on a scale of 1 to britney spears...

These days I'm getting out to the barn about once or twice a week. Definitely a change of pace from my typical lifestyle! And I'm trying to be strategic about when I go, since I'm so limited in what I can actually do. Last week I only made it out to watch a couple riders lesson with Dan.

First up was Bali with his lease rider G. The universe was trying very hard to make me miss this lesson (esp with some cat stuff at home ugh), but I was determined. And I may or may not have had nefarious reasons.

bali is by far my favorite blazed faced bay gelding :)

See, I've mentioned to Dan a couple times that I'm pretty nuts about Bali, but it's never been totally clear that he knew which horse I meant. So I wanted to bring it up with him while he was actively watching and teaching. And specifically, I wanted to know exactly how crazy (see title of this post, and yes that's how I phrased the question) it was to even consider a horse like this.

i just think he's the sweetest! 

Quite frankly, I was expecting to get shot down out of hand. And maybe I wanted to hear that. Trainer P had been fairly kind and diplomatic in her assessment, but her general impression was, "No." Really, her whole point was that horses like Bali are a dime a dozen, and that there are plenty more out there with fewer physical issues. I understand and don't necessarily disagree.... but idk. There's something about Bali that I really just click with.

he loves to jump!!!

So I was a bit surprised to hear Dan speak positively about the horse. Granted he hadn't really taken a close look at the mouth (or fetlocks ugh). But noted that he is a nice jumper, sound (music to my ears!), and a good average size (ie, not too long or too short in the back). Of course he was also careful to say that he wasn't encouraging me to just go out and buy him - the PPE still mattered.... Which is honestly probably where Bali would flunk anyway.

But still, it was heartening to hear all the same. My winter plans for Bali include chiro and acupuncture work, and potentially a lameness eval just for shits and giggles. But after the whole cat ho$pitalization situation the budget might not support all that. We will see.

and his lease rider G is doing very well with him

Interestingly enough, tho, Dan continued the conversation in a direction I didn't anticipate. He spoke more generally about not understanding why amateur riders always go for the green horses, instead of finding something already trained that can go up the levels as the rider becomes ready.

Apparently (so he says), there are scads of older prelim horses out there available for lease (or free lease) that aren't really salable bc they wouldn't pass a PPE, but are otherwise still fit for competition. He said that riding a trained horse - especially on the flat - can be educational for the rider in ways very different from a green horse. And in some ways, easier - as in, the rider doesn't install buttons, but gets straight to the business of learning to refine pushing the buttons.

It was a very interesting point of view, and one I hadn't really considered before. Well, bc frankly I haven't really considered much bc I'm not actually in a position to purchase a horse right now, so it's all just pipe dreams anyway. Fun to think about tho!