The Innocent Google Search....

What started as an innocent Google search on "Ontario Horse Breeders" turned into me finding my next horse. The culmination of events and signs following that search were incredible! I ended up on a website that helps people advertise/sell their horses. Looking at a picture of a Black & White horse with a child on its back, the description said it was a Quarter Horse Mare for $1000. The colour was right (I'd always wanted a B&W coloured horse), the price was right but I wasn't really looking for a mare. Thought I'd go check out the bio anyways. I couldn't access the information and when I finally did I found out that it was a listing for a completely different site and horse! A gelding (which is what I preferred), Tennessee Walker (I've always dreamed of having a gaited horse), 3 year old (now that part kinda worried me) for $2850. He sounded perfect but the price was a bit high for us. I showed him to Richard in passing and I'm not even sure how it came about but next thing I knew I was making an appointment to go see him. It got cancelled a few times due to bad weather but finally I found myself driving (ok, Maureen did the driving) to Uxbridge!

When I first saw him he was in a large box stall, with his butt facing out :) He turned around, buried his face in my chest and started nibbling on my riding helmet. He seemed very sweet. He was even nudging Kaeleb as if to say "hey little buddy, look at me! I'm up here!"

When Janet took him out of his stall she warned me that he really hadn't been handled much since he came to her in September. She was also putting tack on him he'd never worn before and she was going to use a sidepull bridle (that does not have a bit) for the first time - all of this on a 3 year old horse!

He stood quietly for tacking and was led outside to be ridden. It was bitter, bitter cold with extremely high winds but he was such a trouper! I decided not to attempt to ride him since I wouldn't be able to do much with him anyways. I liked him and I wanted to make an offer (big suprise)

Leading up to this first viewing I asked Blugh for some kind of a sign that this was the right horse. Looking back to Sailor he was as close as I was going to get! (Sailor was a Saddlebred, same colour as Rhett who I really fell in love with many years ago. I had always said I'd love to have a horse like him one day!). Rhett (who was Bullet when I met him) was the right colour, but I needed more that just that! Then it hit me. This horse was in Uxbridge...I pulled out Blugh's registration papers and realized that he was registered in Uxbridge! Then I also realized that it was the 7th anniversary of his death (to make a long story short, Blugh died on the day that my first son was born. The number 7 kept coming up all through his birth right down to our room number in the hospital so it was incredible that it was coming up again now!). The other thing that really hit me was just before I went to see this horse, Penny offered me a job in her barn in exchange for board! (Penny looked after Blugh for me!) I just knew in my heart that this was my next horse...

Money was a bit of an issue. We hadn't anticipated on buying a horse until Spring and here it was only January! I called and made an offer which was pretty much flatly refused. I knew it was too low but I'm just terrible at this kind of thing. I literally felt sick when I went to bed that night. Between being chilled from being at the farm and the stress of making offers I was done for. I was starting to think this horse was going to slip through my fingers....

I made a suggestion to Richard that he go see the horse since he was going to be working in Uxbridge that week. Richard did drop by the farm, met Rhett and talked to the people who were looking after him. I was sitting in the living room with Maureen when he called. He told me that he had seen the horse, did I really want THIS horse??? When I said yes, he said, call them and offer the next price they stated. We did and the offer was accepted!