Welcome Echo

For a while now I have been looking for a horse for my husband.  My husband doesn't need anything fancy - just something he can jump on every 2 or 3 months and go trail riding on.  Something with a bit of go, but something you can trust.  Last year we purchased an off the track thoroughbred called Morgan.

Morgan appeared to be super quiet - my daughter could do anything with him on the ground, but there was something bubbling underneath that I didn't quite like.  One time I tried to ride him up the hill in our haying paddock and he started rearing.  Little rears, but there was a huge lack of trust.  Then he started bullying his paddock mates - a few rugs have a rip or two.  Finally, I took him to a lesson and he bucked me off.  That was the end of the line.  Morgan was moved on.

Then at Easter we tried my friend's horse - Red.  He was just beautiful.  He was also 16.3hh.  While we were hoping for something around the 16hh, the extra 3 inches worried me.  A lot!  Finally my husband hopped on him and said "Nah, too much of a plodder".  That sealed it.  Red was not right for us.

After those experiences I counted up the amount of time and effort taken up by looking at both horses and decided that I didn't need another horse.  I still wanted a horse for my husband, a horse that I could possibly train up and then pass on to my daughter as her legs grew longer, but I decided to give it a rest.  Unless, of course, someone rang me and said that they were just around the corner, and they had a quiet horse that was 16hh, and preferably 5 years old, but the horse had a bit of go when you wanted, and ideally was black.  And so, I put it out there to the universe to really decide whether I needed another horse.

And the universe responded.  Within a week a lady made contact with me saying she might have the right horse for me.  See that list I made up above ... this horse ticked every single one of those boxes!  In addition the horse was located at a property, which was the very first property we looked at in the area; the property that brought us to where we are now.  And ... his name was Echo.  Echo is the name of the black horse, the man's horse, in the Silver Brumby movie.  It was an omen.  I went to see the horse.

Omen or no omen, I inspected Echo with a critical eye.  He was a bit upright in the pastern, a little bit on the thin side, which means he could be a poor keeper.  His head was a bit too big, and he was built a bit like a lama.  But his hooves were good, his legs were straight and clean (I now take clean legs as a solid indicator of a horse's temperament), and his proportions were good.  He was built a bit downhill overall, but his rump was not higher than the wither.  He had a kind eye, and was certainly very quiet standing at the hitching rail.

His owner rode him first, and then I hopped on.  I knew immediately that this was exactly the temperament I was looking for.  This horse, lama neck or no lama neck, had a huge heart and was going to try for you no matter what.  This is exactly what I needed for my husband, for my daughter, for my intermediate trail riding friends, and finally and perhaps most importantly, for myself.

Nevertheless, I put him through his paces and then we took him trail riding.  He was everything you could wish for.  You could ride him on the buckle, or you could spruce him up a bit.  You could ride him second, or in front.  When we went into canter, he didn't think it was a race, he just said "I like canter" and bowled along easily.  I bought him right there and then.

Then I went home and negotiated with my husband.

And for all my intentions of getting a horse for my husband, I said to him "I've bought myself another horse and if you're really really nice you might just get to ride him".

Within three days Echo was paid for and brought over to our property, and was happily munching on grass in the haying paddock with Dingo.

Perception

I had just bought some new jump stands.  A set of red, blue and yellow ones.  This is the first set of professionally made jump stands I have ever purchased.  Up until now I have used tyres, or aluminium brackets mounted on plastic drums at best.

My aluminium brackets have a maximum height of about 1.2m, so by the time you are jumping 80cm you feel like you are rapidly running out of room.  In comparison my new jump stands are 1.6m tall.  When we start running out of room I'll be very pleased indeed.

So I setup my new jump stands, put up a couple of cross rails in a grid, and a straight bar separately, and proceeded to jump Dingo.  We played around with the grid for a while, and then I eyed off the straight bar.  I had no idea what height it was set at, but I perceived it to be about grade 4 - 60cm or so.  I jumped it.  Dingo just touched it.  I jumped it again.  It felt good.  It felt smooth.  It felt "right".

When the jumping session was finished, I wandered out into the jumping paddock and admired my new stands again.  Out of habit. I measured the straight bar.  Whoa!  It was set at about 75cm.  I had been jumping grade 3, not grade 4.  The higher jump stands made the jump look smaller.

Had I known that this jump was 75cm tall I would have been biting my lip on approach, overriding in a thousand ways, and gnawing at myself inside with trepidation at stepping into the unknown.  But, because I perceived the jump to be 60cm tall, I rode it in the same way that I have ridden numerous courses, calm and confident that Dingo can easily nail this.  And easily nail it he did.

Perception is everything.