Fate?

I responded to an online ad last night. It was written by a woman looking for a mare. Something about her ad appealed to me. I liked that she mentioned not wanting to breed because of the slaughter problem. She just wanted a mare to trail ride and as a companion for her retired gelding. He doesn't get along with other male horses like my Tax. So, even though I haven't gotten up the nerve to list December I emailed her about a potential match.

When she called there were a couple of clues that I knew her. 1) She has a German accent. 2) She lived in the next town over from where I board. 3) She finally mentioned her gelding was a 17 year old TB named Cody that she bought about 4 years ago.

Turns out she was the gal who bought my last horse, Cody.

As you may remember if you read my earlier posts I was having a bit of anexiety about selling him and losing track of him. She still has him and loves him to death. She plans to keep him forever, which is kind of a miracle. He was a creep. Here's a pic she posted of him playing out in her pasture. Not a great one, but you can see he looks pretty good for a horse in his late teens. She says he's got a bit of arthritis in his back legs now and that's why she's not riding him anymore but he makes a lovely yard ornament.

This lady wants to trail ride and I got to feeling bad yesterday since I've never taken the mare out to ride a trail. I couldn't honestly evaluate for her what December would be like. She wasn't scheduled to come out until Tuesday so I met my sister at the barn around 1PM for a 2 hour trail ride. She was surprised to see me getting out the mare as she pulled into the barn. I did wear my helmet and my belly kind of felt like jello for the first 1/2 hour but all-in-all she was better than Tax usually is. She was also tense along the first part of the ride and down the side of the field where you can clearly see the busy road, but once we got past that she was fine. She relaxed and moved out with this amazing ground covering walk. Sister was an amazing baby sitter who kept her pony in check and let us pick the speed of travel. She also hopped down at the first sign of any silliness to lead her pony on foot so I could stay in the saddle and teach December that I was staying on her for the entire ride no matter what scary stuff we had to deal with. December passed a scary christmas tree decorated at a barn, a jeep in the field and dogs running up to fences barking and she took it all in stride. I was extremely proud of her and the last leg of the trip I was holding the reins at the buckle and letting her pick her own speed. It was very nice. I will be really sad to see her go.

So then the lady called to say she'd gotten off work early and she came out to look at December anyway. She was kind of concerned about her old injury. She gets wind puffs in that leg when she's not worked regularly but there's no heat and I don't see any lameness. The lady thought it looked like she was favoring it slightly but I didn't see it. She also said she looked older than 13 because of the recesses above her eyes? She's always had those and I assumed it was just the way her face was. Does anyone know if that actually means anything? She's tattooed and while I can't read all of it, it clearly starts with an A which would mean she was foaled in 1997. I'm pretty sure about her age. Overall, though she seemed to like her and was very pleasantly surprised about her impeccable ground manners (which Cody did not have because that's what happens sometimes when a green kid ends up unsupervised with a green OTTB). It's something I work on with a passion now because I've worried so much about what fate Cody would meet. I've promised myself all of my horses will have good ground manners and will have a job that makes them valuable to someone else besides me even if that means sending them to a real trainer.

The lady asked me to come out and see Cody (yay!) and check out her facilites to make sure I approve. I thought that was nice and makes it seem like she's seriously considering December. I kind of like the idea of my two old horses spending the rest of the years together in a big old pasture with a mom who loves them. Maybe it was fate that I reponded to that ad...it sure is a weird coincidence.

I'm going to call the vet today and make an appointment to have her teeth floated and I'll have her feet done. I'd also like to have her back leg looked at just so I can have the vet see if he agrees it's just her stocking up because of her old injury. I think its just cosmetic but I certainly don't want anyone else to have to deal with any problems. This feels SO weird. I hate selling horses.