The horse you loved despite it not being at all what you thought you wanted

[risuenaVT]

I know lots of us have at least one horse in our history like that!

For me, it’s Manhattan, my current lease.

I’m basically a nervous intermediate rider - I am better than I think I am, but also I think a 12’ stride is like terrifyingly fast half the time. Manhattan is a former field hunter who someone put some training on back in the day (he’s got lead changes, he does lateral work, but he’s also like, “what do you mean I should be on left lead going left?”). He is also the first horse I sat a buck on (multiple, bucks, actually) and I laughed the entire way. Despite being mid teens, he’s green over jumps and especially when we have a long spot, drops his head for balance (and has dumped a previous rider with head dropping).

Basically, Manhattan is complicated - he went for two months of training a year and a half ago (made a huge difference, and his owner had me work with the trainer a bit). He is still generally a very safe, very kind horse. But also he can be so behind the leg, And while we work on that, I think I have learned that I like more whoa than go, but pre-Manhattan, I though I wanted more go than whoa…

But also the first time Manhattan was described to me, he didn’t sound like fun. He sounded like work. Multiple years later, I can say he is work. But he’s worth it.

I wasn’t sure he was worth it when I started riding him…

So yeah, who else has also fallen in love with a horse that didn’t check all of the boxes or they thought wasn’t right?

[Simkie]

Oh god. I’ve got this one right now. I’m a mare person. I like bays. I prefer them kinda bold. Bigger. You know.

So years ago I was at the track every weekend through live racing season, and saw this little gelding. Chestnut. BONKERS. Just so, so, so upset about his life at the track. He was 2. Tiny. 15.2 ish but so narrow he disappeared if you looked at him straight on. I felt for him and liked him but yeah totally not my horse.

He was back the next season. I saw him every weekend. Not much had changed. Toward the end of the season, I walked into the barn and was told he was done, he’d bowed both tendons. What do I do??? I immediately say I’ll take him.

So home he comes, with his two busted tendons, huge and hot, and he kicked himself in the trailer on the way, wearing grabs, so one hind is also huge and hot. He doesn’t know what grass is and has really never seen much kindness, and his ability to handle change is somewhere in the (deep) negative numbers. But overall he wants to be a good boy.

He was a back burner horse until pretty recently, but I lost my main riding horse and my in the wings riding horse, so started fooling around with this guy. He actually grew up into a nice horse, filled out. Went slow just fiddling around with him–I truly don’t think they ever really taught him anything about being a riding horse despite running for two seasons, he felt every bit unstarted–and he shocked the shit out of me by being a pretty brave trail horse.

He’s the opposite of just about everything I “like” but he’s taught me so much, made me a much better trainer, and he can be a fun ride to boot. Who woulda guessed.

[risuenaVT]

Should I tell you that Manhattan is a thicc 16hh mostly plain bay?

He is literally the perfect size for me. And he’s made me fall in love with plain bays (and geldings)…

[Texarkana]

Most of mine? Haha.

My “heart horse” was a failed resale project; I hated him for the whole first year I owned him. Then I finally got him to a point where people were interested in buying him and realized I couldn’t bear to part with him.

I have a gifted-to-me-in-utero mare who I have owned her entire life. She was all my hopes and dreams… but grew up to be the antithesis of what I wanted in every way. I’ve always “loved” her, but we had some rough times, and even had her with a trainer to sell. Now I just adore her, and dare I say, she is almost in that “heart horse” category.

Years ago I was looking for a young TB broodmare who I could breed for race and sport and also ride. What I came home with was an 18 year old stakes producing commercial race broodmare who was at a farm dispersal for a whopping $200. Her pedigree and produce record were beyond my wildest dreams. I bought her sight unseen and got her home to learn not only was she batcrap crazy, but she had a propensity for failing at creative attemps to unalive herself in the most expensive manners possible. But I grew to love that horse in ways I could have never imagined.

Right now I have a really annoying 2 year old who was the result of buying a mare who was exactly what I wanted but unknowingly pregnant… surprise! I sure am looking forward to the day when she transitions from “most annoying animal on the planet” to beloved family member.

[mika0116]

I’ll bite.

