Every Good Story Has a Great Beginning

Beginnings can be the best part of stories.  It's the part where everything is magical and beautiful and ponies poop rainbows and you cry glittery tears of joy.  Beginnings spring from dreams of cantering through meadows with flowers in our hair, blue ribbons and trophies lined up on shelves, lazy summer days bareback while the pony grazes.

Meet Tessa.  The Princess. And standing next to her would be me, Panic.  Yeah, I'm just gonna go ahead and call myself Panic.  I would say that I'm trying to be incognito but 1. this blog is under my actual name and I blog about my life already so it's not like I have any shame and 2. I just put a picture of myself up there too.  But before I lose my butterflies and rainbows of The Beginning I want to get back to the romantic part of this story.

When I met Tessa she had just turned 5 and hadn't really been ridden much.  She was started when she was 3, but she didn't have a whole lot of stuff done with her after that.  She was bred by the people who started her and she just didn't turn out to be the horse they were looking for.  Big cross country jumps are probably not in this horse's future.  Since they're also not in mine, we were a better fit.

Despite her being only five and an Arabian AND a mare, Tessa was perfect.  She was quiet, friendly and mostly willing to work.  When she did protest, it was with her version of a buck/kick that was easy to sit and not scary at all.  My list of things I wanted in a pony was pretty short.

1. Friendly, friendly, friendly.  I wanted a horse that LIKED people.  No biting, no kicking, no ear pinning and threatening.

2.  Quiet.  Not dead.  Just not spooky.  I wanted a horse I could feel secure on.  Green was fine since I have a trainer and take regular lessons, but spooky = scary.  I don't bounce the way I used to and my butt has lost some of it's Velcro over the years.

3.  Love connection.  I looked at the horses that were 'right' for me.  Old, solid, broke geldings.  I hated riding every single one of them.  With Tessa it was love at first sight and at first ride.  Despite my chickenshit tendencies, I rode her walk, trot AND canter the very first ride.

So the princess came home with me (after more test rides and a vet check.  duh.).  This is where the glitter started to irritate my eye and her rainbow poops weren't quite so beautiful.  In fact, they started to look like horse shit.  Damn.