I will!!! He’s the absolute best and my horse loves him.
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Your barn looks like it came from a storybook! What an adorable boy!
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Please tell me that pic (ok, both, really) is framed somewhere in the house! Beautiful!
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Thank you 
!
Not yet ! But I will. They are goofballs
IMG_5386
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OP I guarantee your horse will bring you so much happiness!
Congratulations OP! I love that you’re able to provide a soft landing for such a special horse.
And in your BF’s defense, acquiring any horse is objectively a totally insane choice to make, let alone a potential retiree. I can’t really fault a rookie for being deeply skeptical 
I bet he comes around once he actually meets the horse and sees how happy she makes you!
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How do you keep him from eating the flowers???
After seeing the video he may be retired from jumping but looks like he has plenty of riding left ahead??
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Im about to ramble a little:
I’ve been reading Bo’s thread and I am hoping my mare’s teeth are okay- if not I’ll have to do that song and dance of finding the right mash/grain/cubes/pulp whathaveyou.
I have never had a senior horse. I expect nothing from her- if she is sound and wouldnt mind me tootling a little bit around on her that would be nice, but I honestly dont expect anything. I just want her to be pain free, fed, and loved on. She would be the best for pony rides too, if a relative/coworker/friend whathaveyou asks. If she’s sound and happy. If.
Boyfriend is ok with it now- he always knew id be getting another horse, but neither of us expected it to be on the sooner side of things. He’s a keeper. I told him it would make my soul happy and that’s all he needed to be on board. I appreciate him like crazy- especially since currently he has to drive me to the barn as I’m unfortunately carless.
I am keeping my part lease at my barn, because I adore my barn family and love the option to show (dressage, a little hunters) on her, but part of me wonders if my mare would do the 0.65m classes with me, but I am perfectly happy if she can do nothing at all but be a cuddle bug. The people who own her now arent sharing too much info but they’ve done me a favour by keeping me in the loop so I could get her back, so I dont want to pester them with questions- they said she’s sound enough to do trails in that many words- that could mean anything and if it means I walk on her once a month down the driveway so be it.
I dreamed last night of pulling up to a barn with all my brushes and brushing her. I can’t wait. She’ll come home on the 12th i believe which is a Thursday- I’ll have to see her the following day. It’s a 16 hour trip to me- I got an excellent price because it’s my shipper I use for everything and she’s amazing and was already headed that way. I got lucky!
Ok ill zip it for now but I’m just so excited!
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Yay! We will require many many pictures !!!
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I find this so odd. If I were looking for a good retirement home for a horse, I would be so happy to share all the information I could with a previous owner who was willing to take the horse back, especially to help them prepare.
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Smiley leaves them alone. My other one however only has low flowers he can’t snarf up by his window.
And yes, Smiley will be my amble down the trail horse. He has a whole lot of life left.
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Taking care of a loved one is not irresponsible. Buying a horse that you can’t afford, even if you love it, is irresponsible.
If you need to lease the horse after you buy it, don’t buy it.
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sorry, I can absolutely afford her to be nothing but a pet horse that lives out her days. It would be nice if she had a few years left to be a riding horse, but I don’t need her to do a dang thing really, and I don’t need to lease her out to afford her. sorry if i didnt make that clear!
currently i can afford to retire her and continue to part lease the show horse i am lucky enough to ride. that can be my riding itch scratched if my mare doesnt want to do anything in her golden years.
if she wants to keep working i wouldnt mind her being part leased out to a friend who does up down lessons but i am preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.
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yay! I’m glad you are getting her back
I did the same thing this summer. I had a TWH gelding I had originally purchased in utero and then sold to a friend as an 7 year old because he wanted to be a mosey and see the sights trail horse not an endurance horse. Fast forward many years later (he’s 22 right now I think) and my friend asked me if I would take him back. His best buddy passed away and she was no longer riding. Did I need another horse? nope definitely not lol but I will always take back any horse I have sold.
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el cheapo barn wont work out, information came to me about some of their goings on that just dont match my own values, so I am currently pestering my coach’s friends and everyone is scrambling to find her a good place, and Im confident something will work. I am lucky I have my coach and my barn community to help me! I’d move her in with my coach but she’s full and (also north of a grand a month which i’d prefer not to do).
I gave el cheapo the first month’s board already and I wont get it back, but thats a lesson Ive learned now- ask questions first and pay later, not the other way around. Just mildly annoyed, mostly at myself. If I had held onto the board until she actually got here i wouldnt have lost that money. Boo hiss.
Really looking forward to having her.
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Don’t get too mad yourself for this.
Holding a spot at a barn frequently requires money to be paid. You did what you needed to, to hold a spot.
Be glad that you learned now that the place will not work and not after you moved in where you would be out two months of board with giving your notice.
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yeah, good point!!
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Good to think ahead like this, but since you don’t know anything about the mare’s current physical condition, don’t go too fast. Things you say now will sound like “unreliable witness” later to the more casual listeners if they don’t turn out to be the case. So slow down a little bit.
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Maybe I read this part of the OP’s post wrong (nope, went back and re-read it), but I would not encourage her to slow down the pace of looking for an appropriate boarding barn for this horse she has being trucked in soon (next week). Finding a good place for her to live is the top priority now that the place the OP originally chose has fallen thru. I realize you chopped out the part that explained that this asking friends to help was because the boarding barn fell thru, but that is what the quoted sentence was in the middle of a paragraph about. Simply boarding the horse.
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