A New Adventure And A Red Horse

Like a kid on Christmas morning, I was wide awake at 4 am... 6 hours before my friend Cindy's trailer would be here for Czech and I.

I probably should have been nervous for how he would do on a ride off property, especially since this ride included cannons and other random items all through the woods, instead I was just deliriously happy at the idea of riding my own horse on a trail.

In all the years of riding I had never once ridden my own horse out. I borrowed and begged horses for rides off property, spending the first few miles trying to figure out the horse I was riding. Today I knew the horse well and loved the prospect of a sunny fall day spent on his back on an adventure.

Czech did not disappoint, he took great care of me. At times he had trouble distinguishing step-ups from jumps, the rocks really bothered his bare back feet (meaning a lot of hugging the outside edge of the trail and coming a little too close to all the trees and spiders), and he shied at moving water the first time it was in front of him.

By the end though, he was belly deep in a creek (pawing with gusto threatening to go down with me) and cantering with our trail buddy.

On the way home from the trail, we stopped by to see a horse prospect.

The 16 hand OTTB went by us in the round pen, big eyed, kicking at the person driving him forward. When the person led him out, chain under his chin, he popped his head up to avoid the chain only to have her correct him with it again almost driving him to rear. He had a kind eye but obviously needed a lot of work.

His movement was gorgeous and a quick internet search while we stood there revealed why, he was a Storm Cat grandon on his sire's side and has KY derby winner Thunder Gulch as his dam's sire.

I asked the owner nicely if I could walk the horse and I moved the chain to over the nose and he immediately dropped his head and relaxed.

He needed a person to trust and time on cool calories with lots of turnout. Hangingbyathread's story was a successful one, he won over $300,000 with 10 firsts and was a stakes winner. He raced 45 times in 6 years straight and still managed to remain sound. How he ended up going from making his owners over a quarter million dollars to a kill buyer, almost starved to death, is beyond me. But he did. And since being bought off a kill truck, he had been sitting in a barn waiting to find a person to move forward with. I'll get to networking and see if we can find him his very own person.