I am a mare person - both of my heart horses were mares. I’ve jumped my first fences as an adult re-rider after being a primarily dressage junior on mares. My first .90m course was on one of those said mare, my first solid roll top, my ONLY 1.10+ fence.

Mares were jumpers through and through with experience up to 1.30/1.40 - 16.1 and THICK Dutch Warmbloods or Dutch/TB crosses with short backs. Snaffle with occasional gag rein for bigger jumps / show rides. Likes contact and seeks it.

My lease geldings were often full of ups and downs and waxes and wanes of my confidence - never really felt super connected to them

Always liked forward horses with a motor. I preferred to half halt to a fence vs kicking or squeezing.

Coming back to riding yet AGAIN after 4 years of on-off stagnation and after a serious freak fall as an adult January of this year (Level 3 separated AC and concussion that had me out of the tack for 3 months)

Tall 17h+, LONG, slim/lean ,Westphalian gelding. Regional Big Eq with the occasional hunter derby round. Stick and spur ride, big lopey canter, steers almost entirely off your eye and leg, doesn’t seek contact with “just anyone”.

First time I rode him I cried. I didn’t canter, I thought he was going to big suspension-y trot me right out of the arena when I did eventually get him to move. I couldn’t steer at all. He reminded me of the old GP dressage horse of my junior trainer’s but with 0 motor and a connection evasion problem.

I felt like a failure and spent the drive home wondering if I should even bother trying to ride again after this injury.

3 rides later I can canter and steer 20m circles, 5 rides later - I get clean lead changes instead of a beautiful counter canter, 7 rides later I jump my first cross rails post injury on him. 8 rides later I drop my irons and sit his huge beautiful trot, 10 rides later he barely bats an eye when the sprinklers come on in the arena while I am on him & a loose dog runs past him while we are flatting, 12 rides later I jump 3 cross rails in a little pattern several times without getting out of breath.

He’s slightly headshy, has been known to kick, can be introverted and territorial with his stall. But I really enjoy him for some reason. He lets me touch his ears and stand in his stall for 5 mins chatting before I halter him and get him ready to ride.

Very different - I am enjoying what he is teaching me. Doesnt hurt that hes a dark bay/black with white socks and a blaze. He’s older and had some time off so is currently lacking topline, but is a striking animal. I’m tall (not as lean as I used to be) and I get told weekly we make a nice picture together.

[risuenaVT]

Oh, he sounds lovely to me, well except the known to kick part…! But very much like the kind of horse that I should like but am also ever so slightly terrified of, so I need to do flat lessons and then ground poles and build up to jumping, as which point, I’ll be all “why was I so afraid?”

[mika0116]

He has a bit of a sad backstory – was short term leased out a lot for Eq finals/ derby classes his whole life. His cute, smooth jump, metronome canter, and stunning looks just made him so profitable to be basically “rented” by the class. He would have a new rider daily /weekly.

He didn’t have a “person” for much of his life. Always handled by grooms and often roughly handled. The kicking was definitely a reaction that screams “just leave me alone for a bit, please, I want to finish dinner or I haven’t peed yet from my classes this morning”.

He’s got a great life now, spends half days (8hrs+) in turn out and has a pretty un-stressful job with me / other riders.

[moonlitoaksranch]

Matilda. We were looking for a chestnut or bay gelding for our son. We couldn’t leave that skinny Paint mare in that condition with those people.

She’s turned out to be a nice ride and loyal as heck to her family. Even in her worst pain, she tried so hard to please. Her feet hurt her so much in those early weeks. To see her barefoot and strong galloping through the pasture…it’s worth it.

[moonlitoaksranch]

And Tony the mini donk. He was so badly behaved that he was given to us. He still has his moments of regression (when someone else handles him that he can test) but he knows the rules and can be brought back around. He’s the first equine whose best correction is to drive him away from me until he approaches nicely. His desire to be with people is so strong from being a bottle baby brat.

[clanter]

our first horse, she was a long yearling who was a very nice looking bay, her papers were loaded with English Pleasure champions.

We were looking for an aged English Pleasure horse for our kids, but this yearling was really nice so bought her placing her into training.

