The Search Continues

Friday morning, Brett and I were at RA's barn bright and early.  We arrived a few minutes before the trainers and RA was peacefully eating in his stall.  The dressage rider arrived and encouraged me to do everything with RA  so I did -- blanket removal, grooming, tacking up and warming up.  Everything went great.  I was more relaxed and RA was a perfect gentleman.  I rode in the arena for awhile with the dressage trainer while the others tacked up for our trail ride.  She talked to me about the long frame she uses with him, because he is young, and tips for getting him supple and loose.  It was all very helpful.

When the others were ready, we took the horses out on a trail ride.  There were four of us: me on RA, the dressage trainer on a young Arabian, Brett on a seasoned Arabian, and the trail trainer on a Missouri foxtrotter.  We rode for over an hour in the rolling hills around their barn.  RA was extremely sensible for a three year old.  Dogs, golf carts, bicycles... nothing bothered him except the the other gelding getting too close to the mares.  He was gelded about six months ago and still thinks a bit like a stud.  Silly boy.

After lunch with the two trainers (who are GREAT), we headed over to the Sacramento area to see Rain and a couple other horses at that place.

Brett had a bad cold and I felt like I was trying to get it as well.  Rain was beautiful, but larger than I am interested in.  He was big and solid and sweet.  He would have been a perfect horse for Brett were he in the market.  We looked at some other horses she had but nothing sparked my interest.  Instead of riding, we sat in the sun with the breeder back at her house and had a mug of tea.  We spent a wonderful hour or so just talking about horses and kids and life. 

We were in bed early that night and up early to drive to the Fresno area where I tried this guy:

I'll tell you all about him in another post...  he was great.