I have been dealing with a bit of a dilemma for the past while now regarding my current horse, and I apologize in advance if my post gets long. My horse has turned out nicer than I ever dared to dream. Before buying him I had a bunch of resale projects that I successfully trained and sold in order to get the next horse and slowly worked my way up to my current one. When I bought him I bought him to keep long term as I was extremely tired of dealing with selling horses. I have had him 7 years now, got him as a yearling, did all of the training myself and truly ended up with a nicer horse than I could have hoped for when purchasing him as a yearling.
My current dilemma is that with the stage I am at in my career I am feeling like he is almost going to waste with me keeping him. I have time to ride 4 days a week and he is going just as well with 4 days of work as he did with the 6 I was used to, but I don't have the time or really the desire to get him out to show. I know that horses don't care whether they are out showing, and that he is pretty content with his current lifestyle so I am not in a rush to make a change but I keep on feeling like he should be somewhere he can show an ambitious junior the ropes of showing.
Am I insane for feeling like I shouldn't have a horse that has already been very successful in the 3'3 hunter divisions and is ready to step up to 3'6 and do more derbies because I don't have the time to get him out showing regularly? Would a lease seem like a good idea for a year or two in case I change my mind about showing? With leases how do you manage to vet the home the horse is going to? Would it be better to sell if the right situation came up, or do I just enjoy having a horse that I can jump on bareback in a halter and take for a trail ride around the property one day, school 3 tempi changes the next, and jump around a course the following day and to just appreciate that I wound up with a really nice horse?
I know the reality is that if I sold him I would wind up taking in another horse that was either in need of an upgrade, or a youngster that shouldn't be doing too much work at the stage it is at in its life because I am not looking to get out of the horse world just genuinely feel like my current gelding is going to waste. I also admit that I feel like the sensible decision from a financial point would be to sell the horse that could pay off a decent portion of my mortgage rather than keep him to have some fun playing around with him.
Has anyone been at a similar point with a horse? If you have been what have you done and did you feel after the fact that you made the right decision?
My current dilemma is that with the stage I am at in my career I am feeling like he is almost going to waste with me keeping him. I have time to ride 4 days a week and he is going just as well with 4 days of work as he did with the 6 I was used to, but I don't have the time or really the desire to get him out to show. I know that horses don't care whether they are out showing, and that he is pretty content with his current lifestyle so I am not in a rush to make a change but I keep on feeling like he should be somewhere he can show an ambitious junior the ropes of showing.
Am I insane for feeling like I shouldn't have a horse that has already been very successful in the 3'3 hunter divisions and is ready to step up to 3'6 and do more derbies because I don't have the time to get him out showing regularly? Would a lease seem like a good idea for a year or two in case I change my mind about showing? With leases how do you manage to vet the home the horse is going to? Would it be better to sell if the right situation came up, or do I just enjoy having a horse that I can jump on bareback in a halter and take for a trail ride around the property one day, school 3 tempi changes the next, and jump around a course the following day and to just appreciate that I wound up with a really nice horse?
I know the reality is that if I sold him I would wind up taking in another horse that was either in need of an upgrade, or a youngster that shouldn't be doing too much work at the stage it is at in its life because I am not looking to get out of the horse world just genuinely feel like my current gelding is going to waste. I also admit that I feel like the sensible decision from a financial point would be to sell the horse that could pay off a decent portion of my mortgage rather than keep him to have some fun playing around with him.
Has anyone been at a similar point with a horse? If you have been what have you done and did you feel after the fact that you made the right decision?
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