A Journey Back Home

I have a friend. Well, a few friends really but this one in particular is one of my horse friends that I happen to work with. The same one that accompanied me on the joyride with a horse in my jeep. As a matter of fact it is probably her fault I got back into the horse owner status in the first place. Yep, I'm going to blame it on her.
It all started when she decided she needed to find a new home for her beloved Ren because he just couldn't hold up to all she wanted to do on a horse. And let's face it we aren't getting any younger and there were places to go and things to do before she got too old to do them. Ren needed someone that just did light riding. Now this decision was very hard for her. She loved this horse beyond what was healthy but was trying to do what was best for him. So she asked me to compose an ad that told his story and she posted it on craigslist. The responses were overwhelming and she was able to find a home for him on a farm very close to her house where the woman does very little riding but a lot of brushing.
Now she needed to find a horse so she compiled a list of all the qualities this new horse should possess.
Some of which were....
She wanted a tall horse that would fit all of her equipment.
She wanted it to be fairly well trained.
It had to have a personality that wanted to be with people.
No spook!
Safe on trails.
She wanted this horse to be young because she wanted it to be the last horse she bought.
And pretty for the drill team.
She then spent weeks looking for the right horse. She is the health tech at our school and I would go into the health room on my breaks and sit on the blue vinyl couch, trying not to catch a germ, and talk horses. We would quickly look at a few possibilities on craigslist and dreamhorse....and I mean quickly because we didn't want to get in trouble for using school computers for shopping. Then after work she would be off to look at another horse only to be disappointed by another tall tale that the owner had told her. Most were hardly trained and the seller frantically tried to make the horse do something it didn't have a clue about how to do. At times it was down right sad and my friend was getting discouraged.
Now in the meantime her daughter happened to have a beautiful Missouri Foxtrotter gelding that she had bought at a time when she really didn't need a horse but he was a nice pinto boy with a steady way that anyone could ride. And he had the best sweet horse smell ever.
I would say to my friend, "What about Sim?" "Why don't you ride him?"
And she gave me every excuse in the book why she didn't want to ride him. Her most popular response being, "He just doesn't do anything for me."
Her horse friends said, "What about Sim?" Same answer.
So back on craigslist and dreamhorse she went dragging me right along with her until low and behold I was the one that found a horse when I fell in love with his picture.
But she didn't.
Back on the blue vinyl couch I went....."Any luck?" I'd say. Trying hard not to catch a germ.
We talked on the phone. We talked in the staffroom. And shhhh don't tell the boss but we talked a bit at recess.
She drove hither and yon...she looked at over 17 horses. She even brought a gorgeous palomino mare home for a trial visit only to take her back after a couple of days because she wasn't the horse for her. Thank goodness...that girl needed a lot of work.
I said, "What about Sim?"
She didn't hear me.
Her horse friends said, "What about Sim?"
She ignored them.
Her daughter put Sim up for sale.
But before she sold him my friend took him on a trail ride with her drill team...he is great on trails....they flipped over him. A seed was planted.
She had scheduled a lesson at her trainers when she had the palomino mare and didn't want to cancel even though she took the mare back so she took Sim instead.
And the trainer flipped over him. The seed started to grow.
My friend took out her list and read her requirements.
He fit every one.
She decided to buy the horse that was in her own backyard.

The next day at work I said my usual..."Well, any luck?"

Glowing and grinning from ear to ear she said, "I bought Sim."

I let out a whoop and gave her a big hug.

Sometimes you don't have to look any further than your own backyard.




And besides, my immune system couldn't take much more of that blue vinyl couch.