Those five minutes never really paid off, my parents never bought me a horse… They were hesitant to let me have a cat; a horse was pretty out of the question. But on my first trip to New Zealand, I met Samantha, a girl who has brought me back to New Zealand five times now, and as luck would have it, not only is she a horse lover, but at that time was the owner of three horses, one of which she events with.
Jack on his first day with us
While Samantha sometimes wonders if I keep coming back for her or for her horses, I did finally have easy access to horses, but I still didn’t have a horse. That was until a few weeks ago. Samantha’s herd had increased to four horses when she picked up Scooter to event or possibly sell on after training him to event. She was also had her eyes open for a new standard bred she could use to give lessons. Her horses really are not ideal for giving lessons, Luna is a bit temperamental, Cullen a bit too sure he knows how to do it better than anyone else, and Seth, well, if he weren’t a little crazy, he is getting a bit on in years…
And in her search, this is how we came upon Jack. While surfing Trademe.co.nz, New Zealand’s eBay.com, she stumbled upon a six year old thoroughbred bred for racing, but never raced, and hardly even ridden. His asking price was NZ$500, around US$375. He is a large beautiful bay (a brown horse with black legs, tail, mane and nose), well… Samantha says he is quite ordinary, but what does she know about beauty? She is dating me…
Jack after a bath
Samantha did think he was quite the find despite his being ordinary looking, had she bought him he would have been the most expensive horse she’s ever bought, her current high is NZ$400. But she didn’t, I did and thus, I have my first pony, and by pony, I mean thoroughbred horse.
Since having bought him, I have been breaking him in (with a little help from Samantha). He is a pretty sweet good natured guy. Of our five horses, he is now the second largest after Luna, but does fall last in the pecking order being both the youngest and newest. There does seem to be some confusion about his order because Cullen, a horse who has never backed down to another horse, has for some reason decided to let Jack tell him what to do… It should sort itself out, and it may be bad for Jack that Cullen doesn’t just exert his authority, but it will work itself out.
While he is my horse, I will be back in the states for a while this year, and his home will be here in New Zealand, so really he is as much Samantha’s as he is mine. Really I’d be at a complete loss of what I need to be doing with him were it not for Samantha, so he has to be our horse, but I do finally have my horse.
