2.15.09 - the story of Duke

Duke's new RaDon's came in today. They're so shiny and new that I'm contemplating never actually putting them on the big guy, since I know I'm going to cry a bit the first time they get dirty! Granted, RaDon's last forever -I think we have some that have got to be 15 years old that we use as extra layers in winter- but Duke's the first horse I've ever actually owned, so I'm a bit twitchy about all the "show" equipment I've bought for him.

You know, I almost didn't end up with Duke. My beloved Uno died unexpectedly at the age of 10 the week before River Ridge in 06, leaving me essentially horseless. I did (and still do) have Ann's old gaited horse Havin' Fun/Adam, then 15 years old and coming off of a four year retirement, who I had only been riding for fun to get in better shape. I was completely devastated when Uno died - My aunt Terri had bought him as either a weanling of a young yearling, and he had been with us ever since. He was broke as a two-year-old, and Ann showed him once or twice when he was three or four. I pulled him out of the field for a friend to ride when he was five, and the rest is history. Uno had the heart of a park horse but the motion of a CP, and I was fine with that. We had consistently done pretty well in Amateur and AOT classes (I hated riding in Jr Ex- too much like bumper-cars!) over the last few years, and I was really looking foreward to the upcoming season. I walked into the barn to feed that morning and knew something was wrong because all the horses were quiet.

After a year of initially half-hearted and ultimately fruitless searching, Julie, myself, plus two of my non-horsie friends went down to the Tattersalls spring sale 07 with the goal of finding a new horse for me. Not an easy task: I'm a big girl, plus tall on top of that, so I wasn't even considering horses smaller than 16.2 (and that was pushing it!), I really wanted something younger than 5 that I could finish, and I wanted something with some fire in his soul.

Day one was a bust: I fell in love with a rideable breeding stallion that I bid on but went way out of my price limit. A mare Julie liked for eventual breeding went high as well, and nothing else caught my eye. Day two looked like it was going to be a repeat of day one, until a three-year-old named Brookhill's Storm Trooper came down the chute: a plain brown wrapper, gangly with youth, and green as grass. Nevertheless, Julie and I saw potential, and when the gavel came down he was coming home with us. I was so happy to have a new horse that I bounced straight to Fennells to complete a new-horse tradition we have and buy a new show halter for him. I happened to buy 2.

We were all set to head home, my non-horsey friends were getting bored, and I had my new horse, but curiosity about a horse I had liked on paper and thought had some presence was coming up as lot 203 or 204. They led him through, which immediately scratched him off my list, but since we had stayed that long we may as well stay for lot 208 - a gorgeous nine-year-old gelding I had liked in the book, but we had heard absolutely horrible things about.

208 came down the chute looking like a million bucks, and Julie and I decided 'what the heck, he can't be that bad' and started bidding. Julie had the bid, and then the next thing I know 208's rider does a quick dismount. Bidding screeched to a halt, and we wound up with lot 208, who apparently did have a few screws loose. Julie somehow talked me into putting 208 in my name instead of the three year old, and as soon as the paperwork was done we loaded up and headed home. Lot 208 with the screws loose was Duke.

I was pretty blah about him at first: he seemed to be a very well mannered sweet horse, but we were still wary to find out when the demons would arise. First time we put the saddle on him we found out he was horribly cinchbound, which also made him harder to mount. He'd been yanked in the curb, and was claustrophobic, but underneith all that was a nice horse who wanted to please.

these days he's still a bit cinch-bound, but he's gotten much better. He playfully tries to push me off the mounting block, has to be the first one loaded into the trailer with the partition wide and all the bars and doors opened, hates getting baths, and has developed a few new bad habits from my babying him, but I love him and wouldn't trade him for the world!