Libby is home now.

I brought Libby home today.

She has been at my friends down the road.

I did not want to bring her home Saturday and

be gone all day on Sunday.

I wanted to keep an eye on her for her first few days here.

Here she is checking the cows out.

Then she looks at me, like I'm nuts!

But goes right to eating!

She has a cute butt!

I can't wait to bond with her, and go for lots of rides.
She snorted at all the newness in the pasture
and at the lean to.
I hope she learns to like the lean to.

But when she got a whiff of all that grass,
all the newness went by the way side!
She was more interested in eating.

Let me Introduce you to.........

LIBBY!

My good friend found her on DREAMHORSE.com

Made a phone call, and the owner was kind 

enough to let her bring her home

so that I could get to know her,

try her out and see if we would be a good match.

I have to say, "R" is very good at matching horses with people and picking out good ones too.

I have come to trust her instincts, because she is ALWAYS right!

I am falling in love.

I have not taken this task on lightly and Libby has been through the drills.

I have put in a lot of thought into this.

I took her to my lesson on Tuesday and my instructor says Libby is a very good horse.

She is a good size for me.

I don't even need a mounting block.

Libby knows all the leg cues, neck reins and stops on a dime.

Her owner out grew her and so Libby has pretty much been a pasture potato for the past year.

She has been shown 4-H English and Western, so that is a plus.

Libby is totally at ease in an arena setting.

I won't do the show thing, just not me.

But I feel we will eventually get along on trail rides just fine.

My friend even took Libby for her daughter's lesson the next day.

Libby has been checked over, felt up and down, sideways, examined, and scrutinized.

By me, my friend and my instructor.

We went for a small trail ride and as long as Libby was following horses,

she does awesome.

Being around other horses does not bother her at all. 

Unlike Sissy, who thought she had to socialize with EVERYONE!

I don't ever plan on riding alone anyway, so this is not a problem.

In talking with the owner I found out that when 

Libby gets nervous her bottom

lip quivers. 

This is great because then I know to start talking to her, 

before I know it, her lip is still again.

She is cute when she does this, but my heart breaks knowing she is nervous at any point.

I look forward to long walks, 

(I need more exercise)

Long saddle rides.

Brushing her long beautiful tail.

Letting her mane grow out!

(I know she is show clipped but I like shaggy!)

And just hanging out with her. 

I will make my Motel 6

FEEL

like the Marriot!

She trots so nice, and I even CANTERED on her!!!!

I was scared to death when my instructor asked if I was ready to Canter.

My bottom lip started to quiver!

But Libby talked me through it, and I calmed down.

It was AWESOME!

Nice canter! Very rolling kind.

Sort of like being in a boat on water.

Grey is not my favorite color of horse,

but I am not buying for color.

She has a sweet, sweet personality, 

and I look forward to bonding with her as much as I did with Sissy.

(During the day my mind is already consumed with thoughts of Libby all the time.

At night my dreams are still of Sissy.)

But Grey does have its advantages too.

Look out Easter Bunny!!

You have competition!

I will be the only one with a colored horse! 

Isn't she just adorable?

Yes I do believe I have found my forever horse in Libby.

Why does letting go have to be so hard?

Well the papers are signed and I am officially no longer Sissy's Owner.

I cried all the way home.

I put in 4 years of my heart with Sissy.

We did a lot of work together from the ground.

Sissy would:

Walk ear to ear with me.

She would TROT ear to ear with me.

She would slow down with me from trot to TIPPY TOE!

(Sissy could of walked behing grama with a walker! 

That was how slow I could get her to walk.  

It was awesome!)

Sissy and I would go for walks all over the place.

Me leading and her walking next to me.

She liked to explore.

She loved adventure.

Nothing scared her.

Her couriosity would over power any fear she might of had.

Sissy would lunge by pointing in a direction.

We did so much lunge work in the round pen in the beginning.

Butting heads all the time, but I worked till I got it right!

All this with the help of my instructor "L" and a good friend.

Sissy loaded in any trailer available.

She even backed out of them.

She loved to go!

Sissy hated work!

We would fight for 20 minutes of each hours lesson.

Then when she gave in, she was a dream!

I was tired of the fight!

In my heart, I don't think I would of had those issues out on the trail, 

but I was never brave enough to find out.

(I am at fault there.)

Sissy gave in easily.

Her fight was never really anything to get worried about,

For the EXPERIENCED rider.

She never gave my friend an arguement,

but she always argued with me.

Then Sissy learned to break a lead rope.

Long as you were standing next to her, she was fine.

Left alone, she got bored.

She would just pop it and wander around.

Never running off.

She did it because she knew she could.

I was not up for it any more.

My spirit was broken!

Sissy was working her way to the glue factory:

ONE LEAD ROPE AT A TIME!

Sissy picks up on new things almost instantaniously.

I always wanted to teach her tricks, 

(I figured she would be really good at it.)

but once again, I lacked the knowledge to do so.

She loved to carry things, 

Pick things up.

Help hubby with the tools when he worked in the pasture.

