Closer to Recovery!!

Well.. I went to see my boy yesterday, soak his injured foot and wrap it up. Walked him in the arena for a bit since he's been stuck in his stall for about a week now. Once we got into the arena, the boy went crazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzy. Haha I don't blame him but at 17.1hh which is about 68inches (from the ground to his wither which is excluding his head) that is fairly intimidating but after a good 40 minute walk with a lead chain he settled down :-).
Put  him back in his stall and got in touch with the farrier so he can put the shoe back on Apollo and finish his job. Honestly, if he is professional he shouldn't charge me, after all it is his fault for putting off my horse - well I guess I will find out tomorrow.
Hopefully when I see my boy tomorrow, he will be feeling better so I can finally get back into riding and getting him in shape. Fingers crossed :-).

Lame Week

So recenty I haven't been riding :-( and just taking care of my boys left hoof. He has been lame on it for the past 2 weeks.
What happened was that my boy threw his shoe (he was a week over due ) and my farrier came out the next day to do all his feet and put the shoe back on the left hoof. When he lost the shoe, I checked his left hoof and it was fine, he even was walking on it fine!
The next day I got a call from the farrier saying how he worked on all 3 feet and saved the left one for last, so he started working on it and his left hoof started bleeding!! He wrapped him up and put him back in his stall. He told me Apollo must of lost some hoof when he kicked off his own shoe.When we got off the phone the first thought that came into my head was " What the hell?! Seriously, shouldn't of he known?! He is a farrier, this is HIS job after all.." When he threw the shoe, he was fine! I truly think the farrier should of known that he lost some hoof and was thin soled! I am so disappointed and am considering switching to another farrier.
I don't even know what to do, whether I should pay him or not. I probably will but I surely do not want to.
My boy has healed up pretty well but I am still not riding him and he is still stuck in his stall :-(. He still needs a little more healing to go, but I am thinking by the end of this week, I can get back on his back!! :-D !!!!!
I will be taking advantage of his time off to try and find another farrier.

Intro

Sooo.. this blog that I am starting, I decided will be about my silly, four legged and handsome horse, Apollo. As a first time owner I have learned and will keep learning about the horse world. I just wanted to start a blog talking about the progress of my pony and just many different equine beliefs and things :-).

I guess I will start with the story of how I got my lovely boy Apollo.

As a young child, I had the biggest passion for horses, I drew them, I rode them and honestly, I just wanted to be them! I use to imagine myself as a young mare just running around in the field, haha I did have a big imagination as a child. So it was no surprise that I eventually wanted to own one. 

My search began about 2 years ago, at the time I was part boarding a lovely hanoverian/thoroughbred cross that honestly taught me everything, especially in the hunter world. I didn't really know what I was looking for but I knew I wanted something big since I am 5'9 and something cheap. There were plenty of horses I saw but nothing I really loved. I finally saw this ad of a bay thoroughbred named Mark and I fell inlove with his expression. So I made plans to go out and visit him, the place wasn't too nice looking but Markus had the nicest face and of course it was my first time buying so I completely fell in love.

Markus was an ex-racer so my coach at the time got on him and gave him a try. When she started cantering him, we were all very surprised that he lowered his head and gave his inside bend (since most racers aren't trained to this). He had such a beautiful canter, that made me fall in love even more. Anyway Markus was a done deal for me and I bought him. I ended up keeping him for about 6 months when I realized that he just wasn't' happy and really needed time off from the track and everything else had been through. So I made a tough decision to sell him, I knew what he needed and I knew I couldn't give that to him. I really wanted to ride and just didn't have the time and money to give him a year off and put my riding on a hold. I cried when he left but I know he is happy at his new place :-).

So then I was back to part-boarding until I found something of my own. As the months went by I realized what I truly wanted. Something dark in colour, black or as close to black as possible, something very tall and thick in body, gelding, somewhat young, somewhat trained and this time my budget was higher. 

I went to see a couple horses with my coach, fell inlove with this mare but she was swept right under my feet from another client (it was for the better though since it brought me to Apollo). As I did my searches I kept on bumping into this one ad which was Apollo's ad. At the time the ad never had great pictures of Apollo, so I never really fell in love with him right away. I remember when I would email the same ad and the previous owner would respond to me, I would think " UGH! these people again. How do I keep emailing them?!". So whenever they would respond I would never reply, I would just brush it off. 

Anyway so one day, my mom, my coach and I were coming back from a horse we just saw ( it went horribly! The mare and I did not get along at all!!) and my coach mentioned about this ad she saw the other day that looked great and told me to check my email.

So when I got home, I checked my email (this time they posted different pictures so I didn't know that it was Apollo's ad) and loved the pictures that they posted and emailed them. After they replied I realized that it was the same ad I kept bumping into but kept totally disregarding it! I couldn't believe it, that it was the same horse in the old picture as in the new one!! So I made a trip to go up there and see him. 

When we got there and saw him in person, I just couldn't believe how gorgeous and tall he was!! Even better than the pictures they took of him, he totally took my breathe away! ( goes to show not to judge a picture, go and see the actually horse!!!) The previous owner first rode him than I did. We totally and completely clicked!!! I loved it, I knew this horse was mine! Even the previous owner said how we both made a great team. He was everything I was looking for, 7 year old Thoroughbred (looks like a warmblood) 17.1hh dark bay almost black gelding!! Except his price was $15,000. Ya right, we were going to pay that much. 

After much negotiation the price was lowered to.......... $8,500!! Now being a student, how the hell was I going to get $8,500. Oh boy. I kept telling my boyfriend there is no way we could do this!! How the hell were we going to get that money!? How were we going to get Mr.Gorge( a nickname I gave him when I saw him for the first time haha). My boyfriend suggested a bank loan. Okay, great. I told him he was crazy!! The bank would never ever give me that much money!! He told me to give a go, so we did. Having no credit I needed 2 people to sign for me. One would be my mom, of course but who else?! My boyfriend finally came up with a "job" and made everything up. I was so scared that it wouldn't work. But... it did. We got the money, and funnily enough everything worked out in such a way my horse Apollo was coming home on the day of my and my boyfriend's 1st anniversary!! ( I told him early in the relationship how that would be a great anniversary gift) So it ended up being the gift I asked for and everything turned out great. The day my boy Apollo came was on a monday July 26th, 2010!!

I will never forget this story of him, it is truly special and without those risks we took, I probably wouldn't have Apollo. Much appreciation for my boyfriend being there for me too, Apollo wouldn't be here without you too!! Love my two boys a lot!!!!!! My two legged and four legged, haha ;)!! 

This is the first time Apollo arrived: