But we're invested in your search now, so you have to keep us posted!!
Might as well say what i’ve already done too then aha!
First and foremost, i found an old mare almost a few years ago now, by the name of Mocha. She was an ex-school horse trained in both western and English riding, and her name was Mocha. A very pretty dark bay, and although my parents really wanted to buy her for me it was completely unrealistic at the time with my brother about to go off to college. So i gave up.
Now, I have become more determined than ever to make owning a horse a possibility. Between finding good horses for under a thousand USD and negotiating board with a handful of stables, I’m fighting hard to be able to do this.
I found a 3 year old gelding thoroughbred that wasn’t 100% trained about three and a half months ago and fell in love, but apon coming to this thread for advice and being quickly discouraged, for both his safety and mine. After deciding that it was unfair to him I decided to keep looking. I found three horses that i thought were pretty okay, two mares (one 13 and one 14) for $600 each and a formerly abused gelding for $1000. While I liked all three I didn’t really think I’d be too good a match for any of them, and kept looking. I fell in love with a 13hh pony, a mare named Sprocket. I contacted the owner with questions about her, although worried that I’d be too big for her at 5’3” and 110lbs, I found her absolutely adorable and she checked all the boxes. I was bitter-sweetly informed that she has been adopted this morning, and although sad about not being able to even meet her, I’m glad she’s found a loving, hopefully forever home. The person who contacted me to inform me offered to help me find another horse, and asked what I was looking for. While I had a very long list, I decided to spare her the details and gave her a summarized list, as follows:
•Be hunter/jumper (MUST!)
•Older than 5 (older than 7 preferred!)
•Good ground manners!
•Would like to be taller than 14hh, though 15hh-17hh is preferred to be absolutely certain I wont grow too big for them. Also just simply feel more comfortable on bigger horses!
•Mare or gelding- cant do stallions! Gelding is slightly preferable but i’ll do both.
•Preferably don’t kick/buck/bite, not my main concern but would be nice.
•Rearing is most likely a dealbreaker
•Fully trained is a must! I dont have the budget to hire a trainer.
•Any temperament is good, as long as they can be handled with relative ease. (If 10 is yanking and pulling with all your might and 1 is perfect angel, I’d be willing to go up to 6 or 7 on the stubbornness scale!)
•Anything under 1000 is top priority! I might be able to do up to 3k but thats unlikely.
I’ll admit on that last one theres a very very low chance I’d be able to go above 1k, probably only about a 5-10% chance. Still figured that I’d say so, incase they have someone that checked all the boxes, and that I absolutely fell in love with, even more so than I had with Sprocket!
So, thats my story, and I’ll keep you posted!
