The Story of Rose

I first met Rose in the spring of 1998 or so.  Rose was in Beaumont TX owned by my brother-in-law Jim and his wife Theresa. Jim’s passion is racing horses.  He bought Rose as a nice kid proof horse for his daughter. He was also excited to breed her. Rose has had 4 babies. When we went for a visit Jodie and I each had a turn riding her and we both felt the potential in Rose as a lesson horse. Patrick told his brother-in-law if he ever wants to sell her to let us know.  Well, time went on and Rose was always in the back of our minds. It is very hard to find a good lesson horse! In the summer of 2001 we moved from El Paso to Aubrey. Before we moved I sold 7 lesson horses. I knew it would take a lot of time to build up my lesson business and I wanted to minimize horse costs. We traveled here with, 3 cats, 2 dogs, 3 horses (Champas, Fancy & Pringles) 3 hens, 1 rooster and 1 goat. I left 2 horses behind; in El Paso, they would arrive here via my nephew one month later.  Well it was a good thing we only came with the 3 horses. We had no fences up just the property line fence. The horses spent the first night in our backyard! First thing in the morning Champas broke a bedroom window. He wasn’t even cut! It was a very hard start. One month later Chapo and Lady Bug arrived. By then we had put in our lovely hot wire fence. It is fast, safe and cheep. Life was grand. Luckily we are slowly replacing the hot wire with real fencing. The ugly hot wire fence was very embarrassing.

Meanwhile my very close friend and student Monika in El Paso was having a hard time finding a horse to buy for her. Her husband and son had found good horses for them to ride; now Monika just needed one. Monika had loved Lady Bug and rode her in her lessons for a couple years in El Paso. Then as fait will have it Jim called with the news he had made the decision to sell Rose. Well, I sure had Monika on my mind trying so hard to find a nice horse for herself. I called Monika and offered to sell her Lady Bug. She was so shocked and excited she just couldn’t believe her ears! So we sold Lady Bug to Monika and bought Rose. I still miss my Lady Bug. She was a palomino mare about the size of Rose. Lady Bug was the only horse I have owned that could live in a pen with Faliene (the goat) and liked her! All our other horses bite her. Rose came into our lives and just needed a couple months training with Jodie and me. Rose use to try to run back to the barn any chance she would get. She was very fast and didn’t know how to lope in a circle. She just never had to before. It took me 2 weeks to teach her how to lope on a lunge line. Oh, that is exhausting work running to keep her loping. Then as she got the idea and her muscles got in shape it was easy. I use to have to lunge her before every lesson. To get the fresh out of her so she would be settled down enough for a student to ride her. She also objected to learning to sidepass. She would rear up with me when I asked her. That was a battle for a week or so then she gave in. Now Rose is Rose. Now my only battle with her is keeping her eating.  The green grass helps a lot!