A good day

I had such a fine day today, and I've been in a great mood this week. First of all, I'm finally getting a fish aquarium next week, a really nice model for a very good deal on ebay. I have serious aquarium envy whenever I visit my sister who has the most artful, creative 10 gallon I've ever seen. I hope to steal her ideas. And only 55 Euros for a set that costs over 300 new? Woo! And it comes with fish!


Then I met a very nice mare today for a lease. I have such a great feeling about this mare, I'm totally thrilled. She's the kind of horse you would want to pay a monthly fee to ride, not a project or freak-case that you wonder how you got suckered into riding. Her name is Walli and she resembles Baasha at first glance, but she's stockier, shorter, and has a definite Spanish strain giving her an abundance of flowy mane. She has the prettiest eyes and long white eyelashes, and she's just so calm. She's a therapy horse during the week but I'll be riding her twice weekly on trails. Her owner is pregnant again, with 4 blond children already surrounding us as we meandered the barn area. (One, about 5, said, "I know English! My name is Maggie! See? I know English! Do you know what that means?" I said "Yah, it means my name is maggie." and she said, confused, "No, you don't know, it means...and then she went on to explain what "name" in German is, and "my"." Apparently she thought I was just mimicking her. OK then.)

Speaking of language stuff, when I met Walli's owner, I stepped out of my car and she said, "Hello" and I said, "Hello." and she said, "Oh, you must be who I'm expecting, you say hello like an American."

What the...all this time, I say Hello wrong? And it took 5 years for someone to tell me? Good grief. Well screw it then, I'll say it like I like it. I can say Geschwindigskeitbegrenzung just fine...or, at least, with a cute American accent. (I just asked my man and he said, "Well, as I always say, you have trouble with long vowels. (English has no long vowels.) Also, that double L really trips me up. They say that really hard here.)

Anyway I asked to see the mare ridden in the arena, as a best practice, and I was happy to see she's no school horse, even though she goes out with handicapped kids.

They say her only fault is she loves to take off running on the trails, but I think I can handle that cuz I've ridden a lot of horses who expect to canter on trails and, as I told the owner, if it's a problem, we'll work on it. If not, we won't.

The owner is no rider, she said, "I've only been riding horses for one year, and I can take her out on trails. So I'm sure you'll be fine." I was happy to hear that. I just want a horse I can enjoy.

I'm going back out there tomorrow to try my Wintec on her (they don't have a saddle that fits now so she was happy to hear I have my own).

I met this mare through my barefoot trimmer so she's got lovely feet, actually, and legs, and although she's long-backed, she is one gorgeous example of a mixture of who-knows breeding.

I'll take pics tomorrow.

So....one more thing. I've found a half Arab nearby (30 minutes!) and he looks like a sweetheart, and has huge, tree-like legs, like I want. And big black hooves. I realize that I would have happily brought Princess Buttercup to Germany, and she's a Quarab, so I cannot decline a Quarab. They can be a great breed in my experience. This one is allergic to straw, and won't go in trailers, but he's 8, and I love his expression. Also, his dad is an endurance horse, and the owner says she takes him out for 3-6 hours on trails and he loves it. The owner is away on vacation so I have to wait 2 weeks to meet him. I've told my lease horse owner that if I buy a horse, I'll have to quit the lease, and she understands. So, the odd thing about this prospect is his father is a Paint Arabian. Which I guess they can say Quarab? I know his mother was half Welsh, which is also nice. Probably where he gets the good bone.

Lots to think about, and look forward too.