An Amazing Horse

As you all know I own a horse. Although it wasn't long ago that I had two. For some reason I keep wishing I still had two. Why you may ask? When it can be so expensive to care for them and feed them? Well, I don't really miss the extra money spent on my horse, but I do miss her.

Her name is/was Jasper. A quirky, spunky, fun-loving, sweet and obnoxious horse. Sounds quite familiar for those of you who might know me. I bought her when she was 8 months old from a man that lives not far from where I work now. I was wanting to buy a new colt to train when the man stopped by our house. He had noticed I spent a lot of time out in the pasture with our horses and wanted to commend me. When I asked him if he, per chance, had any colts he was looking to sell. He said he had 3 Saddlebred filly's that were all 8 months old and that if I wanted to I could come by and look at them. So not long after, money in pocket, I headed to the mans ranch to see which one I would buy. When I got there he informed me that at 8 months old, the filly's had never been handled by a person. I was at first a little edgy on that small bit of information, but the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea of getting to train a horse from completely wild to tame. I ended up picking Jasper out of the three. She seemed like she had the most spunk and personality, which proved true.

The next day the man brought her over to our place and let her out in the pasture. Mind you there was a lot of fighting on Jasper's end of it since she had never been handled. Once out in the pasture I admired my new addition to our horses, then paid the man a total of $110 for her. It was all the money I had at the time. Being 14 and never getting allowance, I had saved for quite awhile in the hopes of buying a new horse.

Over the next week I let her be and didn't even try to touch her. Getting acquainted with the other two horses and being in a new place was enough at one time for her. After the first week I started standing by her feed bucket so she would get use to me being close. Eventually she became curious enough and would smell my hands or jeans. Over the period of about a month I was able to touch her all over and each day from then she started to trust me more.

It wasn't long before she fully trusted me and became the most annoying horse in the pasture. Always wanting my attention and not leaving a person be for 5 seconds just so you would pet her. My family and I ended up calling her Princess, because she expected the other two boys (horses) to let her have whatever she wanted and was an attention hogger, but it was so hard not to love her. Personality A-plus, she stole everyones heart who ever met her, including mine. Then the time came that I had stalled for so long, the time to sell her. Among the hardest decisions I ever had to make. When dealing with another life, a living soul that rested in my hands, that had become apart of me. I knew this is what I had intended from the moment I bought her. To raise, train and then sell the horse. It was not an easy thing to do.

I hold some very precious memories from her at least. She was the best horse I've ever met.