Well, the cat’s officially out of the bag on both my Facebook page and my Instagram, so I guess it’s time to make it official here on the blog! I BOUGHT A NEW HORSE!
She has been home a couple of weeks, so since everything is final and the new girl is settling in at her new home, it’s time to formally introduce her to the world.
All About Izabelle
Izabelle is a 16.2 hand, rising 7 year-old Argentinan Warmblood mare. Her registered name with Silla Argentina is Classic Porsche, but I have decided to call her Izabelle or “Izzy” for short. She is chestnut with three socks and a star, and her birthday is 12/16/2012. She was born in Argentina and lived the first few years of her life there as a prospective broodmare. However, in August, she was imported here to the states to pursue a career as a show horse.
She started her hunter career this past year and has been lightly shown in the baby green hunters by her breeder, who is now based out of South Carolina. For our first few shows, I plan on taking it slow by doing the 2′ baby green hunters. I want to make our first few outings together as successful as possible. However, my ultimate goal for her and myself will be to eventually do the 3′ hunters!
How It Happened
Shortly after Diesel went home to be with his new mom (you can read about that here), I began seriously searching for my new partner both locally and online. I only had a few must-haves for my new horse: 16 hands+, safe, sound, and uncomplicated. Sounds pretty straightforward and easy to find, right? WRONG! If it was safe and uncomplicated, it wasn’t sound. If it was sound, it wasn’t safe or even remotely suitable for an amateur. If it was both sound and safe, it was either a solid 14 hands or $60,000. 🙃
Out of around 150 ads that I looked at, we decided to go and try four horses in person. I also sat on two horses that were for sale at our farm. Neither of the horses I tried at the farm quite clicked with me, so we started the tedious task of driving around the state to try the four horses we liked from their ads. Sadly, none of the horses that we initially travelled to look at were a good fit for me. Two of them ended up having previous injuries that would not be suitable for a long-term career over fences, and the other two were decidedly not a good fit for me or our program despite what the owners had said over the phone.
Then, one day, while casually scrolling through Facebook, I remembered an ad for a cute chestnut mare that my trainer had tagged me in the day after we listed Diesel for sale. It was not financially feasible for me at the time to be seriously looking at horses since Diesel had not been sold yet, so I had put that ad out of my mind assuming that the horse would be sold by the time I got ready to start seriously looking.
I couldn’t get the mare out of my mind, so I decided to take a chance and message the seller to see if the mare was still available. To my surprise, she was still available and was within my budget, so two days later my trainer and I made the drive up to Aiken, SC to try her out.
She was everything that we hoped she would be and more! Safe, quiet, uncomplicated, and super sweet. Even though she has only had professional rides her whole life, she handled my amateur mistakes in stride and tried her best to do everything I asked her to do. It sounds a little cheesy, but she made me feel so comfortable and confident that I felt like I had been riding her my whole life. To say I was in love, was a bit of an understatement to say the least!
Four days later, we hooked up the trailer, drove back to Aiken, had a PPE done, and brought her home the same day!
I am super excited for our future together! Izzy has already blown me away with how sensible and quiet she is. Her first few rides at the farm went spectacularly, and we have already had two jump lessons that were both phenominal. In the next few days, I will be rolling out some lesson updates featuring our first courses together, so be sure to check back in for that!
Pembrokes & Ponies 