Blog Hop: Interested Parties

Another awesome blog hop from Viva Carlos! What made me interested in buying Rico all those years ago?

Eleven years ago I was an event rider ("event" rider) riding a cool perch x tb cross named Larkin who was owned by a family friend. Ten years ago Larkin decided that jumping wasn't that fun, and I agreed, so we switched to dressage. I showed him at Training and First level with scores in the 70s, but as winter approached it was apparent that I would need to move on. Larkin had the world's bounciest trot and my back was severely injured.

My parents surprised me in their willingness to buy me one last horse. I had proven my dedication to the sport over years and years and they wanted to see me do well at the higher levels.

I started looking for a horse in a relatively low budget for the market. My idea was to get a third level-ish horse who I could grab my bronze on, and then move on to doing Young Riders (which is Prix St George) by the time I was 21.

We started looking and my trainer rejected everything for not being fancy enough. I must have looked at 100 videos (and this was before everyone put everything on youtube, maybe before youtube itself?, so I was getting snail-mailed dvds and vhs tapes) and sat on at least 30-40 horses before finding Rico.

He is and was quite a catch

It was the end of December 2004 (and I had been looking for three months, which felt like eternity for an eighteen year old) when Heidi was judging a schooling show that I was riding a friend's horse in. Heidi was my trainer's trainer at the time and she knew I was looking for a horse. I jokingly said "have you found me a horse yet?" and she said yes and to come try him on Tuesday.

So I want to say that it was January 5th, 2005 when I first met Rico. I saw this adorable picture of him first...

SO fancy

And then I got to see him in person. He... looked better in pictures. I remember thinking he was really big and kind of mousy. He had recently been clipped so that's why his coat was all gray and he also is just a tall horse. He's only 16.2, but he stands tall with his head up in the air most of the time, we call him a llama. He stood quietly in the crossties to get brushed and tacked up. He licked me the whole time. It was really freaking weird. To be honest, I thought he was a little weirdo and started thinking I didn't want him.

Rico had come into Heidi's barn in the beginning of December for training and to be sold. He had been a combined driving horse for years in Europe and then imported (I believe from Germany) to the US along with his pair, Limbo, to Lodi up in Northern California. From there he competed all over the US at the preliminary level in combined driving with Limbo before Limbo was injured. Rico had disliked being a singles horse and was sent to Heidi while Limbo recovered and then was sold, also as a dressage horse.

He's the one on the left of the cart, looking bored

So Rico had about 30 days undersaddle. Not exactly a third level schoolmaster...

I watched Heidi ride him, then my trainer at the time, then I got on him. He had the biggest freaking gaits! I could barely ride him. He was green. He didn't steer very well. His gaits were way too big for his topline and he kind of just flailed around the arena while I flailed atop him. My trainer loved him, Heidi approved, my mom approved. I was like meh sure.

He passed the vet check with flying colors and on January 8th, 2005 I was his owner. He was 8 years old (turning 9 in February) and all joints from his feet to his knees and hocks were perfectly clean. He flexed completely negative. All this paid off, he may have had several severe tendon injuries, but the damn joints are still going strong. He didn't need hock injections until he was 16!

At the vet check

I felt pretty mixed about him for many years. He was fancier than I had ever imagined, but he was green and difficult, so I watched my dreams get flushed away. No quick Bronze medal, it took me 4 years to earn that on him. No Young Riders for me, since it wasn't until I was 26 that he went Prix St George.

First show at Training level

More painful Training level at his second show in the rain

But despite losing out on a lot of the plans I had, I don't regret the purchase at all. He's taught me so much over the years and remains just as talented as he was the day that I bought him. He's slightly easier to ride now though, since most of the time I can steer him.

The best horse