Sissy had a personality.

I could wrap my arms around her neck 

Sigh, and breath in all her horseyness.

She smelled so good!

(I have not found another horse the smells like her)

In Equine Language, my place would be like

a MOTEL 6.

Sissy's new home is like the Marriot!

She IS HAPPY!

She LOOKS GOOD!

and She is getting the TRAINING she needs!

And doing well at it too!

She has a forever home where she is.

She even has a stall and thinks that is just the cream of the crop!

L plans on using her for a lesson horse, 

AND

Giving Sissy the opportunity to be a mommy!

"L" has about one foal every two years.

She then trains them and sells them to a good home.

AND they are very nice looking horses too.

When I went to my lesson yesterday:

L said that she  needed her round pen AND the arena the other day, 

and so the only other place to put Sissy was in a stall.

(She keeps new horses quarentined for 2 weeks, but since she knew me, and Sissy

she felt safe in moving her into the barn.)

So she leads Sissy into the barn. 

No big deal. Sissy had been inside buildings before.

When she got to the stall door, Sissy put on the brakes, and snorted!

Wide eyed and worried she stood there, and L said she

started to shake. 

L then realized Sissy had never been in a stall before. 

So she let Sissy look around, and talked to her till she calmed down.

Sissy then decided, "This might not be so bad" and

walked right in.

She now LOVES being in a stall!

I saw her after my lesson yesterday and she looks good.

She smelled my nose like she always does, and

moved closer so I could scratch her behind her ears.

She remembered me, 

but all to soon, she will forget. 

She will love her new owner, and respect her and do well for her.

I will fade from her memory till I no longer exisit.

Sissy has a wonderful home and an owner that will lover

her as I loved her.

This comforts my heart.

But:

Letting go is not easy!

I know it had to be done. 

I had gone as far as I could with Sissy.

My heart breaks because I could not take her farther.

Sissy will be such a good riding partner one day.

I always thought it would be with me.

How wrong I was!

Heart Broken!

I have had to make the hardest decision of my life!

I have come to determine that Sissy and I are just not compatible!

I do not feel comfortable riding her anywhere but at my lessons.

Therefore I do not get saddle time in between lessons.

I won't go into details and bore you,

but just know that I am in anguish about it.

I hope I have found her a good home. 

One where she will get the real training that she deserves.

So now, I am looking for a Broke AND Trained horse.

Sissy is broke, but NOT trained.

LIGHT BULBS went off like 4th of July fire crackers!

I need something I can feel confident on.

One that will not fight me or give me problems.

Easy going.

I have been looking everywhere,

Craigslist.

Dream Horse.

Equine Hits.

Friends.

Relatives.

I know there is one out there that could use a really good 

home where there is an abundance of pasture grass surrounding them.

They will get lots of grooming, 

and even trail time.

So my search continues,

As the pieces of my heart begin to mend.

Building a new fence!

This post by:

Sissy

Mom says I am getting fat. I have all this grass and since I am the only person in the pasture

I just can't keep up with it!

I try really hard, but it is a loosing battle.

So 'Mom' got 'Dad' to come out and play today!

Oh Look! I never get this close to dad's truck!

There are lots of goodies in here!

Oh what is this white line?

I hate work, so I will just let you pack it.

This truck is very interesting.

Doesn't taste to bad either!

Ummm....what is inside here?

Oh, I have two noses!

What more can I get into?

Good Chin Scratcher!

Rust! Yum!

Now what do you think this is for?

Lets see if I can kick it.

Nope. But this is interesting.

It rolls when I touch it.

I love this wheel barrow. It brings me hay in the winter.

I will hide over here and maybe dad won't make me work!

Lets see here.....

Tastes like grass on this side.

Tastes like grass on this side too!

Ummm. I thought maybe it would be different.

Well back to see what trouble I can get into.

Umm...what's this? Maybe if I paw at it, it will move!

HA HA Mom, you were not quick enough with the camera!

So many fun toys!

Yep, Husky bags are my bag of choice too!.

After a hard days work, I went an took a nap.
Dad says the concrete in the base posts have to set over night
before he can stretch the fencing.

Note from Mom:
We did as much as we could today to get the fence up.
It is something I have wanted to do for a long time, and now that
Sissy has the pasture all to herself, I really need to give her a SMALL space
to eat. She does not have a buddy this summer to chase around either
so whatever she eats just stays with her..
I will move her back and forth between pastures,

but now at least, I have a smaller area to keep her in.

I don't like her getting this big, she is one that can just LOOK at oats/grass
and gain weight! Just like me! :))

At my lesson this week, I had tighten up the cinch as tight as I could go, and
the first half lap around the arena Sissy farted so much, that
my instructor had to retighten the saddle! She could stick her hand inbetween
the cinch and Sissy! She was quite bloated from the fresh grass.

But we will be fixing that right soon.

Sissy is one that is into everything when you are trying to work.
I think it is cute.
Rick needed my help.
I was snapping pictures!
See how much help 'we' are honey?