Horse Hunting

I have known since I moved here that keeping horses in the midwest is not the same thing as keeping horses in the southwest. A horse is a somewhat simple thing when you have acres of open land out the back door. Not so when you have only a small back yard within city limits.

But lately my job at the stable has helped me begin to piece together what opportunities and difficulties there are here as far as owning and riding horses. I have been under the impression since I moved here that I could not afford to buy and keep my own horse, but with the extra cashflow provided by my job at the stable, the prospect of my hopefully soon to arrive federal tax return, and my timely discovery of something called pasture boarding, a remarkable change has come over my perception of the world. In just one week I went from someone without horse ownership in her foreseeable future to someone who is in the market.

Unfortunately, buying horses is hard. It is difficult to keep from rushing into things. I went this morning and met a very sweet four year old white quarterhorse gelding, and I go tomorrow to look at a 3 year old saddlebred-arabian cross filly. Earlier today I visited the stable where I intend to board (not the same one where I work), and in the last four days I have looked at roughly a thousand photos of available horses online. My head is spinning, and I'm constantly waffling between feeling incredibly excited and intensely worried I'm overlooking something important.

However, the more I look and calculate and shop, the more I think it will work out for me. I'll have to shift my priorities, for sure, and inevitably have to go back to doing things like driving my car and buying gas. But, provided I find the right horse and don't suddenly change my mind about the whole thing, it seems a whole new chapter of my equine history is about to begin.