In the olden days of horse shopping, if I was in the market for a horse, I had a few different go-to tactics. I’d go pick up my local Stablemates magazine, check out the classified section of the Chronicle, or consider going to an auction. The only online source I checked religiously was dreamhorse.com, which I would check out even if I wasn’t looking in order to stay aware of the market.

Now, buying horses is a whole other ball game. Thanks to social media and the addition of several new search-based horse sales sites, horse shopping has become accessible in a way it never was before. My daily routine for the search started by checking the new ads on warmblood-sales.com, then dreamhorse, then equinenow.com and equine.com, and eventually ended up on facebook.

Horse shopping on facebook is at once overwhelming and amazing. Amazing, thanks to friends being able to tag and suggest horses in a heartbeat, and thanks to sellers being able to respond directly to search ads. Even more amazing was the response to my tongue-in-check ISO ad, culminating in an article by the Chronicle. The overwhelming aspect of searching on social media is the sheer quantity of responses and horses available. Keeping up with sellers, their horses, the back and forth conversations and the scheduling and rescheduling of appointments kept me mentally hopping, and while exhilarating, was also exhausting.

The other fun side of social media has been sharing some of the horses I’ve looked at with you all, albeit it becomes a tricky balance of sharing and still respecting the seller’s privacy and goals. But getting to sit on nice horses, and so many different types of rides, is an exciting adventure that warrants sharing and social media is the obvious enabler of that.

In the end of course it was also facebook that led me to Smitty. A dressage prospect hiding in a Hunter Jumper group that an eventing DQ just had to snap up. I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to see that ad marked with a big fat SOLD tag, and how much I enjoyed cancelling all my ISO ads thereafter.

Smitty’s Sales Ad

Social media has changed a lot when it comes to horse shopping, and now, I get to use it to bombard you all with new pony updates!

So some of you may know by now that I got caught up in the Delta nonsense caused by a power outage to their mainframe computer, resulting in over 1,000 flights cancelled, including mine finally at 3:45am Tuesday morning. I caught an hour’s worth of sleep before attempting to find one of the few rental cars left and drove over 6 hours back to Raleigh, doing my best to stay between the white lines.

This was my Monday night and Tuesday morning

The silver lining of getting home during the day light (as opposed to at midnight a day later, or at 8am two days later as Delta wanted me to do), was getting to see my new pony.

The other silver lining being that the bars stayed open beyond normal operating hours in the airport, because I desperately needed this

I had been sent some photos and videos of him by my wonderful friends who were there to greet and keep an eye on him after he arrived, and all said he was super cuddly and seemed very chill about his new home. Like a blind date where your friends tell you amazing things about the guy, but you know it’s still going to come down to first impressions and gut feelings, I had some anxiety about how we would get along.

When I rolled up to the barn, it didn’t take long to search him out, and I immediately saw his bright face and intelligent eyes looking at me over the stall door. He seems absolutely massive despite truly being 16.1 1/2 hands tall, as his long neck comes straight up out of his shoulder. When he looks at something and puts his head up, it’s like standing next to a giraffe.

Long necks make for better neck hugs

My first impression is that he is simply a gigantor wamrblood baby. He’s quite narrow, and a bit drawn up from his travels, which makes him look uber gangly. Pair that with wanting to play with everything (love!) and you can see the baby-ness everywhere.

When I went back to the barn a bit later I just had the intentions of lunging him a little in the covered arena and seeing what he would do. Since he had been cooped up for the majority of the last three days due to traveling and weather, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But the horse on the end of the rope was settled as could be, and actually needed prompting to continue trotting around.

Gangly pony needs some groceries after his adventures

Despite it being dark, and him being a baby horse in a new arena, I decided to climb aboard. Lunging young horses is not my favorite thing to do to them, so I couldn’t find much reason not to sit in the tack instead.

Checking each other out

What a good boy he was! We just wandered about the arena while I marveled at his neck and felt him out.

Seriously, that neck though

We did a couple laps of trot before I called it a night, but not before marveling at all the suspension beneath me. My abs are going to cry when I start sitting this horse.

Overall, I am absolutely thrilled. Our “blind date” couldn’t have gone any better. He’s sweet, and sensible, and I think could be a wonderful fit. Hopefully this is the horse I’ve been looking for.

Welcome to the family, Smitty!