Horse Hunting - By Community Correspondent Louise Saul (From Kingston Guardian)

Horse Hunting - By Community Correspondent Louise Saul

2:36pm Tuesday 30th June 2009

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Horse Hunting - By Community Correspondent Louise Saul

Right from the start I had loved it. The lead rein lessons, learning to trot, the first jump; horse riding quickly became my favourite hobby and my appetite was only whetted for more.

Several years on, after happily loaning a pony for nearly two years, we decided that it was time for the next step. We apprehensively began looking for my first horse to buy.

We scoured adverts and rang scores of owners about their horses for sale. After finding two suitable sounding horses in the same area, we decided to go and view them. We set off optimistically, however not knowing quite what to expect as neither of my parents knew anything about horses.

Our first sighting of one horse was as it galloped through a gate alarmingly fast, narrowly avoiding trampling us. My mother and I exchanged nervous glances as my father gazed in the opposite direction at the landscape.

After riding for a few minutes I trotted towards a jump; the horse launched over it and promptly charged off afterwards, bucking explosively, and in the process tipping me onto the floor. This brought us down to earth with a bump (literally).

So on we went to the next horse, a pretty young Welsh cob. However, when we arrived at the field I was to ride her in, it was like looking at World War Two battle trenches. The mud was so thick; she could barely lift her feet out of it. Although we liked her very much, it was impossible to properly try her out, so we arranged to return another day and hire out a local arena. However just before we were due to return, the owner rang to inform us she had sold the horse.

So we were back to square one, only slightly more experienced than when we had begun. Next on the list was an unusual looking spotted pony with a ridiculous name, which we fell in love with at first sight. After viewing her twice and finding her perfect, we arranged to buy her. However it seemed the owners were just as keen on her as we were, and told us they couldn’t bear to part with her, and so decided to keep her.

Our next find was just down the road from the first horse we had seen. However when we arrived after a two hour car journey, the owner informed us the horse had been sold. It had simply slipped her mind to let us know.

With the next horse, we thought we had really hit the jackpot. She was a very talented young mare with a heart of gold. We managed to get to the vetting this time, before disaster struck. The vet told us she was only turning three, not four as both we and the owner had thought. This came as a shock to all of us, but as she wasn’t really old enough to be ridden intensively, we pulled out of the sale with regret.

Finally we heard from a friend about a horse for sale which she had known for several years, and she assured us, would tick all the boxes. After our long and disappointing search which took us up and down the country, we settled on this horse we had found less than five minutes from our doorstep.

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