Surprise!

Um ... a little surprise ...

I should provide a bit of information about myself in explanation.  While it may seem that I am very forthcoming about my horsey life, I am very selective in what I actually share.  What I mean is that I only share what I have thought hard about, or what I am certain of.  You might have noticed that I share things after-the-fact.  The reason for holding things close to the chest is that I don't like to get too many opinions, which can be conflictive, and I don't like to appear "flakey" as in nope didn't do that, nope didn't get there after all and so on.  I like to ask specific people for their advice and I get a bit cranky about too much unsolicited advice.  If I put something on the blog, it's out there to be shared and discussed and feedback is very welcome.  Memoirs of a Horse Girl gave me some great advice the other day.  Big decisions, like buying a horse, take a lot of thought without a lot of "background noise."

And with that, meet Sydney!

Sydney is a 16.1 hand, 9 year old, New Zealand Thoroughbred.  His previous owners really wanted him to be a hunter/jumper. They tried, he tried, but he didn't enjoy the work and frankly, it stressed him out a little bit.  He enjoys working on the flat though, and decided that dressage might be more up his alley.  Enter a new trainer.  Yep, dressage was a better fit, and he was put up for sale as a lower level dressage horse with potential to do more.

Taz's mom, who knows my heart very well, and Cha Ching's mom who knows horses and my riding ability very well, both graciously offered to spend the whole day in the car with me as we drove up north to check him out.  Heads began nodding almost immediately.  Debbie Davis, of Sport Equine, was riding him as we pulled into the drive.  As we watched him work under saddle, all three of us immediately commented on his floppy ears - a sure sign of a relaxed pony.

After some discussion, I climbed aboard, and with some nice instruction from Debbie, I was able to do a fair job of riding this very kind guy.  Here's the video of my very first ride (unedited, bad equitation included!).

By the way - I bought him!