Horse never ever worn a saddle seat saddle

She ended up doing everything but what we were looking for.

She taught us to be flexible in our desires and to seek what was best for the horse

kept her for the rest of her life (28 years)

[chestnutmarebeware]

I’ve been an TB person (and hunter rider) since graduating to horses as a junior. In 2000 after my first horse as an adult died suddenly of an E. coli infection, a co-worker whose family were hay brokers and therefore knew most of the horse farms in the area decided I’d moped around long enough and bullied me into going out to see one of his clients, a Paint halter breeder of all things.

The small-scale but very successful breeder showed me a solid chestnut foal who wanted nothing to do with me standing next to her large (15.3–16hh) burly Appendix dam; but I really wanted nothing to do with her, either. I just wanted my late horse back. The foal was very well bred, sired by the current World Champion halter stallion, but the breeder didn’t have room to keep an unmarked “breeding stock-registered” horse.

But apparently the breeder decided she wanted this foal to go to me, and even though I really didn’t absorb half of what she was saying, including the correct price (apparently she was asking $1,500, but I heard $1,000 and she said ok). Then I said I was going to Ireland for two weeks and couldn’t even take the foal for another month, and she agreed to hold her at no charge till then as well. I really didn’t want this foal but I was still so depressed it seemed easier to take her than to get away from the breeder without buying her.

So, this foal is the reason for my user name. Although well-handled, she was a hellion. At less than 6 months old when she came to me, she jumped out of her paddock every night for over a week until the BO put her Arabian gelding in with Rosie as a babysitter. She had to wear her halter full-time for months because she decided she wouldn’t be caught. When I got transferred from CO to PA six months later, despite daily practice at trailer loading, when Nationwide showed up she flatly refused to load and had to be left behind (by both the transport company and me) for two months until her next shipment could be scheduled with a vet present to sedate her. And she still didn’t like me any more than I liked her.

About a year later in PA, she was one of the 82 horses to come down with WNV when it first hit Chester County over the course of one weekend (during a hurricane!). The only reason we were able to save her was that she was small enough that two people could lift her when she went down and didn’t have the strength to get back up. I spent five days, 24/7 with her at the barn, until she was able to get to her feet without assistance. But those five days changed our relationship for good, although her nickname, The Evil Princess, remains apt to this day.

She’ll be 25 on January 3, never grew an inch over 14.3hh (I’m 5’8" with long legs) and is still the most opinionated redhead on the planet, but I wouldn’t trade her for the world!

Baby Rosie (note the pissy look, even then!)

First ride at age 3—she never grew any taller than this!

[2DogsFarm]

My current ride was a gift from a friend who’d had him 6 of his guesstimated 13yrs.
I’d just lost my WB - a big galoot (17’3) who was beginning to click w/me to be my Dressage mount.
This guy was an alleged - no registration - TWH.
Exclusively used for trails & horsecamping & yes, gaited.
Told friend if he wouldn’t trot for me I’d bring him back.
That was in the Fall of 2015.
After about 2yrs working with my trainer, who never sat on him, he was trotting.
Brag video from 2018

VID_20180920_092026897

That was then, the years have really pinched my budget for lessons & also my “impulsion” to do anything myself.
So he hasn’t seen a saddle for longer than I can recall.
We did go on a ride with my Driving Club last August & was he was fine following a carriage with more behind us.

He’s Herdboss of my 3.
A Benevolent Dictator who shares his hay with the mini in the same stall.
I often find all 3 in one stall.
He’s the HeartHorse of my Senior, non-competitive Life

He’s a sweetheart & I’m certain he’d be pretty much where I left him when/if I can get my trainer back.
Both if us need the rust knocked off, but he’s always been game for anything I ask.

[Bluey]

We needed a pony horse for the track and this old trader came by with the perfect horse, a big mostly white paint that could drag the most obnoxious colt along if necessary and super steady.
We had him for many years.

