A Little History

Indy (Nibbles), the first time we saw him
April 2011



As a present to myself for my 30^th birthday I made the decision to follow my childhood dream and buy a horse. After thinking on this for a few days (and reading through Horses for Dummies) I concluded that I had no idea what I was doing and would need help; lots of help, like hand-holding-type help. And so I started looking around at local barns for lessons and boarding for my future wonder horse, dragging my less-than-enthusiastic husband with me. I’ll spare the gory details, but I finally found one that had all of the things I was looking for: available lessons, daily turn-out, and feeding three times a day. Oh, and the owner would help me find a suitable equine after she had a feel for how well I could ride, which is great, because like I said I had no idea what I was doing. I took lessons for a few months beginning in February of 2010. By the middle of April I was itching for my own ride and so we made a couple of trips to see friends of my trainer who had horses for sale.

Seeing Indy for the first time (he was Nibbles at this point), standing alone in a covered outside stall, a brown and white spotted gelding with winter fur, short tail, and a rubbed out mane…it wasn’t exactly love at first sight. I was still excited to check him out; he was young and already had a lot of experience under saddle, including western pleasure trainers and a few months on a working ranch.



Indy (Nibbles) with my husband, Zach



His try-outs were good, but he seemed lazy and would not go when I tried to get him to go. Unfortunately, he had been missed on the last farrier visit so the owners had done a quick foot job on him the day before and now he was sore. Bummer.



We left disappointed and during the course of the next few weeks saw some more horses, but none that would really suit me. While looking at another prospect we happened to be in the area of where Indy was, so we made a point to stop again, hoping that this time would be a better experience. And it was, he was feeling better, moving forward and looked willing. I called a few days later and bought him. I had a horse!

He was delivered to the barn on May 8, 2010. We have already had quite a few adventures that I will go into more detail in the future, but here we find ourselves facing the anniversary of our first year together and on the cusp of a new challenge…showing.



Indy, November 2011