The hunt

Olive died in the wee hours of the morning on December 29. Less than two weeks later, I was talking to a local rescue about one of their horses. She sounded promising, so on January 9, Karen and I got in the car and made the ninety minute drive to Colorado Horse Rescue in Longmont, Colorado.

The horse was lovely.

I ended up passing on her - it really may have been too soon - but I was glad I went. She was so close to what I wanted. I thought, perhaps, the horse hunt wouldn't be as hard as I had anticipated.

Seth went with me to see the next one.

It was a three hour drive in near blizzard conditions.

When we finally got there, we weren't able to catch the horse.

I'd been told she hadn't been ridden in a year, but I didn't realize she also hadn't been touched. I worked with her for about an hour and saw a lot of potential. Still, there were so many red flags. I just couldn't commit to that.

That's how this year has been. So many drives on highways...

and dirt roads...

to beautiful properties...

and not so beautiful properties...

to meet...

and ride...

or at least attempt to ride...

a stableful of little, round mares.

I can not tell you how much I wanted some of these to be the one.

Unfortunately, there were always issues I couldn't overlook. Or if there weren't - this little bay mare should have been perfect - I just didn't feel a connection at all.

After Darcy died, I got really discouraged. I started saying things like maybe I shouldn't get a horse. All my animals do is die. I can go back to riding other people's horses. It's fine.

Then I had a conversation with my trainer friend, Sarah, that changed everything.