The type of showing she has chosen is called Western Pleasure. After two months at the trainers, it became apparent that her horse, Brenna, is not a Western Pleasure Horse. She is fabulous horse, as can be seen in this picture:
What you probably can't tell from the picture is that she is very tall, 16.1HH (HH= hands. 1HH = 4 inches, therefore she is 65" tall at the withers). Her long legs give her rather fast gaits, which is not suitable for the slower gaits required in Western Pleasure. While it may be possible to slow her down, it actually may not be good for legs. Just like humans, individual horses are built differently, physically as well as mentally. Therefore, individual horses are not always suited to do all things.
Last Sunday, Mrs. BR, her trainer, a friend, and the horse trailer drove to Battleground, WA, to see this horse:
Needless to say, she did not tow an empty trailer home. Her name is Ellie, and she is an American Paint Horse. She's five, and apparently already quite accomplished in the Western Pleasure circuit. She is on a one year free care lease, with the option to buy at any time. Free care lease means that we are responsible for all the care and costs, without ownership. This is actually good in this case, as it gives Mrs. BR a year to determine if this is the right horse for her. If, at any time, she feels that Ellie is not the perfect horse, she can return her with no penalty.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are trying to trim the herd, not grow it, so selling Brenna became a bit more urgent, which is not necessarily a good prospect in these trying economic times. But, fate smiled down upon us. The original owner, the breeder, wanted her back. We took a bit of a loss on her, but with few interested customers in the last month, the amount of loss would only have grown the longer we kept her. And this, of course, satisfied our requirement that the horse go to a good, safe home.
Thus, one in, one out. Equilibrium maintained.
10 comments:
Fellow used to live behind us had a big buckskin. He trained it while his wife yanked a pulley with a calf dummy back and forth.
The horse followed it and stopped when it did. (sort of like a sheepdog) What was he up to, and was a buckskin a good choice for that?
BB: He was most likely training it to be a cutting horse. They are used to cull a cow from the herd, and keep it from returning to the herd. It has practical aspects for ranchers, and there is big money in it from the competition standpoint.
Buckskin is actually just a color, not a breed. I think (but could be wrong) that most cutting horses are either Quarter Horses, or Paint Horses.
We once "borrowed" a horse (mare) for my son to use in 4H horse events. A 4H horse show included western pleasure, reining patterns, etc, like a horse show, but it also included speed events like barrel, poles, etc. This horse did everything at a very fast pace (dead run). She did not do well on the show events, but she cleaned up in the speed events. We gave her back at the end of the season rather than buying her - a mistake.
Our buckskin is a quarter horse and was one heck of a roping horse in his day. He also did well in the speed events of the 4H shows.
Do you know why Indians rode paint horses? They wanted to be good and mad when they got to the battle.
Lou: I've heard the same things about Appaloosa's
I never knew horses could get so tall. I guess you can tell how little knowledge I have about them. But both are beautiful. Love this post.
You know I know next to nothing about horses... but I DO recognize beauty when I see it. And that's one beautiful horse!
Y'all have a fine eye for beautiful horses. Big sigh from Texas.
She is an amazingly beautiful horse. No denying it.
I'll get some better pictures of her in the next few days.
Thanks..cutting horse, that makes sense. Lot of Appaloosas over this way. They say the genetics of 'leopard spotting' are still poorly understood, but the Nez Perce folks seemed to have it down pretty well. :)
Wow. You lucky man. You are living my dream!
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