This is my 4-year-old Paint/Arabian Nasdaq....she's only 1/4 Arabian but she acts like a full-blooded one. She's amazingly sensitive...if you just wiggle your pinky finger in front of her (even slightly) she will back up in a hurry. We do Parelli Natural Horsemanship together and we have tons of fun
Even though I haven't ridden her yet (I've only had her for 2 months) I have sooo much fun, even if I get nothing done in a play session. Sometimes she has to "let out teenage frustrations" so all I do is run around and go crazy with her, letting her buck and hop and rear and gallop around xD That's when we have the most fun.
She's a fantastic jumper and will do great in a show ring one day, but I haven't started riding sooo jumping is not our thing...YET.
I used to have a 14 year old Paint mare named Wilma, who I loved so dearly even though she was as stubborn and rotten as HELL to me. Sadly she got taken away from me...she got mystery lameness (uncomfortable riding for both of us) and her owner, after abandoning her for 3 years, decided to come back for her. But she was the greatest first horse I could have asked for. She taught me a LOT. We had a love/hate relationship at first....she was a plug when it came to riding. But then I figured out how to motivate her and literally the second I hopped on her back she took off! She's the first horse I ever galloped on (even though it was only in the arena) and just speeding around was so much fun.
Ummmm before I had Wilma I took English riding lessons for 4 years. I was an advanced level rider (though I was only allowed to jump like 2 feet...UGH) and I loooove to show off, which motivated me because I took group lessons. I volunteered for everything! I rode a beautiful blood bay Thoroughbred for the first two years named Utah....I volunteered at the horse summer camp so when the kids rode I got to ride Utah....he bonded so close with my that summer. Then he was sold and it broke my heart.
From then on I rode an English Warmblood named Sporty, and I got used to the lofty trot and the springy jumps for 1 1/2 years, then I was moved to a I-don't-know-what horse named Taylor. She was enormously wide and literally trotted like a TANK. Her trot was so slow and so smooth it must felt like walking, and it was really hard to post to. She would also jump funny...we would trot reeeeaaaaaally slowly, then as we approached the jump she would trot at top speed (I'm talking around 12 mph) and she would jump the fence with this little pathetic hop....I always got so scared she would plunge over it
Then I quit riding because 1.) 40 bucks a week was too much and 2.) I could adopt a horse at another stable for free.
So that's that.
