Well, hello there! Glad you found me! Lets get right into it, shall we?
I found horses a bit later in life, as in in my teens. I suppose that is relative as I now have students old enough to have grandkids who are just getting started riding, but I am not one of those girls who grew up with horses or who was lucky enough to take riding lessons as a child.
No, I discovered horses when visiting my dad for the summer as I did every year growing up. It was the direction I needed. I was an angry, bitter teen with no plans for my future. After I rode my first horse I new that I had to make horses a part of my life forever.
I worked at many farms during my high school and college years and finally through luck, grit and a bit of daring, we bought a bit of land and started our own stable.
I had had a few horses up to this point, but lets skip them for now as I'm sure they will come up later, and after all this blog is supposed to be about my Appy.
I will make a quick nod to what might have been my first appy cross. She was a 20+ year old mix breed, a part appy, part Arab named Gypsy. She was free and was the first horse I ever called my own.
Looking back I have often asked myself who was crazy enough to mix these two breeds?? You've got the high strung nature of the Arab mixed with the Stubborn nature of the appy. (now a days this is a popular breeding known as the Araloosa, but still I wonder about mixing the 2!)
Gypsy didn't have all the traditional Appaloosa traits. To be registered as an Appaloosa, a horse must have 3 things, & believe it or not the traditional spots they are known for and so easily recognized for are not one of the requirements!!
They must have striped hoofs, Mottling (light spots) on the skin and white around the eyes. Gypsy possessed only the mottling and white around the eyes.
Despite my misgivings about the combinations of the 2 breeds, Gypsy was a sweetheart and I'm sure we will talk more about her later, but she is not the appy eventer to whom this blog will be dedicated.
Rainmaker is the horse to whom that honor belongs. His original name was Thunder, but I changed it since he is an unregistered app and I wanted something that would speak a bit more to his Native American heritage. Nez Perce Indians originally created the breed.
Yes I have heard it's bad luck to change a horse's name, but I don't think so. Changing one's name (people & animals alike) is a way to mark a new direction in one's life (marriage being the main example).
Anyway, I bought Rain as a 6yr old scrawny, unstarted, unbroken, unregistered, barley halter broke gelding who was marked on his add as 16.1 hands, but upon seeing him, he was 15.2 on tip toes, lol. I almost didn't buy him as I am tall and thought I'd be too big for him. But of all the horses in my under $1k budget, he was the only one who when I looked in his eye, he looked back in mine and said "I'm the one. I can do what you want. I'll be your partner. Lets do this thing".
And so I did buy him, and then the journey began.
