Things we did


Nov 97 This is about a month after I got him. During this time he was getting 2 full buckets of feed (chaff, milrun and grain), 3 biscuits of prime lucerne hay and full turnout on grass, every day. He was also wormed and rugged.

Jan 98 2 months later. The colour change is merely due to the light, I didn't dye him. This is when he started to fill out. His coat was a lot healthier and he was starting to get some fat and muscle in the right places

The Sand Storm NZ
I was home from school supposedly sick when I decided to go up to Tweed to buy a bridle for Beenleigh Show. While I was at the saddlery, I was talking to the lady there about my STB’s and how great they are. She said that she had gone to trial one the day before as a hack but she didn’t buy him because he had a STB head. He was apparently quiet and big but not what she wanted. He was going to the dogs at 4pm that day.

I had known quite a few horses that had gone to the dogs and I had hated it but this horse really got to me. I spent half the day running round Tweed trying to track down this horses owner. After an address that he didn’t live at, a phone that ate my money and then didn’t even work and a phone number that didn’t exist, I was beginning to think this horse was destined to die.

I eventually had to go home and I was really upset because I felt that I had failed. When I got home, I rang the track where he was stabled and left a message for Alistair, his owner, to ring me ASAP. I sat next to the phone all afternoon and when 4pm came and went I was in tears. I was sitting there feeling really sad when the phone rang at 4:15 and it was Alistair. He needed to know straight away whether I would pay $200 for a male horse that I had never seen, from a guy that I knew to be a bit dodgy without even getting the chance to tell my mum! What could I say? I said I would take him.

Alistair stuffed around a lot with getting him sprayed so he could cross the border and we finally organised that we would pick him up 9 days after I had said I would take him. I asked him if he wanted me to organise the gate but he said that he would because he lived right next to it. We got up there the next day and he hadn’t done anything about it so we couldn’t get him. It was raining and we had just driven an hour. We weren’t impressed! Alistair said he would deliver him.

At least by then I knew his stats. Kind of anyway. Most of what I was told was not quite true. When he finally got here he was so skinny that I could have cried. All I wanted to do was hide him. We paid for him and he drove off leaving me standing there holding my new horse that I knew nothing about.

That was 23rd September 97. He put weight on easily and filled out to be marvellously massive. I rode him the day after I got him. He was perfect. Of course, I thought he had been under saddle before when the lady at the saddlery had tried him. Apparently she rode him bareback. It was the first time he had had a saddle on his back and he was just like a horse that had been broken in for months!

He has great paces and does not pace. His trot is huge and he takes his correct canter lead both ways naturally. I am extremely glad we got him.

(Click the pictures for a larger version)

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last updated 5/16/99
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