stable and said hello but didn't immediately feel a great bond, the owner's son rode him in the sand school which had rather low fences and I did clock that he was rather motorbike-like in canter. The rider took him over a fence at a ridiculous speed and I started to get a feel for what my ride might be like. I mounted and rode quietly, trying to suss him out a little but with absolutely no intention of jumping. A walk and trot around the sand school on both reins was just fine until I asked for canter. VERY strong on the left rein but I kept asking back to trot then up to canter and back again and he settled a little. I changed reins and trotted a little then asked for canter on the right rein (oh crappedy crap) - he was so unbalanced we headed straight... FOR THE FENCE! Quite honestly I had no chance of turning him away, a better rider would undoubtedly have been able to handle it but I know my limits, so I bailed out rather than jump the fence and end up galloping off on concrete. The horse tore around the arena for about ten circuits until he could be calmed and I confidently told the owner he wasn't for me....

Spookily, when I got back to the car there was a message on my mobile. During the search period, I had checked out a number of stable yards and met some old friends. At my preferred stables, Helen had suggested I contact a particular riding school who often sell on their schooled horses. I had done so and the owner promised to call me when they had visited a dealer they regularly use for finding them new horses. The message confirmed that the dealer had 3 horses I might be interested in.

Fresh from disappointment and a rather bloody finger getting trapped in the reins I rang back. The three horses were a papered light bay Dutch warmblood, a dark bay inexperienced mare and an Irish grey. I was so cheesed off with the last visit I went straight there......