Day IV – first time up in the saddle

Julie and I were scheduled to drive out to the barn together yesterday. Julie’s lesson that day was canceled, so I jumped at the chance and asked her if she would help me with my first ride on Heart. We got him ready and I fitted the foam I had brought the day before. It has to go underneath the back part of the saddle and bring it up a bit higher. I put Ladys old bridle on Heart. Lady used to be my very first horse. Just like Heart she was a big tall chestnut with a blaze. Unfortunately, looking at the bridle on Hearts head, Ladys head must have been quite a bit bigger. Even with every buckle in the tightest notch, it is too big. I will have to stamp some extra holes into it. But for then it had to do.

All ready we walked out. I lunged him before getting on. Though it was very cold (it had even snowed while driving to the barn) and quite windy Heart stayed cool. He was more eager to walk and run, than he had been the other day, but he stayed calm. So after a while I decided to get up. First try failed. We only have a small step to help us get up and I would have had to pull myself up hard. So I lengthened the stirrups by four holes and tried again. I still had to pull myself up a bit, but Heart didn’t care at all! As soon as I was up, he started walking, but that was all. Julie led us around the arena about four times and then she let us go. 

The ground was soaked by the rain and very, very slippery, so I was not planning on trotting, but Heart was such a good boy, that I could not resist. After a couple of rounds of walk around the arena I started trotting him on the long sides. I did not want him having to go around the corner and slipping, since he was not used to close turns either. I had to push him into a trot the first time round, but he got easier with every time I made him go from a walk to a trot. It was a great feeling. He has a very nice trot with some bounce!

Except for concentrating on everything else except for me, he was a very, very good boy!!! :)

 

such a nice trot! :)

concentrating on everything except me ;)

Day III & Day IV - lazy bonding days

Day three and four were lazy days.

On day three I wasn’t able to go out to the barn, because I was not yet registered as a driver for our rental car and Basti came home from work to late to drive out in the evening with him.

Day four I finally got to drive the car and went to the barn, only to realize I had forgotten the key to the barn in my other pair of breeches at the hotel. Without getting at any tack, not even a halter, I was not able to do a lot. I went out on the field and tried doing some exercises with Heart. He really surprised me by doing everything very nicely. He backed up and followed me… he walked around me, while nicely crossing his hind legs… he’d turn his head right back to his but to get at a goody I was hold… everything without a halter, rope… nothing on him… He made me so proud! Later, while I was working on the field, cleaning it up he followed me around. Just like a puppy He’s just the cutest guy ever! Maybe the day was a flop, if I was expecting to get along with his training under the saddle, but it certainly was a very valuable bonding day! :)

I also tried to take some pictures of him and his friends. It turned out to be pretty difficult with him following my ever step. Still here they are. There’s also some of his two pasture buddies. Getanes and Sable the second OTTB.

stop taking pictures while I'm drinking!

I was trying to take a nice picture of him, but he kept following me close up, so this and the following are all I got...

itchy

Day II – Hearts first lunging lesson

Yesterday, our second day, I tried on the saddles that I had brought with me from Germany. Both of them seem to fit ok, but not as good as I would like them to. I guess I will have to have some changes done. But since Hearts muscles will hopefully change a lot during training, for now I will have to find another way. The jumping saddle just needs to be lifted up a bit in the back, so I will try to find a foam cushion, that is shaped like a V to do the job for a while. 

Today I will use the lunging girth. I have no idea if Heart has ever been lunged, but he most probably has not. There are so many things I don’t know about him. Does he know what it is to be tied to a pole or even be cross tied? I started of by tying him loosely to one of our poles. He seemed to know it. Standing quietly he only tried to byte the wood every now and then, which always resulted in me scolding him. But he didn’t really care about me raising my voice and pointing my figure as if he was a misbehaving kid… it never took long until my baby boy was chewing on the pole once more… Other than that he was very good and we’d have be ready to go in no time, if it hadn’t been for me stopping for a cuddle all the time. He seems to like that as much as me ;)

We started off with some stretching exercises. He is one heck of an athlete, he can bend and twist himself, it's amazing! He also has a much nicer walk and trot than you can see on the videos from his sales ad. It's fun watching him.

