Dakota,My First,My Love,My Nemesis! Part 1

There seems to be a lot of talk recently about the right horse, the wrong people, the right trainer, etc.. So I thought I would share my experience with my first horse. The horse of my own. The first horse I ever bought. And this horse is Dakota, registered name Dusk Te Troubles. And don't ever let anyone say that there's nothing in a name..........

This story begins in the year 2000, when I had finally good reason and bit the bullet to get a divorce from my daughter's father. I had the property. I had wanted a horse and pony for years, but the marriage being what it was, well, it just didn't happen. So onward I went, keeping the home and Zoe in my care and meeting Steve over the Internet. I decided that it was time to get my horse.

I asked Jess to keep an eye out and help me find my horse as I had "0" experience with this process and Jess had horses currently and off and on throughout the years. Of course, me, knowing nothing at this point wanted a gelding and one with color and one not too old. Rule #1, Never look for color first! Rule#2, Beginners are more suited to a more experienced aged horse!

So Jess did some looking and found Dakota for me. To this day, I believe that Jess had much more confidence in me than I did. Thank-you, Jess, for believing in me. And having started the divorce with a new love in my life, having gone through a whole bunch of tragedy and conquering it, thought I could do anything. So off we went to look at Dakota. I loved him instantly. But he was the first that I had seen and I thought this is it, I have to have him now. So Jess closed the deal and I gave her the money and we picked Dakota up and brought him to her property and I set off to get my place ready with fencing and lean-to and training pen. Dakota was four years old and the previous owner had said that he was seasoned on trails...and blah, blah, blah!

Unbeknown to us, and we found out later, Dakota, although a gelding had been kept from the rest of the herd and in my opinion, treated much as if he had still been a stud. Some "training" technique in which the previous owner wanted him to be solely dependant on him, so consequently Dakota misbehaved badly at Jess's as she had mares and he was trying to breed them through the fence and injured one mare. He also managed to injure himself getting a lesson in being tied and cracked his eye socket. Vet bills and a check of hormones and proper gelding revealed that he should not have behaved like he still had "kahunas"! The first visit from the farrier, Huck, at Jess's place proved to be quite hellish as well. It involved me standing back and letting Huck handle him with ropes and corrections and you name it, so has soon as my property was half ready, Dakota came home. And in the meantime, Jess had worked with him at her place, lunging and riding him in the training pen.

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