TAAHH Blog Hop: Your First Horse

Comedy Act aka "George"

Cathryn at Two and a Half Horses had a fun idea for a blog hop: Your first horse. I had a few leases prior to actually getting my first horse of my very own. Namely:
Bear With It (aka Bear):

He was a school horse that I got to lease for a summer when I was 10.

Hershel:

Hershel was a free lease that I had for a year. Some day I'll have to do a post about him.

And also a gorgeous gray mare named Sugar Magnolia (aka Maggie). Unfortunately, I have zero photos of her.

I was supposed to have Maggie for a year, but she broke her leg in turnout during our third month together. The dealer who actually owned her wasn't willing to put the finances into saving her as she would only be pasture sound at best. So she had to be put to sleep. It was the worst day of my young life, but it did lead to me getting my first horse of my very own. Enter George:

Yeah, I've pretty much stopped growing at 11.

George was an 18 year old appaloosa. I think he was around 16 hands. He was the absolute best teacher a kid could ask for. When I first got him, he was completely automatic and did everything for me. Except clean flying changes because those he never did. I didn't care though. He was such a great horse. As I learned and became a somewhat better rider, he would do less of the work and make me ask for things correctly and ride all the strides. I could probably use a horse like him now for a refresher!
One of the very few times I had trouble with him was when I was learning to lunge. He pulled me right off my feet and got loose. Of course he ran right up to the first adult he could find. Probably he was afraid I wasn't supposed to be doing that on my own. Also, he probably didn't even pull. I probably just fell over because #clumsy.

The other naughty trick George had was what we called the "App Attack". Randomly, George would just run away with me. He only did it maybe 3 times the entire year I had him. But he sure did think it was hilarious. He never let me fall when he did it. And he always stayed contained wherever we were riding at the time. But he certainly went fast.

Poor George showed in every class I could possibly ride in. He did the maiden and novice classes, the 11 and under, and the children's hunters. Sometimes all at the same show... Looking back, that was pretty terrible of me to do to him, but I didn't know any better. And I sure got a lot of experience. It certainly speaks to his soundness too.

At that age, I mostly did the horse shows at our barn, but we also traveled to some local one days too. He was always the same horse no matter where we went. He never spooked or stopped at the jumps. Didn't matter what they looked like or what color flowers they had. He got teased for his big ears, and sometimes judges penalized him for having spots. But most of the time we did pretty well.

His ears were so big, they generally just flopped around

I only wound up having George for a year because he was such an amazing teacher. After our short time together, I was ready to move on to something a little younger that could jump a little higher. It was really hard to let him go, but he went to a great barn and had a fantastic rest of his life. If it wasn't for George, I never would be where I am now. Hershel, the horse before him that I leased was a bit of a stopper and really ruined my confidence. But George gave it back to me in spades. He maybe wasn't a heart horse like Bud and Rio, but he certainly still holds a piece of mine.