In the trailer there was this scrawny grey Arabian looking paint, thin and wiry and tiptoeing at 14.1 if stretching up.
I asked about him and trader said he was hauling him to the slaughter plant, we had one 40 miles away.
He had been flipping in the roping box and almost killed his owner last time, he is not safe to ride.
Yes, tell that to a bright eyed, bushy tailed youngster, my ears shot up!
I asked him to let me try him, I had experience with rearing horses.
Trader didn’t want to but I insisted, we had an old quiet crippled bull I needed to bring up from a mile away, I could try horse driving him to the pens.
Trader washed hands and let me take him.

Little horse was a real goer, not nervous, just busy legged, but felt very gentle and accommodating.
We found the bull and drove him slowly back to headquarters, making circles here and there, bull was very slow, horse just wanting to go, but never getting light in front when restricted, hmmm.

Once back, I asked trader to let me try him a while longer, how much did he want for the little horse?
He would not tell me a price, said try him, but keep safe.
When I later told trader I was keeping him, how much, he would never price him, he said forget it, he was glad horse found a good. home.

Little horse ended up being my main horse, he got along with everyone, calmed goofy colts, they all minded him when ponying from him, started many colts with him as baby sitter.

Moving cattle in the canyons he was like a mountain goat, would jump draws and land with all four feet on a little bitty rock and, while not a cutting horse, had a good sense where to stand and when to go around cattle.

He was so sweet, when we bought a new race bred yearling colt for our next stallion and had him in a larger pen by himself, geldings across the fence, when I fed geldings and then walked over to feed colt, my little horse had already picked a flake and walked over to the fence and fed it to colt.

He was an awesome horse all around, lost him some years later to leptospirosis.

[Indy]

My former lease mare fit that description. The first time I rode her it was to hack her for the kid who was leasing her at the time. I thought she was horribly uncomfortable and sort of just unpleasant to hack. I didn’t get what was so special about her at all. Flash forward a few years when I had ended a lease due to that horse having to be retired and I needed something to take lessons on - this mare was the only horse in the barn available to me. I didn’t hate her completely on the flat that time but then we started jumping and she scared the ever loving crap out of me because her stride was like 16’ long, given her choice she’s gonna leave out a stride, if you pull she gets pissed and goes faster, and if you look down at all before a jump (which I like to do…), she stops and goes right. Feeling like I’m being run away with over fences is not my jam, and I boarder on chicken so stopping isn’t my jam either. I literally cried on the drive home because she was my only option to ride and was afraid of her.

I sucked it up, kept lessoning on her and slowly figured out how to stop looking down and how to not piss her off as much. And I realized that even with all her quirks, she was as honest as they came - she was never going to buck me off like my previous horse would, she was never going to spook randomly, and if I did something dumb she was going to honestly let me know. Even in her hard areas (the huge stride and the occasional right exit), she was predictable. I could trust her to be 100% herself at all times. I wound up leasing and showing her for three years, and we went everywhere together. We achieved things I never thought possible. She never stopped being a red-headed TB mare and I never stopped being a chicken-shit ammy but we became a pretty good team - I always joked that I supplied her with treats in exchange for her putting up with my bullshit. There were days when all I could do was roll my eyes at her antics and I’m sure she could say the same about me.

I had to stop leasing her when my son was born but even after that I still rode her in lessons and hacked her whenever I got the chance. I rode her for the better part of 12 years, until we put her down at the ripe age of 29 last November. She wasn’t exactly my heart horse, but she was damned close. She was who I chose to teach my son to ride on because I knew she was only going to listen to him when it was safe. She was in my life longer than any other horse and I miss her so much. When we put her down, so many of her people came to be with her. It was funny because really she fit the “wrong horse right time” description for so many of us…on paper she was not what most of us should have ridden but she was just perfect in her own way for all of us.

[Bogie]

When my TB was injured a friend gave me a horse to ride that she wanted to sell. I was grateful for the ride but said I’d never buy her as I didn’t want a mare, wasn’t crazy about having a draft x and had two kids in college. The first 2 months she was an opinionated, stubborn b@#%@ who would buck, squeal, try to scrape me off on trees and otherwise express her annoyance. One day, she decided she could tolerate me. Of course I kept her. We had 10 fabulous years together before I lost her to laminitis.

