After losing Cisco last month, I was planning on waiting for a while before looking for my next partner. I was hoping that Phantom would be able to step up and do some light rides on a regular basis with me, but it quickly became apparent that it wasn't going to happen.
I started casually looking at ads online. I've heard many times that horse prices are high these days, and yeah, they are. Lots of "Untouched 9 year old - if you can catch him, you can have him for $9,000." Yikes!
I was hoping to find another Andalusian (full or cross) or a Welsh Section D. Ideally between 2 and 6 years old, unstarted was fine. There weren't too many options. Nothing Welsh that I could find at all. But there were a couple of Azteca's that I liked (Andalusian/QH cross), and in my price range.
One was a 5 year old mare who had been lightly started. She'd be ready to get going right away. But she was a day's drive away, and the owner didn't get back to me with any video. (Looks like she has since sold, so maybe that's why.)
The other horse was a 2 year old gelding (3 this summer) located a little over an hour from me. I didn't dislike what I saw on video, especially considering the video was from February and it was frozen and a bit slippery underneath. I had a couple of concerns about his feet from the posted pictures, but I talked to my farrier and she was happy to review pics before I made a final decision.
So off we went to have a look at him.
The owner, who was his breeder, showed me some of what she's worked on with him, and he gave me the impression that he had a solid temperament. He didn't do things perfectly for her, but he quietly tried to figure it out and didn't overreact. I liked his floaty trot,and especially considering how bum high he was, his canter was balanced and uphill enough for my liking.
I sent some better pics of his feet to my farrier and she didn't see anything she'd be concerned about, so I said I guess I'm buying a horse!
We picked him up the following weekend. I enlisted a friend to haul him for me as I haven't really driven my trailer for the last couple of years and just wasn't confident about it. The new guy hopped right on and traveled great - far better than I did! I got hit with some car sickness - not normal for me at all, but it hit me hard. Like, puked multiple times hard. It was a horrible drive home.
So, meet the new kid - Stitch!
His registered name is WZ Stich. The show name I'm giving him (not that we'll ever use it) is Snitches Get Stitches.
He has lots of growing up to do so we'll be taking our time. He's a about 14.3 in front and probably close to 2" taller behind. He's got some pretty good bone in his legs so I think he'll fill out quite a bit over the next couple of years. I hope he does - there's no junk in his trunk at the moment.
Stitch calmly hopped off the trailer when we arrived home, calmly walked out to his new field, and calmly met his new roommates. He was immediately adopted by one of the TB geldings and they've been side-by-side ever since.
And thus, the journey begins again.
