As you may already know, Count, the horse I talked about in my last post, sold before I even got an advertisement up about him. Count was the second horse his new owner has bought through me. I took her out for a nice trail ride on Count and at the end of it she said, “I’ll take him!” She’s going to like him.

So…

Introducing the new boy at my place. This is Chocolate. He’s a registered Missouri Fox Trotter gelding…that is if the owner can find the papers! I believe he’s 9 years old, but he could be as young as 7. We’ll have to wait for the papers to know for sure. He stands 14-3 hands (measured) and has a nicely proportioned build with very nice Fox Trotter conformation. He is well gaited and moves nicely in the pasture. He’s a beautiful chocolate color with white stockings on his rear and a narrow blaze on his face. He’s a very handsome boy!

The story behind Chocolate is that he was owned in Missouri by a woman who loved him like a child. She must have done hundreds of hours of ground training, but was afraid to get on him. So, he has very good halter manners, but doesn’t know much about being a saddle horse. I rode him a couple times nearly two years ago. There was no buck in him, but he was a handful.

This boy follows me around the corral like a puppy dog. Like most horses, he’s a little herd-bound, but when a human is around, I think he prefers the human to the horses. He’s been roaming free with a herd of about 15 horses for almost two years now, so it was surprising to me when he came to me out of the herd. He likes people. I’m guessing somebody did some “imprint training” when he was born.

Just a little story about my first ride on him. I was riding him alone down in Diamond Fork, near Spanish Fork, Utah, where I sometimes do trail training. I was getting a feel for him, just seeing what he would do and wouldn’t do. I tried to get him to descend a steep bank to the creek bed and he wouldn’t do it. He turned sideways to avoid going down the drop, but the bank gave way and we both went over into the soft bottom our our side. Chocolate jumped up, leaving me on the ground, and scrambled back up the bank. I was thinking, “Well, I’m going to have a long walk back to the barn!” To my surprise, Chocolate stood there at the top of the bank, looking at me like, “What happened? You ok?” I crawled up the bank and Chocolate came to me, like he was making sure I was alright, and let me get back into the saddle. We went on with our ride and finished our training session with no further incident.

Now, I have to tell you that for one who spends most of his riding time in the back country, a horse that doesn’t head for the barn when he’s just unloaded his rider in a scary situation is worth his weight in gold!

I’ve been looking forward to working with this guy since that ride. I expect great things from him. He will be for sale soon. I’ll need some time to evaluate him before I get with the owner to discuss a price.

Stay tuned for more posts about Chocolate!

TH