I moved Stu to a new barn. You should already know this if you follow my YouTube, which you’d better, OR ELSE (for legal reasons this is not a threat.)
But if, for some reason, you missed that update, the rumor you just heard in the first paragraph is true. I moved him. This man has been to a lot of barns at this point.
This time, I moved for a very serious reason: Because if I didn’t do something, I really just needed to sell him, close this chapter of my life, change my name, and fly to an unnamed country where no one would ever find me. Is that a bit dramatic? Perhaps, but I did need to do something. I was not getting out to ride consistently enough to make any kind of difference in his training. This became starkly evident when my friend wanted to go on a trail ride for her birthday.
It sounded like a fabulous plan. I love trail riding. I haven’t been trail riding since the years BC (before children). I hadn’t taken Stu on a trail ride, but surely it couldn’t be that hard, right? I decided to prepare for this trail ride by taking him a practice walk out of the arena. Like literally, we walked out of the arena down a side path. He lasted about 3 minutes before losing his mind.
It wasn’t really that big of a freakout, and honestly if this had been Berry, it would have been laughable. A fun hippity hop to laugh about later. But this guy is huge, and when he throws a fit, you might as well be on a balance beam 10 feet in the air during an earthquake. So it was a bit nerve rattling. I didn’t fall off, but my confidence was rattled back down to the ground where it felt much safer.
Other than that, it was also eye-opening. I’ve had this horse up here for two years, and we are barely past where we started. We’ve made no progress, I actually think I’ve become a worse rider, I’m embarrassed at how I look. This is not progress.
After sulking and being frustrated for a while, I had the completely brilliant idea of taking him back to my old barn. This is the barn that I had lessons with Berry, and she went from a confused mess to a rock star. I need that level of confidence again. Once I realized it, it was a no-brainer. Stu obviously needs to go to that barn.
Luckily they opened me back with open arms, which is honestly super nice considering I haven’t talked to them in years and from their perspective I just kind of vanished off of the face of the earth (that’s what kids do to you).
He’s now been there for just about 20 days. Unfortunately I’ve only seen him being ridden once so far, but I’ve been getting good reports on his progress. Honestly just knowing he’s been ridden and learning how to finally be a grown up horse is such a relief. I really trust this trainer. When I used to ride Berry there, every single lesson made visible improvement in my riding. Every lesson made us better. So I can only imagine how near daily riding is going to improve Stu.
The reports I’ve been getting sound great. The riders love riding him. He’s unbalanced at the canter, so they’ve been working on improving it. They started jumping him and he loves it. He has a really great brain, and doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. He’s fancy enough to do the big shows. that I dreamed of doing when I got him. My trainer wants me to start riding him this week, in between his training rides.
My only regret is that I didn’t do this sooner.
But unfortunately, this all comes with a price. It’s exactly as expensive as you’d expect a fancy hunter/jumper show barn to be. It’s not something I can pay for long term. So I don’t know how this is going to pan out.
Option 1 is that I somehow win the lottery, Stu stays in training there indefinitely, I’m suddenly showing everywhere, going to clinics and trail rides, and also since this is a fantasy, I’m suddenly an amazing rider.
I’d like to pretend that’s what will happen.
The more likely scenario:
I keep him there until I run out of money, and then I bring him home. Hopefully by then I’ll have more time to ride, and I’ll be able to keep up with his training, and I’ll be trailering everywhere. Also, magically he won’t jump the fence anymore, since that’s the main reason I had to move him off my property in the very beginning.
I wish I had the budget of a show rider. Even though I often despise showing because I hate the stress of it, and I hate how long you have to wait around for a two minute ride, it’d be nice to do a full season of it again, just to have the experience.
But it’s hard to say what the future holds for Stu and I. For now, I’m just going to make sure I get my money’s worth at this expensive barn and get out there and ride as much as possible. Hopefully Stu will be really well trained by the time I have to make a decision.