A Baby Boomer Dreams of Arabian Horses - Rhythm's Story - What Next - Part 2

Part One of the Baby Boomer Series

Rhythm's Story starts here

By springtime, I had has several inquiries about Rhythm. But I really wasn't holding out much hope for selling this Arabian horse. As a stallion I knew that people would be prepared to deal with his attitude. As a gelding that was a different story. It was going to take a special home to deal with Rhythm.

There was no way I was going to settle on anything but the perfect home. It needed to be a show home with people who wanted to show to the national level. They would need to be people who loved their horses and didn't see them as "just" livestock. And then, the biggy, they would have to have the skill to deal with Rhythm's quirks.

The rain and wind just kept on going well into spring so riding was still out of the question. I was doing well to get my Arabian horses outside to play once in a while. So Rhythm and my other projects weren't getting worked. As the weather pushed me farther and farther into spring, the focus changed from getting Rhythm going to getting horses conditioned for my annual open house.

Then in June I got another inquiry about Rhythm. They wanted a DVD or video of the horse under saddle. It's not that I don't own a camcorder. I have one I bought just for the purpose of taking footage of the horses. The problem is getting someone to shoot the footage in the first place. It's a little tough to ride and shoot at the same time.

I've never been able to get co-operation from my husband in this regard. Colleen has always been my best bet. But Colleen was working many many hours for the US Postal Service. So before I promised videos or DVDs to anyone I wanted to know for sure that I could get it done.

Three or four days later, I got a call from that party. Concerned that I might sell the horse to someone else, he was taking no chances on waiting for my return email. So it was that I had a lengthy phone conversation with a man from Massachusetts about Scandalous Rhythm. He was looking for a national calibre western pleasure horse for his daughter.

I tried to tell him everything there is to know about Rhythm. Of course, you all know that it's quite a story, some would say it's unbelievable what we've been through with this horse. But trying to explain to someone about Rhythm is difficult. He is a complicated horse.

I wanted him to understand right from the start that this horse would take someone who really was good with horses. Not just a experienced rider, but someone who could deal with a horse like Rhythm. He is high strung and can't really handle getting thumped on. It ruins his trust and makes him afraid. He will mind but loses his confidence. That wouldn't be good with a show horse.

The gentleman was more concerned that the horse was as trained as I said. My listing said the horse was ready to go into the show ring and that wasn't accurate. The horse HAD been ready to go into the show ring but now he would need a tune-up and to be put into the full bridle. He could be ready to show for the 2008 show season.

The man wanted me to talk to his daughter. She was the one the horse was for and she was the one with the experience. She would have lots of questions about the horse. Depending on how that went, and of course, the video, we would go from there.

I talked to the daughter the next day and the first thing I told her was I thought we could shoot video on Thursday. We talked for quite a long time about Rhythm and his training. And of course, this whole story about his fractured skull, his atrophied testicle and the life twists that had kept him out of the ring.

We also talked about Harvey Jacobs and how he had helped me with this horse. I even referred them to this blog so they could get a better picture of life with Rhythm. Through all of this, we never did talk about price.

Colleen did help me with video, but life had to jump up and slap me again. The morning we were to take it, I woke up with my head spinning. I had been on the horse once, about two weeks before and that was it. I wasn't worried about him being naughty because no matter how long he's gone unridden, once I throw my leg over him he goes to work just like his sire.

I was worried about my balance, it was not good. Rhythm was a good boy but my balance was terrible. Whatever I was doing to keep myself in the middle of that horse, didn't look pretty on the video. I made this smooth easy flowing horse look like a bumpy ride. It was awful.

To be continued...........


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