Category: Horses

I brought Hap home this afternoon from where he had been boarded at my trainer’s for almost eleven months.   I started leasing Hap to a young woman last December.  We originally expected it would only be for a couple of months while she and her father looked for a horse for her, but the horse search took lots longer than expected.  (I remember when I was looking for Hap I felt as though I had seen every horse 16 hands high and over in Colorado.  And most of the ones that were even vaguely suitable were obviously lame. Why would anyone try to sell an obviously lame horse?)  The young woman found her horse not long after this photo of Hap at Aspen Ridge Horse Trail in July. However her father, who is a nice rider, had fallen in love with Hap in the meantime, and leased Hap to ride himself since then.  He can’t ride him enough in the winter to be worth the lease, so Hap comes home for the winter.

I’ve felt occasionally guilty about a 24 year old horse working for his living, if you can call five hours (if that) under saddle a week working.  However, between Hap’s extreme athleticism, my conservative care for him over the years, and plain good luck he is still in great shape.  This past year I’ve gotten a bit of a kick over watching peoples’ jaws drop when I tell them his age. 

Magic, the old mare I am boarding for a friend, seems to have taken fifteen minutes to transfer her affections from Rags to Hap.  Fortunately Rags, the dominant gelding, doesn’t seem to care. 

Today I went to Assateague Island with one of my nieces and one of my sisters-in-law to Assateague Island. Like many horse-loving American children, the Misty of Chincoteague books by Margaret Henry left a lasting impression. I can remember desperately wanting a Chincoteague pony.

We saw several small bands of horses on the Maryland side at the National Seashore. I though the horses looked quite fat, but according to this article about pony management, the horses look fat because they eat a salty diet, and are bloated from the amount of water they must drink. I also noticed the lack of foals and yearlings, which is evidently due to dart gun delivered contraceptives.

Signs against approaching the wild horses were all over the park. Having seen what “tame” horses can do, I had no desire to approach the “feral” variety, unlike some parents who seemed to feel no concern about their children being less than fifty feet from the horses.