To be, or not to be RBE. . .

I guess that's the question. Do I or do I not want a RBE? Hmmm. Tough choice. Their pros and cons are numerous, that's for sure. Hmmph. . .

Once upon a time at Ot's Sunrise Farms *drool* there was but a slight chill in the air as two women stepped out of their car. The younger lady had thin blonde hair, twirling at every breeze. Her ordinary blue eyes assessed the grand stable before her. As recognition settled in, she spoke loudly "Yep, we're here alright!" The other woman, her mother, nodded.

Yep, so my mom and I were at Ot's. Looking at a horse. Tada! So . . . details: The horse is named Vittorion.

[caption id="attachment_163" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Looks mostly Morgan to me. What a great confirmation shot, though!"][/caption]

He's an Akhal-Teke/ Morgan cross. And he was pretty RBE. So, now we'll get into the story.

Alrighty, so the lady gets Vittorion and asks where I want him: in the arena or roundpen. I decide roundpen. All the better for groundwork, right? So, the lady opens the door and leads Vittorion in. And takes his halter off. And he starts running. Obviously, she thought I wanted to lunge him.

So, I get my 22' rope and halter and go stand in the middle of the pen. Boy, was I in an interesting situation: I mean, how do I catch a galloping RBE horse with no halter? I asked his owner what she usually did to catch him. She's like "Oh, he'll usually come to me sometimes, but I haven't lunged him in a while," which got me thinking "Oh, boy!" I thought for a couple minutes and then just decided that I'd try and act as non-threatening as possible. So, I just kind of walked around and tried to give him as much space as possible. After a couple of minutes, he decided to come to me. I petted him with the halter all over, but he wasn't paying me any attention now, because he could see his buddies. I tried to get the halter on, but he wanted to run again, so I said "let me help you!" Then, I went back to being non-threatening and after walking around a little bit, I went over to the other side of the pen and turned my back to him. He came up to me again. This time he let me put the halter on. :)

Now, I'm going to allow myself a little room to ramble. The reason being that this horse was AMAZING!! Granted, I haven't seen many RBEs, but this one was incredible!!! SOOOOO sensitive! I played with him for only an hour, and it was like he already knew Parelli (and I know for a fact he didn't)!! I wish I could've gotten a video, he was SOOO incredible. Okay, achievements: Friendly went good, but in the beginning he was distracted so that didn't really count; Porcupine HQ phase 1, FQ phase 2ish; Driving he totally aced, HQ phase .5 (lol), FQ phase 2ish; Yo-yo was incredible, I got him backing off Phase 1 simply because of my body language; Circling I didn't have time for; Sideways I skipped; Squeeze game wasn't the best. Also, another big thing (in my mind at least) is that Vittorion didn't need the carrot stick. His phase 4 was (usually) barely touching him. It was incredible. I mean, when I got home, I was giggling, I was so happy!

But I was trying to think if I could see myself riding that horse (after we'd prepared properly, of course), and the answer I've come to is I really don't know. I think I'll go see him again

and have the lady ride him first. Then, we'll see how I feel about it.

See, what I'm really unhappy about is that Vittorion's temperament is a 6.

I don't think I want a horse that spirited, (though it's certainly something I'll eventually need to be able to handle) yet I have no interest in buying a peanut-pusher either. Oohhh, but Vittorion was so amazing! Ahh, I hate decisions. Lol.

Lastly, I have to mention that the barn Vittorion was stalled

in (omg) was ALL studs. So, as I'm walking back to the barn all the studs nicker to Vittorion and about half of them get aggressive. Interesting. Anyways, we got a GORGEOUS picture of a Friesian stud.

The Day I got my dream horse!!

Yeah, you would never believe it. Woke up this morning and bam, we get a phone call. Three horses were running around town and one of them was a Friesian!! And if no one claims her she's mine!! Yes!!!

Oh, how sweet dreams are! If only, if only. . .

The Actual Story:

Ok, well I was SUPER tired. I got back from Noah's Ark last night at about 11:30. Slept like a rock, no problems there. So, it's about 11am, and I'm still 'sleeping'. My mom gets this phone call, and I have no idea what it's about. I only caught " A Friesian!!" and "I'll be right there!" So, I get up and my mom tells me that there's 3 horses loose about around the block and one's a Friesian. Oh, boy were we excited!! I grab some halters and lead ropes and my mom, Jake (my little brother), and I pile into the car.

So, we stop at this house and see 3 strange horses inside the pasture. I was wondering how in the world they got in there, but whatever. Then, Jeanie (the lady who called us about the horses) arrives. She tells me that she let the horses inside, because she didn't want them wandering the streets. I take a closer look at the horses. One is definitely a Friesian, she was gorgeous!

[caption id="attachment_104" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The Friesian being cute"][/caption]

One was a gray Arabian cross, and another looked like part Thoroughbred. The Arab and Friesian had halters on, so we thought that they must've belonged to someone. The Friesian's feet were really bad though, so I was thinking maybe we would end up keeping her! We put different halters on them, and then started leading them towards our house (we had an extra pasture we could put them in). I took the Friesian, mom took the Thoroughbred, and Jeanie took the Arab. We were already discussing who was going to take the Friesian, lol!

Well, we had just turned onto my road when a car drives by and then stops. Two people get out, and they tell us that these are their neighbors horses. So, we start walking them back the way we had just taken them. Some other boys come up and start leading the horses back to their homes. We drove home to get a quick drink and then headed to the horses' home.

[caption id="attachment_105" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Lippy!"][/caption]

The Arab was walking really fast, so it got home first and started freaking out, since her buddies weren't there. She actually kicked my mom, but SO LUCKILY the kick hit her phone instead of her. Well, her buddies arrived momentarily and she obviously calmed down.

The owners were away on vacation and they came home about 10 minutes later. I got a lot of information and learned more about the horses. For one thing, we were wrong! The Thoroughbred was actually a rare breed called Ahkal-teke. I forget her name, though. And the Arab cross was actually a purebred Lipizzaner named Lippy (unfortunately fitting, lol). Basically, we had just walked about $50,000 dollars down the street. Wow, was that one a shocker!!

And also, I found a nice exercise to do with Arruba that the lady who owned them suggested. I don't really feel like explaining, but basically it's supposed to help with the circling game. Lastly, I got another shocker that this lady was part owner of Ots Sunrise Farms.

Oh, and here's 2 more pictures. :)

[caption id="attachment_106" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Here's the Akhal-teke! I can't remember her name, argh!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_107" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Indiana eating. My is she drafty!"][/caption]