I posted this commentary about this next stage of my horse experiences on Spotty Horse News, where I do most of my regular blogging, but wanted to share it with the Horsecity.com crowd, too.

I'm getting a really good idea about how folks end up with more horses than they really need. I'm also learning a lot about patience and finding the right next horse.

Not so easy as finding our first horse, at least not so far.

I love owning a mare. People tell me all the time that maybe we want to consider a gelding for our second horse - a nice, calming influence on our 6-year old paint mare, Lena - and part of me thinks that might be a good idea.

But the other part of me loves - absolutely loves - the quirks that come with owning a mare. Yes, even when she's in season and not necessarily focused on arena work - or much of anything but her own hormones. 

She is passionate and moody, sensitive and emotional. And I love that about her.  I think she is amazing and I love playing with her, riding her, and figuring out what mood we have on any given day. I read somewhere that mares offer that challenge and it's one I welcome. 

Probably that makes me weird, but since that's not the only thing, I guess we'll just add it to the list.  

We haven't been there nearly enough - okay, at all this year - but our favorite horse destination is a place called Slide Mountain Ranch. It's where Lena came from and Ike and Cheri are pretty neat people.

It's located in Tuolumne, California - Gold Country - and I wish we could take Lena there all the time! Great training, wonderful trails, and the most comfortable beds I've slept in away from home.

There's a picture of Lena, maybe as a yearling(?) and two of her brothers on the "Breeding" page. She's the one on the left with the big ears. :-)

Lena was bred to be a cutting horse and is very cow-y. However, she's a little tall and leggy to be a cutting horse in real life. She also loves to run barrels and poles, and just plain run. (And run, and run, and run.)

She would probably be a great endurance horse, but I'm not sure any of us our are sturdy enough to be endurance horse riders. 25-50 miles seems like a really long time to be in a saddle and I worry about it being a hard discipline for her, too. I really want to keep her around, sound, and healthy for a long, long time.

Plus, there is the issue of going to the shows and hanging out all day. Maybe if we were all more social, it would be a different thing, but we aren't.

For now, I think the combination of arena work and trail riding will be a good balance. The arena work is good for discipline and just general strength and flexibility work. The trail helps her get more settled and calm, more able to accept and deal with new things.

And of course finding new and interesting opportunities for her and for us to learn from and enjoy .

I'm thought I would see how much I can expand my horse community online.

I have my own blog at http:/www.spottyhorse.blogspot.com, but I am trying this out, too.

I love owning a horse.

I think it is one of the most amazing things that's ever happened in my life, with the most important exception of my beautiful daughter.

Said beautiful daughter is now waiting for me to give up the computer.

Happy Saturday, folks.