The whole story

Okay, looking back I think that last post was a cop-out. Here's the whole story:

I got the Quarters from my Dad (thanks Dad!) who used to be heavy into showing quarter horses. Gwen and Coriander were the last foals out of his champion halter mare and when he bred them he had high hopes about their future show careers. Unfortunately things didn't go as planned. As skilled labor in the construction industry, he was hit pretty hard by the Florida housing slump. He also lost two very promising horses in tragic accidents, one in a stall and one in the middle of the show ring. He hasn't said so but I can tell those events were pretty heartbreaking. Without the money to pay for their care and without the heart to keep working with them, the Quarters languished.

I first saw Gwen when she was a yearling in 2005, and though I declared immediately that she would be mine someday, it was another four years before I was in a place where I could take care of her. In the meantime she remained as wild as a march hare. Due to her wildness, and the fact that her brother was languishing as well, we decided that both horses would be brought up to live with me. The idea was that I would have a horse to "use" while I tamed the wild beast. (In hindsight, this was the best idea ever. I don't think I'd have been able to make any progress at all with Gwen without her brother. He's our rock. And he's totally awesome.) Keep in mind that at this point Coriander had only been sat on and at least five years had passed since that last happened.

Getting them to NY was an ordeal in itself. I thought I had done a thorough job finding the right transport for them but I hadn't. The woman I'd decided to work with was not only ridiculously late, she also showed up all alone. When she finally arrived, Gwen wouldn't get on the trailer. Period. Comes out this was for the best. I had specifically told this woman that my mare was wild and that once she was on the trailer she needed to stay on it until she reached her final destination. Despite that, this woman was planning on unloading them overnight in Virginia; there would have been absolutely no way she'd have been able to get Gwen back on that trailer after that. My $400 deposit was flushed down the tubes.

Fortunately my Dad was able to borrow a stock trailer that Gwen could be herded into and up to NY they finally came. I wish I'd started my blog in August when they arrived but, as it is, I only started writing about them in November. Nevertheless, most of our progress is documented here. The only parts missing are how it used to take me 10 minutes to get a halter on Gwen, how she used to rear coming in and out of the stall, how she used to make me dizzy when she'd spin in circles around me, and other bits of crazy. I also never wrote about how I started Coriander, but it was such a snap that it might not have been that interesting to read anyway. Now you all get to read about Gwen's baby steps and Coriander's refinement, so I think that makes up for it.

I think my Dad made the right decision giving me the Quarters and I sure hope they agree: I love them more everyday.