To Lease Or Not To Lease, That Is The Question

This 40+ year-cum-8-year-old just can't get enough of horses. I'm reading little girl mags (But they're so packed full of newsy horsy stuff in a way that's easy for me to digest/learn, honest!) and find myself wanting to hang around the barn all the time.

I want my own horse yet I'm smart enough to know that if I had one, I wouldn't know what to do with it. I've read a ton of stuff and got a lot of new knowledge in my brain but not yet the confidence to put all that into practice.

Leasing is a great way to learn/practice. I found a great horse at an absolute dream of a barn about 30 mins from me for a very reasonable price of $200/month. If I were already riding with experience this would be a fantastic deal but I'm not there yet. Essentially that means I'm paying to be someone's groom (vs. getting paid to groom). "Have you totally lost your mind?" I hear you ask. Well, yes and no. See, my goal is to build up my experience sooner rather than later (sooner than a 1 hour lesson once a week) and this to me is not much different than hiring a private tutor to teach me.

So the cut to the chase, I went for it. I do wonder if my brain/heart is a little head of my abilities right now but nothing like throwing yourself in head first.

Rally has already taught me some valuable lessons:
- I'm really really green
- He's a whole bunch bigger than me
- You communicate with horses in a much different way than any other animal and this is a skill I need to learn
- Pasture grass is like walking on French Fries and the best ones are w-a-y at the back of the field
- Remember to bring the halter, a cribbing halter just isn't the same
- It was smart to call for help to get him back in before I was really in trouble


I've been out to see Rally for several weeks, caught him in his pasture, successfully put his halter on and navigated him out of the gate even with the young and adorable filly in the field with him. I've brought him back to the barn, groomed him, and taken him back. I felt for sure I could take him out of his pasture, let him eat some good grass right outside of his gate, and then put him back by myself.

What the heck was I thinking? Oh No! He was on a "Mission from God!" and walked (actually practically ran) right to the very back of the field (I had no idea this was his favorite place!). Every time I tried to turn him around, he took off at a little jog with me holding the lead rope terrified he was going to really take off on me and I would have to call his owner (who already laughs at my greenness). He can't go far or get into trouble but boy, my ego would really take a bashing.

My legs started to go jelly and I could feel my breath quickening. I knew I would soon be out of my league so I called the barn owner; the phone rang and rang and just when my stomach was falling to my knees, she picked up. Lovely woman. She came out 10 mins later (Was I glad to see her!) and expertly put Rally back. I felt like such greenhorn.

She was very complimentary, that I was doing things the right way vs. buying a horse and then trying to figure it all out. She promised she wouldn't tell either but I came home and sent my "Dork" report to Rally's owner nonetheless. I didn't want her to hear it later from the barn owner whose allegiance does and should lie with horse's owner.

Hopefully I'll look back and laugh about this one day. I'm not quite there yet. Humbled and embarrassed are more correct adjectives at the moment.