Hubby has always loved horses! He's wanted to own one for as long as I can remember. That is still in the plans for the future sometime. But, for now, we wanted to give him access to a horse, so that he could sort of fulfill that goal. Having called around before, I wasn't sure that "renting" a horse was going to be a possibility. However, this time (a few years after the first round of calling), we called a small farm that was willing to give us a partial lease on a horse. They had just acquired her. She was formerly a cart horse, and they wanted to train her to be a fox hunting horse. We paid for hubby to have the ability to ride her 3 times a week. He went out on Wednesday after work (when we had YW activities at church, so we wouldn't be home anyway) and either Saturday or Sunday. The other day was kind of free floating. Comparing prices, doing the half lease was such a good deal, it will be hard to convince me we need to own one of our own. Other than being able to walk out into your own back yard, having someone else take care of the horse was pretty handy!
Leasing the horse would be similar to owning it, just half the time. He would have to tack up, brush her down, make sure she was in the proper field, and be completely comfortable with the horse, because no one would be there to monitor them. Hubby felt pretty comfortable doing that, but they wanted hubby to ride with the trainer first, so they could be sure. He did that on his birthday at the beginning of the month. From there, we proceeded with the lease, and hubby "had a horse"!!
He would often take one/some of us with him to the barn. We couldn't ride the horse, but we could help with tacking up and brushing back down. On that particular Saturday (the 19th of Sept), Dylan, Kelsey and I all went with hubby. Kaitlyn also frequently went with him.
Hubby is kind of a strange breed. When we started dating, I had no idea he was a country boi. When we were dating, he was suping up his car with a turbo and putting speakers in it so that he was super cool. But, when I got to know him a bit better, he had access to land, and farmed it, and wanted to ride horses! Surprisingly to me, he seems just as comfortable in either world!
While the kids didn't ride her, they did want to sit on her.
After the ride, you take off the saddle, and brush the horse down.
She was a very dark chocolate brown!
With a thin white blaze on her face.
The barn cat was not afraid of visitors, and would sometimes let the kids pet her. She would make herself comfortable on the saddle pad while we finished the rest of the routine.
Her name was Sixteen because of the brand she has on her thigh area. I guess they thought 4x4 was not nice, or easy enough to say. So they did the math, and that is where they got Sixteen!
I believe that she was a Percheron/Draft Horse mix. And she was pretty big.
Photo Bomb!
At the end of the ride, I drove the truck, and the other three walked her to her paddock. I love this view! They look so peaceful and happy :)
We kept up with the lease until December. Unfortunately for them (and for us) they took Sixteen on a fox hunt, and she didn't play well with the other horses. In fact, she tried to kick one of the other horses, which is a big no no. Since they had no use for her anymore (she didn't seem like she would be a good fox hunting horse after that experience), they told us that they were giving her back to her original owner. They offered us the chance to lease her fully, but that wasn't in the cards either. Hubby wasn't going to be able to ride her more often, so paying more money for the same benefits didn't make sense. And, unfortunately, she had gotten more skittish (instead of less) as hubby rode her more often. So, we chose to give up the lease. But she was a good experience for hubby and the kids!
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