He's a bit stubborn too. It is so cute. He quickly learned that if he managed to point his head to and his but away from me, I could not keep him going around me. So he would keep trying to do so. Since Elisabeth had told me not to get into a fight with a thoroughbred I each time rolled up the longing line, walked up to him and started over.... after a couple of times he exactly knew what was happening. It seemed like he was making fun of me! So I did get a bit more decisive. He stood there looking at me, fidgeting about with one of his rear legs. Not exactly kicking, but kind of like saying "no mum, but I don't want to!". It made me laugh, it was so adorable! Finally he did move on and never tried that game again. He really is a big baby and I am very proud of him! :)

 proudly presenting his new halter ;)

 showing of his trot infront of his two pasture buddies

 Lori(right is our barn owner) and Lori watching Tommi and his new girl friend

 what a life :D

Day I – I just can’t wait…

So now the only part missing was me. December 3^rd… that was the day I first got to see him! We had being driving down from Atlanta, where our flight from Germany had taken us, and it was already dark by the time we arrived at the barn. We walked in and Heart pocked his head around the corner. First thing I thought was “Wow, the pictures you have seen don’t do him justice at all! He is way more beautiful!” We walked him out of the barn and pulled of his blanket. After letting him have some grass, which he is absolutely into, I walked him around, did some exercises and had some cuddles. He is definitely much laid back when walking him. I had problems getting him into a canter, so I’d even say he’s a bit lazy ;)… Lori just commented “We now know why he only earned $5000 while racing” and I must agree to that :) Wonder how he’s going to be when I’m up in the saddle…

I for shore had a hard time parting with him again that evening. He is such a lovely big baby and all cuddles… I would have loved to have stayed there and kept cuddling all night long… I think I’m head over heels in Love :)

Finding a place to call home

I now had to find a place for him to go. With help of Elisabeth and Karin, a German riding instructor, whom the Miles and More Farm belongs to, I found a very sweet little barn, where he was shipped a couple of days later. I still wasn’t in the USA myself, so I was really worried about where he was going and how the people there would take care of him… Heart and I got very lucky!!! Lori, the barn owner, and Julie, who boards her horse there, pampered him from the first moment on. Once or twice a day I would get an e-mail about how he was doing. There would always be some funny line to it, like Hearts legs being longer than Julie tall. It made me smile all day… to understand you need to know Heart is only 4 years old, but already over 17 hands tall and all legs!!!

decisions

I’m going to get a horse in the USA. But where and when start looking? All I knew was that I was going to be searching for a young and tall warmblood with a lot of jumping ability. I had no idea I was going to end up with a thoroughbred.

Well, it didn’t take me long to discover we wouldn't be able to buy a good warmblood, without selling our two mares here in Germany. That being not an option, I started looking for other possibilities.

I have never had anything to do with thoroughbreds, especially not with racehorses. All I know are stereotypes… Thoroughbreds are spooky, they are uncontrollable and everybody trying to retrain on ex racehorse is out of their mind. Well at least that’s what people here seem to think…

Beeing who I am… never going mainstream and loving to prove the opposite … my interest in thoroughbreds grew with every horse I saw. Not long after starting my search I somehow tripped over Elisabeth from Bits&Bytes Farm and her lovely OTTBs. Two horses captured my eye right from the beginning - My Heart and Don. Another one, Memphis joined them on my favorites list.

For what felt like weeks without end, I kept looking at them until I finally called Elisabeth. By then Memphis was gone, so we talked about the other two. It was a long call and I really enjoyed it! Elisabeth is very nice and really cares about the horses. Her goal is to find new homes for former race horses and teach people that thoroughbreds CAN be great sports horses. She helps sell the horses by acting as a broker for their owners and posting information about them on her website. Talking to her made me tend to My Heart, but I still could not make up my mind. During the next weeks I hardly ever stopped thinking about the horses and it almost drove me nuts. Not only, that I could not make up my mind, it was also a strange situation to me. I was thinking about buying a horse thousands of miles away from where I was still living. I was thinking about buying a horse I had never ridden, nor even seen in reality! All I knew about him, I knew from his sales add - some pictures, two videos and what Elisabeth had told me about when she had seen him at the track.

Well as you can see by the name of the blog, I finally did make up my mind and put a deposit on Heart. Only a day later Rule My Heart, as his racing name is, passed the vet check and I signed the bill of sales. I now had officially brought my first American OTTB!!!

Here are some pictures of Rule my Heart while still at the track...