Meanwhile, shortly before all the foot trouble with Camaro started, I'd happened to see, on my Facebook feed, pictures of three new OTTBs (off the track Thoroughbreds, for those of you who aren't well versed in horse acronyms) that a FB friend of mine had recently brought home and was offering for sale. Now, typically she does this with a few horses several times a year; buys them when they aren't being raced any more and tries to find new homes with new careers for them, so I always see their pictures posted when they come in and don't really pay much attention.
This time, one of them caught my eye. Literally, my reaction to that picture was "Damn, look at that shoulder!" That shoulder was lovely. It was the shoulder of a dressage horse if I'd ever seen one (and I've seen more than a few, LOL). The rest of the horse was really nice too, well proportioned, and truthfully, looking like a warmblood more than a thin Thoroughbred race horse.
But I'm not in the market for a new horse. My focus this summer is to get Camaro in the show ring, possibly ending the season with scores at First Level, and put him up for sale in the Fall. (Remember, the laminitis hadn't started at this point). All while building fencing and stalls here at home. Then, and only then, would I even think about seeking out "the next horse". And I'd been formulating a list of requirements for "the next horse" since before I'd even purchased Camaro. He'd been intended, all along, as a stepping stone, as a 3ish year project I would resell and then purchase something that was:
- taller
- with a build more suited to dressage
- in the 3-5 year old age range
- preferably not yet started under saddle western or english
- had the ability to go to at least Third Level
- that I could plan to train, show, and keep for about 10 years when I more than likely will retire from horses. Or, at least from riding youngsters, showing, or any regular strenuous riding.
So I scrolled on by with the intention to wait until Camaro was for sale before I even asked any questions of any seller offering a likely horse for sale. This lovely horse would go to someone else and I'd shop when the time was right.
Yet, I couldn't get this horse out of my head. It was even a mare, which, honestly, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back to owning and riding a mare; I was pretty sure I'd stick with geldings as I aged.
Still, I found myself thinking about her. I caught myself going back to the FB page where her pictures were posted and examining them closely for flaws. I didn't really see any. But I'm not shopping for a horse until my barn is set up at home.
Except, a week later, I thought I would just message the seller and ask a few general questions. Surely she's had an injury or something that would disqualify her from my required list. Or maybe she's a terror in the stall (definitely don't want that at home, nope, nope). Or she bucks or is already on a maintenance type of medication or special foot care. And I have no money for shopping. And retraining a racehorse is something new for me. I've handled lots of them on the ground when they came to barns I'd worked in. I've even ridden a few after they'd been restarted by someone else. But I'd never been the person to restart them in dressage. So I'm not really shopping.
Well, the seller's answers sounded too good to be true. No known injuries. Never even actually raced, the mare had published workouts at the track but the trainer had felt she wasn't competitive (fast) enough and she'd never been entered in any races. Quiet in the stall, no known vices, quirks, or maintenance. She'd come from the track shod all around--as is the norm--and had since lost a hind shoe but didn't seem sore on that suddenly bare foot. 4 years old, 16 hands and thickly built. Asking price in the low four-figures.
Okay, nothing there that scares me off. Just wrong timing. My barn isn't ready. And now Camaro has laminitis, I have big vet bills, and we're definitely not showing this summer. Which means he may or may not be for sale this Fall. Forget the mare.
I couldn't forget her. She wouldn't leave my mind. I had more questions. The price, well, horse prices have gone astronomically high for show horses in the last few years, and there was no way I could find anything within two hundred (or more) miles that matched my requirements list for even double what her asking price was. Forget her. She's in Ohio, over four hours away. My barn isn't ready. I have no shopping money.
So, I show her picture to DH, and tell him about her. Because he will most definitely not want me to even think about another horse. Never in our nearly (at that time, anniversary has since passed) 30 years of marriage has he looked and me and said "yes, buy a horse". That will be that. He'll point out all the reasons why I should forget her and I'll move on. The hard NO.
Gosh darn it! He said "if you want her, buy her!" WHAT?!? Seriously, who is this man and what has he done with my husband?!? He even said if I can find a place to keep her until our barn is minimally ready (perimeter fence in and two stalls erected), why not buy her now?
I'm nursing Camaro through this laminitis, still hoping he will recover like he did in 2020. I'm working at the barn where I board him. I'm working at home on the garden, raising meat chickens, and putting in fenceposts with DH. Do I have time for horse shopping? NO. But I messaged the seller again, with more questions. And asked if she had an under saddle video of the horse. I really want to see her move with a rider on her back. Surely that will rule her out for me.
Questions again came back with satisfactory answers. No post track ride yet, but the seller did have a date coming up that she planned to video her own trainer up on the horse for the first time. Okay, thanks. I waited.