[2tempe]

10+ years back I was looking for a rideable horse after my mare decided she was going into retirement(very long story). Trainer found a 1/2 lease opportunity that owner would move to where I was boarding. Tried him, he was fun. BUT I swore years ago I would never own a nearly white horse and I did not want a stallion because of potential boarding issues down the road. But when desperate and its only a month to month lease…
Fast forward to now. I have owned said white stallion for 10 years (he’s now 22) and I wouldn’t have traded a minute of that time for anything. Talented, ridiculously well behaved and tidy in his stall, afraid of NOTHING. He never gets stall stains, and hosing off sand in Fla is way easier than mud in Ohio 1/2 the year. Also the few boarding barns I would ever move to will take stallions. He has a very big personality and lots of friends!

[risuenaVT]

I love all these stories. Sometimes the right horse finds us.

[strangewings]

I am going to skip most of the story, but I bought him as a resale project and kept him because he is so good-minded, but also has physical issues/gets a lot of klutzy injuries and I didn’t want him to have a bad ending.

I invest a lot of time and mental energy in doing correct and pt-sound work in order to maintain him as an athlete. It has been educational, but hard at times. Fortunately, not expensive.

We have a very good working partnership, but he isn’t a cuddly one. He nickered at me this morning though. Not the first time, but it is rare and we have done some hard work this week. So it warmed my heart and really wanted to share with folks who will understand

[4horses]

I was leasing a horse that I thought checked all my boxes. Paint thoroughbred. She was beautiful and brave. Our first trail ride (solo) went fantastic. She didn’t spook at anything at all. To cut a long story short, after about a month, her owner came and picked her up, leaving me without a horse and I had students lined up for lessons. I needed a lesson horse ASAP.

A friend of mine found a horse for me. I spoke with the owner who said "just come get her and see if you like her. " So off I went to pick up a horse I had never seen and knew nothing about. The owner pulls out a big fat chestnut mare with crooked back legs. Those back legs looked like a lameness issue waiting to happen. I thought, well, I can always sell her later on if she doesn’t work out. I took her home, and the rest is history. She is the best behaved, most dependable and sweetest horse you would ever meet. And those crooked back legs haven’t caused any issues at all.

If I had been going out to buy a horse, I probably would have discarded her entirely based on those back legs and I would have missed out on a wonderful partner. Did I mention her canter is wonderful? It’s like sitting on a cloud. She is so smooth. Now I ride the quarter horses and they feel so rough and uncomfortable.

No, she will never be a jumper. I wouldn’t ask her too. But she’s perfect for going for a gallop down the beach, or going camping, or swimming, or whatever adventure I want to come up with next.

[ParadoxFarm]

Oh, I can add to all these wonderful stories.

I had a couple of falls off a WB mare we had, which totally shook my confidence. We ended up selling her and I bought a quiet, lovely solid black paint. He was a sweet boy, and fun to ride, but he had some undisclosed soundness issues, so he went back to the person we bought him from. In the meantime, I was working with a green OTTB, which I have had quite a few. A friend of a friend had gotten a horse that she never rode that was supposed to make a nice trail horse. A month later, still not ridden, my friend asked for her friend if I would work with it for 30 days, and work with the rider/horse once a week to show her how to ride this particular horse. I said okay. The horse was dropped off. Well, when this horse walked off the trailer, my husband, bless him, said, “That’s the ugliest horse I’ve ever seen.” Poor guy. He is an Appaloosa Trakehnerr cross. I started working with him, and really enjoyed riding him. The first week was up and the owner didn’t come out to ride him like we had agreed. Second week soon passed, followed by the third week and the owner had an excuse each time why she couldn’t come out and ride him. After the 4th week, I just talked to her saying that I got the feeling she didn’t like the horse, and if she decided to rehome him to please consider me. I bonded with the horse and really liked him. She immediately responded via email, “PLEASE take him, you’d be doing me a favor. We didn’t bond.” I thought, well, it’s hard to bond if you never show up and have never ridden him or given him a try. But, that horse and I had a great time! He did a little of everything – jumping, dressage, trails. Even my husband came to love him and said, “He has the most beautiful eyes.” So, this is my heart horse, and he’s still with me, retired and showing neurological signs, but happy as can be at 30 years old.

Here is Chico, who I always thought was beautiful.