What did I do?

When I made an offer on Dandy, I didn't even have a place to put her!!! I thought I would board her, but then I wouldn't be close enough to my horse and it was costly... also, we have 240 acres of land that does nothing. I was picking her up on Sunday, had arranged for a trailer and I couldn't sleep, mostly because of the fact that I would finally get my own horse and also because I didn't yet have a place to put her. So I went out, bought t-post and fenced in a temporary area where the horse pasture would be later. It was fine for Dandy, she was used to a cattle coral, so she thought this was sweet! Got some hay for her and left her to get used to her surroundings a few days.

This was my first horse... and she kind of fell on my lap... so I was a bit unprepared. I had taken care of horses for long, so I knew how this worked and what was appropriate. I didn't have brushes, nothing, but she was a brat and she would need a bit more handling and training before I groomed her... especially her feet. So during the week, I went out to get brushes and a halter for Dandy. She came with her halter, but it was old and blue... I wanted a purple halter and a matching lead rope.

The first month was mostly ground training, picking up her feet and working on leading correctly, she was progressing well and I finally got her front feet trimmed, they were awful and I still kick myself for not taking BEFORE pictures, but she was so unhandled and difficult that I don't know how I would've managed to do that. I still couldn't pick her back feet safely so they would have to wait for a trim. Her feet were very unbalanced and still tend towards that if not corrected properly. Next post will show pictures and will be mostly that.

So it was beginning of July and Dandy had been with us for about 1 month now. She was now 2 years and 4 months old... One day... I thought I would get on her back. I didn't have a saddle yet, but she was extremely calm, so I thought what the heck! I got on her bareback and rode her around the pasture for about 10 minutes. She was nervous but would respond to the halter and lead rope to turn. She offered to buck once or twice but was corrected calmly and lightly, I didn't want to scare my horse. We only walked and I got off shortly after. I felt confident that her training would go well.