The video was posted over a week later. I watched it three times on my phone, trying to note every little detail. I could see signs of body soreness in the tightness of the mare's trot, and her head position, but that is all typical until they've been off the track long enough to be let down. The trot could be developed. The canter, wow, it was a surprisingly balanced and soft looking canter all ready. And in the walk, I could see the mare's back swing. Oh boy, I like what I see!
So I watched the video again, twice, on the computer, where surely the bigger screen would make disqualifying faults easier to see. Still, nothing alarming. I had DH play it on the TV, where I sat just a foot away, and watched the video a few more times under close scrutiny. Dang, I like this horse more and more.
But I'm not about to buy a horse sight unseen. Videos can be edited to show only the very best, not the possibly six previous canter departs that were explosive rather than the lovely easy departs displayed in both directions on the screen. Maybe there was lots of head tossing. Or spooking, or crazy running around with her head in the air, that wasn't shown.
With DH's encouragement (again, who is this guy??) I messaged the seller and requested a time where we could speak over the phone. We did, later that day, and set up a day and time the following weekend for me to see the mare. DH even went with me.
Well, in person her neck looks shorter than I thought it was, but it's still proportionate to the length of her back, so not a disqualification. Her eyes are a tad small, but not piggish. They are actually kind of typical Thoroughbred size, not the bigger (cuter) Arabian sized eyes of Camaro. She's super quiet. No screaming when taken away from the barn and into the arena alone. She stands well, no need for a chain over her nose. She let me run my hands up and down all four legs, no signs of swellings or previous injuries. Feet freshly attended to, fronts shod and hinds barefoot. No sign of tenderness on her newly naked and trimmed feet. In the indoor arena, she does not dash off when the lead line is unhooked. Rather, she has to be encouraged to trot off. Nice trot. Good action of the hocks, I can see that she'll have the ability to bend and sit with them years down the line. And then there's the canter and suddenly she's getting into it, having fun zooming up and down the long wall. But not excited, not bucks, just enjoying the forward movement. And she stops and stands on her own, looking at us for more direction.
Oh damn, I'm buying a horse. At least, I put a deposit on her, pending a pre-purchase exam, and DH and I drive the long way back to Michigan with a (short) list of area vets to call to set up that PPE and discussing all possible boarding options for her until our place is hopefully equipt sometime in August.
Out of the blue, I am in contact with a lady I know only from meeting her less than a handful of times six or so years ago when we both were helping out at the barn of an eventer. I did morning feed during the week, and she cleaned the stalls. Rarely were we there at the same times. But, as Facebook enables you to do, we were friends and thus when I put out a 'hey local horse friends' call for temporary boarding for an OTTB mare yet that month, she saw my post and messaged me right away. She has an empty stall at her house. She doesn't normally board, nor does she have an indoor arena, but she had tons of experience with Thoroughbreds and a soft spot for OTTBs. We got together. She currently has three older Thoroughbreds in residence. They go in stalls at night, and hang out in a couple biggish pastures during the day. It sounded like the perfect low-key yet not-put-off-by-the-OTTB-aspect farm to move this mare to.
PPE arranged, boarding lined up, now all I needed was a favorable report from the vet to complete the sale. That went off without a hitch, as did arranging shipping from eastern Ohio to mid-Michigan.
It just all went down so flawlessly as Camaro was sinking in his laminitis. I don't want to sound like I replaced one horse with another, or I don't care what happened with Camaro. I'm deeply disturbed by all that he went through, especially as some of it could have been avoided (--he should have been wearing his grazing muzzle, and I had said this to the barn owner back in early May when the grass actually began to grow, but she hadn't felt the grass was growing fast enough to be a threat--the not putting him on immediate stall rest but letting him graze with the muzzle on--the farrier's special shoeing that was actually detrimental in the big picture). I've found myself in a funk over Camaro and how our partnership ended. I have questioned myself, my knowledge, my abilities, my worthiness to own a horse.
But I do feel like this mare has been sent to me from above. She checks all the boxes. Dh willing to fund another horse even though it wasn't in the plans for this summer (and the fact that he's never willingly forked out money for horses). The boarding situation being perfect. The PPE where the vet found nothing that would indicate the mare is physically not capable of reaching Third Level in a handful of years. The shipper who is a regular to and from the farm where the mare was at, who was heading home empty and gave me a discounted rate for that date, and happens to be based only about TEN MILES from this little place here!! What?!? Yes, it's true.
Too many things to not think that somehow there is a divine plan being played out for me right now.
So, meet The Poetess. She's a 4 year old, 16 hand, unraced Thoroughbred mare who is going to learn a new career in dressage.
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