It’s time for me to introduce the newest horse to my herd, Guns Chic Starlight aka Freya. She’s a registered QH with cutting bloodlines and a granddaughter of the great Grays Starlight. She’s a “sorrel” mare according to her papers. However, in summertime she’s a pretty red roan with a flaxen mane and tail.
WHY I BOUGHT A NEW HORSE
I wasn’t in the market for a new horse. However, after Rumor unexpectedly passed away in the beginning of the year, I felt an urge to get another. I worried Gracie wouldn’t be able to handle all the riding I wanted to do with her hip being bad. So buying a new horse became a reality. Funny enough, when I originally saw a post about Freya, I wasn’t in the market for a new horse. I was actually looking at horses for a friend and came across her. I guess her color and markings were what drew me in because she wasn’t in a for sale ad. Nope, I found her in a comment on a post on FB. All I had to go on was her age and a little information about her training plus 1 picture.
ABOUT THE BUYING PROCESS
So I reached out to the trainer that had her and scheduled to go test ride her. I waited a week to see her. I needed to make sure I really wanted another horse. But as soon as I laid eyes on her it was over. Whether she was what I wanted or not, she was going to go home with me.
Why you might ask? Well I saw a scared baby horse in the corner of a small riding ring with her head tied so tight she couldn’t move it. Every move you make scared her but she never acted mean or shy’d away. She listened so well when I rode her and had such kind eyes. However, she was the most unattractive QH I’d ever seen with her flat butt, high head and long legs.
My gut told me this baby horse was in need of a loving caring home. So I loaded her up and brought her home on trial. I knew I wouldn’t be sending her back, but I liked the idea of a trial. Not to mention, the trainer said if I didn’t get her she was going to the horse auction. The owner wanted a cutting horse and she wasn’t going to make the cut. Pun intended. 😛
This trainer was upfront that she was blown up by the cutting trainer. I definitely saw that too once I got her home. It became obvious her body and mind were just shot. Sad too considering she’s only 3 years old.
WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT THIS HORSE
She was scared to death of leg being applied to her side. She’d about run out from under you when you asked her to go. However, she listened well to commands like whoa, back up, turn. She wanted to go fast, there was no go slow. She would go with her head up and it was hard to get her to relax and drop it. She’s scared to death of dogs being behind her. Her body was tense and tight EVERYWHERE.
Later I found out she has a lumbar injury that likely was never treated or allowed to heal properly. (I’ll tell you more about this in a future post.) The entire first week I had her, she laid down and slept ALL THE TIME. I was worried to death something was wrong with her after just losing Rumor to colic. However, with time I realized the poor horse was just exhausted from what she went through.
It didn’t take long for us to start bonding and for her to begin to trust me. Her cute personality started to come out and I got to see hints of a curious but sweet baby horse. At first, Gracie HATED her and would run after her like she was going to kill her but now they are best of buds. I actually think Gracie really like Freya…which is crazy because I’ve never seen this horse care much about any horse. Sure her and Rumor got along but it was different from what Freya and her are like.
MY PLANS FOR FREYA
I bought Freya in February and know I made the right choice keeping her despite the obstacles we’ve dealt with. She is everything I wanted and needed in a horse which had re-ignited my passion for riding. I get so sad now on days I can’t ride and have to force myself to give her time off. (Don’t read into that the wrong way after, for months now all we’ve done is walk. I bought her before I ever even cantered on the horse and had only done 2 trotting circles.) She is so fun to ride and learns things so fast.
It’s my goal to use this blog as a journal for everything I do with Freya. I want to look back in time and see how far she has come and how much she learns. I hope she’ll become a versatile horse that can do it all. Barrel race, trail ride, sorting, liberty, trail obstacles challenges, ranch riding, etc. She’s very open to learning new things and seems to actually enjoy it. So as you can see, I have BIG hopes and dreams for this girl. I also hope one day, we’ll travel across the country riding in some of the beautiful places out west that I’ve seen through IG posts.
Check back regularly to keep up with her progress. The next thing I’ll be sharing about her, is her injury and how I figured out something was wrong. I’ll share the signs she exhibited, where I took her, what was found and how rehab is going.
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