Kandi and I

I started taking lessons as a freshman in high school riding hunt seat. It really was Hunter Under Saddle lessons rather than "hunters" because it was at an AQHA barn. Before that, I had only ever ridden at camp and bareback on my parent's friend's horses a couple times a year. I wasn't raised in a "horsie" family at all. I was just like every other little girl who had dreamed of riding ponies, except for I never grew out of it.

Junior year of high school I leased a pony and during that summer, my pony went to go become a camp pony and I decided it was time for me to purchase a horse. I saved $1000 that summer and my mom said she would pay up to $4000 for a horse. I looked on equine.com and found Kandi listed for $2000. I had been looking for a 16 hh bay jumping gelding so of course the horse I found and fell in love with was a 15.1 hh chestnut mare who was not in any way made for jumping. Go figure.

Kandi was the mare and she was spooky and had had a history of being fearful of vets, farriers, strangers, tarps, and anything else abnormal. I had been taking lessons and leased a pony so I thought I was the world's greatest expert. She was totally beyond my abilities but I tried her out anyway. She was so smooth to ride and had such a pretty, flowing tail. She was a little aloof and I was fascinated by her. Plus, her mom had been a high point champion at one point in AQHA and Kandi herself had been in Hunter Pleasure and Equitation in an open show association. I didn't realize that was when she has two and she had since filled out and muscled up. I was the world's biggest expert, you know. I had to have her and I bought her.

Kandi and I had a rough start. She was a very nice mover and was well trained. I didn't know how to ride a well trained horse and I pushed her. Hard. My inexperience flustered an already sensitive mare and she started trying every trick in the book, including head tossing, trotting faster rather than loping, troping, evading.....anything you can think of. Miss Expert that I was didn't know that she was testing me, or how to pass her tests. She was already high strung, but my indecidedness and my fear of the unknown heightened her fears and lowered her confidence. So, after nine months, after I had almost thoroughly ruined her, I sent her to a trainer, the same woman I had been taking lessons from. Her name was Lynn.

Lynn did great things with her. Taught her how to use her body again, showed me how to help her use her body, and helped ease Kandi's fears. I became dead set on making Kandi a pleasure horse. After all, her mom had multiple pleasure points and her dad was a pleasure horse. What I didn't realize at the time is that Kandi's hocks are set too far underneath her body. Her stride was never going to be that short. Lynn tried to explain it to me. I thought if we just tried harder, she could do it. I tried to get her to do everything at once when she hadn't really done much for years before I bought her. (I bought her when she was 8.) Lynn also taught Kandi showmanship, which we have found to be something Kandi TRULY enjoys.

I tried to show Kandi hunt seat, without really working on it, and it was a disaster. I got frustrated with myself and got nervous and stiff and pissed Kandi off. It was not a good situation.

While Lynn was AWESOME for Kandi, I guess she and I didn't mesh as well. We got along, but I needed someone to work on ME. As a freshman, I rode for someone who was not good for me. She made me very stiff and ineffective. I came home from my first year of college a worse, less confident rider than I had been when I went to college. Lynn tried to make me less stiff, but I just didn't get it. My second year I found a coach who was WONDERFUL for me to ride for. She really taught me how to manipulate my body to make a horse really go well, even a shitty mover. Kandi and I still butted heads. At this point, we both wanted to do things our way and I didn't know how to give and take effectively. I was a much better rider, but I had an attitude. I would get frustrated and hang on Kandi's mouth. She was patient and forgiving but I know she was frustrated too. We were doing better, but we still seemed hopeless. I didn't know how to change things.

The next year, I was a junior in college and I had learned how to use my body well at this point. She and I were finally jiving. I finally stopped trying to make her something she wasn't and vowed to focus on horsemanship, trail, western riding, and showmanship. Lynn was working on lead changes with her and all was going well. Then, the vet scared Kandi and she fell on her hock, tearing the ligament in her hock. I also got pregnant about the same time. This was October. She was on stall rest until December. From December to March, she was on stall rest most of the day and hand walked once a day. Then, in March she was ridden at a walk/jog. From July to September she moved and was let out alone a couple of hours a day (after her predicament where I tried to make her an outdoor horse.) I started riding her in September. She was still sore then, but I got her a legend shot, an adjustment by a chiropractor, corrective trimming, and put her on a total joint supplement with HA.

I have not had a lot of time to ride here lately because I became a single mother in July. However, the times I have ridden her, she has been phenomenal. She has not taken a lame step in about 2 months. She gets turned out during the day with her boyfriend Pepper and has a mare and foal stall at night with her own window. We finally mesh the way I always wanted after FOUR years! She developed a bit of a hunter's bump and a club foot from compensating so much from her injury, but with exercise and proper trims these are decreasing. I showed her in halter several times a few years back and she did GREAT. Maybe I will do that again as we build her back up.

I saw a video of her at various shows showing in the hunter classes as a two year old and she won every one of those classes. It has inspired me to try to get her back to performing like she used to, in western and in hunt seat classes. I thought for awhile that she wouldn't move the same again, but she moved pretty great the last time I rode her. I am going to try my best to prove myself wrong. I will get a job that will allow a little disposable income to work with a trainer. I believe in that horse and I think we came this far together for some reason.

She has been a phenomenal teacher. She has taught me what not to do and has always been honest. She tells on me when I am wrong and I will always be grateful for the rider she has helped me to turn into. She is the other half of my team and we have had a hell of a road together! I am looking forward to where it takes us next.

Failed outside horse experience!

Well, I tried to let her live outside and it failed. Miserably.

The day she moved I went into labor so I wasn't able to see any of it happen. Basically, she wouldn't socialize and wouldn't eat. She ran back and forth in front of the gate. Because she was moving all the time and not eating, she lost a good 200 lbs. She also developed hives.

Then, when she had been there about 8 days, it rained hard. She picked that time to try to work her way into the herd so she could go into a run-in shed. The herd did not agree and beat her up pretty bad, until an obese breeding stock paint gelding decided to rescue her and spend the next day protecting her. I took her out of that field after 9 days and found that her nose was swollen and she had a big old gash under her eye. Neither of these things were apparent because she was wearing a fly mask and it was completely intact.

So, no more outside horse. She went into a stall that day and was turned out in a small paddock alone for an hour per day. Then she moved to Kentucky with me. She goes outside with her new boyfriend during the day when it's not too cold, then has a large mare and foal stall to enjoy at night. She loves it!!!! She is so happy. She is also finally sound! I may show her this spring!