Selling and Buying

A couple of people have asked me questions recently. Such as: Why did I sell Luna? How did I find Lex? What was I looking for in my next horse? For answers see below!

I will start with why I decided to sell Luna. When I bought Luna over 4.5 years ago I wanted very different things in my riding. Going up the levels in the jumper ring with a pipedream of the AO’s was the goal. I had hoped she might be a broodmare for me down the line as well due to her breeding. What I didn’t know was that I would be having a child or moving to another state. Luna stayed behind in TN as that was a better environment for a young horse. She spent another year with great turnout and getting lightly ridden before coming to live with me again.

As I started riding again after having Bea and moving it became obvious that I didn’t want to manage two different disciplines. I also quickly realized that if I had to choose one eventing won every time. I figured that I would ride Luna her 4yo year and see what she thought about eventing but wouldn’t get my heart set on keeping her. Luna is a super fun horse and would have been fine eventing at the lower levels but I don’t think she was going to be the horse to ultimately help me reach my goals. And I definitely am not the person to help her reach her full potential as a jumper either.

For most of the past 18 months I waffled back and forth on selling her. I finally accepted that it made more sense for her to go to someone that would appreciate her as a jumper. Fast forward to last month when the perfect situation came up with another adult ammy. Luna was sold in the blink of an eye and headed to WA.

I figured I would eventually find something smaller and more suitable for me to event. Finding something new so fast definitely wasn’t the plan though… It turns out if you are me you should not start your horse search assuming it may take months. Determined would be one way to put my method of looking for basically anything on the internet. You can see a little more about how I actually found Lex in my last post. For now I am going to share what I was looking for and how I feel about what I ended up with.

When my trainer and I talked we basically determined I was open to 2 options. Overall a good brain/sensibility was priority. Sane is the best color. Anything over 15.1hh would be considered but I did want to avoid more giants. All of the outside characteristics were flexible though for a suitable and rideable horse between 5 and 10 years old. I don’t need the fanciest eye catching horse in the barn. I just really want to have fun. So these were the options I was considering —->

Option 1: A horse that has been competing (lots of off site adventures and at least run a couple of events at beginner novice or novice) so that I could hit the ground running where I left off. Even more points if the horse had experience at training or prelim but that was kind of a stretch given my budget.

Option 2: A horse that maybe hasn’t been to any shows but is jumping full courses and has a good flatwork foundation. The greener horse would need to be more of a perfect fit as green wasn’t really the goal here.

What I ended up with was something in the middle, more of a 1.5, of those options. Lex is at the youngest of my age range but checked most of the boxes off for me. He had done some of the young event horse series in England, schooled at multiple venues there and here, and won his first event in the sates by 8pts FODS. He also looked like he had a good head on his shoulder and was reported to be easy to manage/handle. Generally not a delicate flower or inclined to be an idiot. Sign me up.

Lex is definitely still green just due to his age… That said he is the first horse I have ever bought that has already gone and done anything… Or say competed at the discipline of my choosing. After close to 15 years trying to make my own horses and hitting various road blocks I have to say I am SO ready to have a horse this nice that already understands his job. There will definitely be a learning curve as we develop a partnership… But just knowing that he has done it before, even if just beginner novice, gives me a LOT of confidence and a baseline of trust that he can get me where I want to go.

Don’t get me wrong – I am SO lucky to have had (and have) the quality horses I have. I have had some super young horses even when I had no business buying them. But I am just really over the total gamble for the moment. Life as a mom is a lot more complicated and barn time is precious. So far it seems worth every penny to hopefully simplify things for myself at the barn.

It is still early days but so far Lex is WAY nicer than I expected. It was obvious that he was going to be cute but I was not prepared for just how fancy he is. This is good news but will probably slow us down a little on the start up while I figure out how to ride him better. I have had sensitive horses before but never one quite like him.

There are no guarantees in horses and who knows where we will end up but I for one am so excited for the ride. To make a long story short this go around I had a more substantial budget which allowed me to buy something that was less of a risk when looking for a suitable mount. It also helps that he is cute as can be with a great personality (if you like cheeky little b*st*rds) as the icing on top.