Yesterday we went to look at candidate 2 in our hunt for a new horse. This time we looked at “Misty”, a 7 year old (her birthday is today!) spotted Tennessee Walking Horse. She’s quite beautiful. Unfortunately although I took a ton of photos while we were there, the one below is best. She’s on the right. The filly on her left is hers. Her owner feels he’s too old for his horses now and he has a disease that impairs his balance. In fact he told us a story of how he fell down a hill on his farm and couldn’t walk on one of his legs. Misty came to investigate and put her head down so he could grab on while she slowly pulled him up. She then walked slowly back to the barn while he leaned on her.

So here are the pros and cons:

Pros:

1) She seems to be gentle
2) She’s beautiful – spotted like a paint with a multi-colored tail, mane and hooves. Her mane is almost twice as long as Valentine’s.
3) Her owner is a pretty well known TWH trainer, though he hasn’t been doing much these last few years due to his age and health.

Cons:

1) She’s not registered, though the owner has her notes so maybe it can still be done. I don’t know enough about the process.
2) She’s FAT. Apparently she’s not pregnant but she clearly is a chunky monkey. The owners wife says he feeds her twice a day and their pasture is beautiful so maybe she’s just eating too much. I just want to make sure her weight isn’t indicative of a health problem.
3) She’s been ridden but not in a few years. Our friend Shari is going to ride her this week for us. I don’t really need another project horse.

We plan on riding Misty and Snowball this week, once the hay has been put up. It’s going to be near 100 today in east Tennessee and it’s quite humid. Hopefully it’ll cool down some before we ride.

So what do you think of Misty?

We also bought a horse trailer this weekend! We’ve been busy! I think Mikki is writing up something about that so expect to hear about it in a day or two.

The hunt is on – candidate 1
The hunt is on – candidate 2 (this post)
The hunt is on – candidate 3
The hunt is on – candidate 4