Have you ever had the perfect horse at the perfect time

[treasure1]

I wanted to tell everyone my perfect horse story kinda long sorry.

We have been training, showing and trail riding horses for about 12 years and we had just bought this really nice gelding who i planned on keeping as my own trail riding and fun speed show horse maybe a little team penning in there. Well long story short He reared up and flipped over backwards on top of me, the horn barely missed hooking my rib cage and he really hurt both my legs. So i sold him i could never get myself to get back on him.
Now as I said we were still training horse and i was getting along fine but was losing my nerve, any time i felt the horse get tense i would tense up and we know you can't do that when you are starting colts.
So next part of the story about 5 months after my accident i still hadn't found a horse that I wanted. A guy calls me a says he has 3 horses he can't keep in a fence and just wants them all gone can i come get him, i told him we could come pick them up in 2 weeks if you could wait that long, after a week he calls me and says one died come get the others, so we did. One was a older (20) mare all palomino and skin and bones. Her name is Sassy. The man desided he didn't want to feed the horses so didn't.
After getting Sassy up to weight I knew she was for me. She would try her heart out in everything thing that we did. SHe didn't know she was 20 and would out race anything that would line up next to her. She gave me back my nerve, now don't think she was a beginners horse because she isn't, she is fast and stuborn and opinionated as wants to do all things her way but she is safe and will try anything.
She is 25 years old this year and can still out run the young horses but i have stopped raceing her so she will race them herself in the pasture, she is in perfect health and if you meet her you would guess her age to be closer to 12 or 13 she looks great. I feel I really owe this mare everything.
In the 5 years I have owned her we have explored evey trail in michigan won numerous Judged trail rides ( I have MANY trophies) and ran barrels and penned cows. I hope she is with me for many more years. She is being leased right now by a little girl named Taylor, who was thrown last year and hurt very bad, she was in the hospital for 13 days. I can see everday she rides my Sassy that she is also getting her nerve back, So i say "Taylor trust Sassy she will give you what you need when you need it."
I now ride a 2 year old red dun gelding who I am training to be a western pleasure horse, He is wonderfull and kind, but he has some pretty big shoes to fill.
Does anyone else have a perfect horse.

[eieio]

Mr. Perfect's name was Boermann, that's him and I in the avatar in 1990 winning his first Hunter Stake. He was a problem child, flipping over backwards, spooking at the speaker stand, a winner as a show horse but only after no food and no sleep for days. His previous trainers would ride him in shifts for 10 hours straight before a class so he could barely lift his head. I saw him in the spring of 1987 and fell instantly in love with this renegade of the show world, so tall and different from any other stock horse I had every known. There was something so strong in him and I reached over the railing to my destiny and ticket to the big time horse world.

The first couple years were wrought with many disappointments, harsh methods and callous beliefs on my part. It was only when I finally went back to basics that I realized where he would take me. The only thing I did consistantly right those first few seasons was to keep believing in what he could be and the only thing he did consistantly right was make me a better rider, a horseman.

Well, my belief paid off and success happened, he answered every dream I ever had for us. I have boxes of trophies and ribbons from almost every equine endeavor because of him. He showed the world my qualities and made me a sucessful trainer and teacher when I wanted to be. When I was ready to leave all that, he was there to watch me learn to love horses as they are, not what they can do.

To this day, no matter what, I can look in my pasture and see that amazing coat, all is right in the world. He is my rock, the one constant in my adult life, a true love for eternity.

