Stu was my first horse. He was a true character but I loved him dearly. I first met Stu when I was working for a boarding facility. I had to fix the automatic waterier in his pen. I wasn’t paying attention to the horses just working away. When all of a sudden I felt this breath on my check. It was Stu checking me out. He was a big appy gelding. Although he didn’t look like an appy he was a solid sorrel with a white blaze. I was in love.

             I wasn’t really looking for a horse, but then someone told me he was for sell. I had to check it out. I talked to the lady that owned him and decided to lease him before I bought him. As he had some behavioral problems and I wanted to make sure he was a good fit for me or my daughter. Well as it turned out we fit together. Him and my daughter never really got along. He wasn’t her kind of horse. See he liked to buck. It was his way to get out of working. But to his dismay it didn’t bother me and I could sit his bucks. I would ride him bare back and every time you asked him to lope off he would buck. We would usually acquire a small crowd of people. I’m sure they were waiting for the day he bucked me off.

              Where we lived at the time there was this big hill we would ride up. Well Stu didn’t really like to go on trail rides. When they involved a steep hill. The first time we went he didn’t know about the steep hill so we made it up with only a few bucks. But after that every time we would get to the bottom of the hill, he would stop, try to turn around and go home. Usually I would have to get off and walk him half way up the hill, then get back on and ride the rest of the way. Then on the way back as soon as knew we were heading home off he’d go.

              Stu was also very studdy. He loved the mares and would challenge stallions. When ever I would tell people how he was they would think I was crazy. This one time Stu was living next to an appy mare. They had only been neighbors for a day or two when we moved her up to the pasture on the hill. Well I didn’t think anything of it. That is until I got done riding him that evening and was walking with my daughter up the hill to put her horse away. All of a sudden Stu started getting goofy. So I told my daughter I was going to take him home. We started walking down the hill when all of a sudden he let out this bellow and bolted up the hill before I knew what happened. He was heading straight for my daughter and her horse but at the last minute turned and when straight to that appy mare. He just stood there next to her. I went up got him and started down the hill again. Well he started acting up so I told my daughter to get a stud chain. I had never used one on him before but was thinking I might need it. In the mean time another trainer came up and asked what was going on. I told him and he asked if he could try. I was like be my guest. Sure enough he got to the same spot when Stu bellowed and took off at a dead run up the hill to his mare. The trainer just stood there with his mouth opened. Well I got the stud chain put it on him and he walked right down the hill. I’m thinking his old owner or someone had used a chain before.

              I have so many memories of Stu and funny stories that I could write all day but I’ll end now and save some other stories for another day.  The point of writing these stories is to show that all horses need love and understanding. Even a horse like Stu. We were a team and I understood him and we loved each other.

By

Carole Gardner

http://realhorsemanship.webs.com/