If nothing comes to a head in the next several days, I am seriously considering putting a pause on aggressively horse shopping. It gets exhausting, yo.

Luckily, I happen to know some people (*cough* my parents), who have horses that they would love to be worked.

Riley

This is O’Riley. Or basically Riley, since no one calls him that anymore. You may recognize him from a ways back, as I’ve known him for a long time.

Baby Riley

A long, long time. Riley is the product of our former Haflinger mare, Margo, and my former horse, Ivan, the Irish Draught. So technically he’s an Irish Sport Horse.. Er.. Cob.

With the help of Bette, I was the first person to sit on Riley. I did all his initial groundwork, taught him to lead, was there when he was weaned, and so on and so forth.

Riley’s been not much more than a pasture ornament for the last decade (ugh), with the exception of a few brief periods of training. Otherwise, he goes out on trail rides once a month or so with my sister, and basically lives the life of a pasture puff.

Well, this weekend he was in for a bit of a shock. He loaded onto the trailer for the first time in years and made the trip to Raleighwood, where I’ve given him the last couple days to settle in and get used to the routine of coming in and out and being in a large barn.

The plan is for me to train Riley up a bit, get him fit, and depending on how long he’s with me, perhaps go to a few shows or maiden level events in the fall. In the meantime, I have some decisions to make for myself regarding the horses I saw this weekend, I have another horse to see tonight or tomorrow, and then we’ll just see where it goes from there.

Welcome Riley!