[Awesome Paints]

I had never really ridden before and a friend of mine asked me to go for a ride with her. I have always loved horses so I jumped at the chance! Well, another lady came with us and told me to stop holding onto the horn, not knowing anything I let go. Unfortunately I did not have a clue how to keep my balance, well next thing I know he hit a wash in the pasture and took off running. I fell off the right side on my face in corn stalks of all things, bruised my ribs and landed myself in bed for a week. (The horse's name was Trouble, I should have been smart enought to figure out something would happen!) After that I was scared to ride again, enter my big guy Crow. I went to look at him and the man got on him with halter and lead rope and took off, he was 15 at the time. I brought him home and rode the next day and every day I could after that. Now I've never had a trainer or anyone to tell me how to ride, I learned from Crow. If I did something he didn't like he'd just stand there and wait for me to figure out what I wanted him to do. He is everything to me, I take him down to Mounted Angels in the summer for handicapped kids and he loves every minute of it. He's a gentle horse with a kind soul and I will have him till the day he dies. I am now riding my young horse and I have him to thank for the confidence to do it. He's 21 years old now but you'd never know it, he looks and acts half his age. My son is going on 2 and I'm hoping he will have plenty of good riding years with Crow when he's ready.

[baylady]

I had my perfect horse...... What I would give to have him back. My little grade gelding was everything to me. I had ridden when I was younger but stopped riding when my parents got divorced and my horse wouldnt stop throwing my sisters into fences. Needless to say that horse was sold. I stopped riding for a couple years. I finally began to take lessons again. And after about a year and a half of consistant lessons and training my trainers horses I was finally able to get another horse. It was my "job" to ride the new horses when they came into the barn. This guy would bring us atleast 3 new ones a week. I always was the first one on them. One day the guy brings in a gelding and a mare. Me and my friend were instructed to ride them. After a brief bicker I won and got to ride the gelding. I was a little dissapointed after riding him for a little while because my trainer wouldnt let me jump him since he had never jumped before. My friend got to jump the mare and do everything. I was jealous, I like to jump and get bored with flat work. But something changed the next day and my trainer let me work with him and teach him how to jump. I was impressed. He was eerything I wanted. I even skipped school to be there for the vet check I was so nervous. As soon as the vet said he passed the exam my step dad handed the owner the check. He was mine. His name was Tiger and it just kinda stuck. So I kept it. After much blood sweat and tears he was finally PERFECT. I knew I made it when my grade horse was beating $40,000 professionally trained horses at shows. That made all my work worth it. After showing him for 3 years I was ready to move up to a bigger horse that was a little fancier (My mare Lady). I couldnt bong with her right away. I would suppossed to be riding her and getting her ready for a show but instead I would pull Tiger out of the feild and ride him. I truly loved that horse more than anything! Next month it will be 2 years I have had to live with out him. April 6, 2004 I was riding him just casually. I was warming him up and I went across the diagonal of the ring over a pole to do a lead change. He stepped funny over the pole and I heard something crack. He limped over to the rail and I jumped off to realize he was only standing on 3 feet. I ran into the barn and got my trainer. She came out and thought he may have had a locked stifle so she tried to push it back in place. That didnt work so the vet was called. They did a whole bunch f x rays but couldnt get high enough in his stifle area. So off to the New Bolton center we went. I was hysterical the whole time. After countless hours and numerous x ray machines and ultrasound machines my worst fear had come true. His leg was broken. There was no way they could fix it. The next day after the autopsy the vet from the hospital called and said that his femur was in 30 pieces and that his own muscle mass shattered his bone. I didnt get out of bed for 3 days I couldnt even look at my other horses. I was devistated, and still am. I lost my best friend, my world, my everything. Freak accidents are the worst. I couldnt have asked for a better horse. He took me from beginner hunter up to the 3 ft divisions. My dreams lied within that horse. He is the reason my parents moved and bought a farm. Just so I could have him at home. 2 years later it still hurts when I look back. I have tried so hard to find another horse like him but I cant. I have already been through 6 just looking for one like him. I guess he is one that just isnt meant to be replaced. His death was the turning point for me and my mare. After that I finally was able to bond with her. Now I will do anything for Lady, but she will never be Tiger. I hope one day I will be lucky again and find a horse like him. But for now memories are all I have.

[letsride04]

Gosh, the first post i read i balled my eyes out, then i kept going and cried even harder on the last post, I am so sorry for all your losses. I have had my own dream horse but wont get into that 300 page story, I think that every horse of mine was my perfect horse in one way or the other.... But to let them go knowing someone else got to share the same desire and passion as we did was meaningful to us and the horse.