Update on horse situation

After much prayer and discussion, we decided to send Frosty back to the rescue. We just didn't feel comfortable keeping him as we weren't sure if he would be difficult to handle on the ground. I was originally going to just do ground work with him and do halter, showmanship and ground driving, but his neck is so stiff! He has either never been trained, or he's got some serious bad habits that he's learned over the years. We also decided that we really need something that's rideable. With our limited pasture, it's not feasible to keep a horse that pretty much unusable. I've talked with several people and the consensus seems to be that we won't be able to have more than 4-5 horses on our current property.

So, Frosty went back on Wednesday, but on Tuesday we looked at a wonderful horse right up the road from us. This one is a 12-year-old Appaloosa mare named Natalie. She stands between 15 and 16 hands and is very stocky. She's white like Frosty, but instead of black spots on her undercoat like him, she's got black freckles on her muzzle. She's a BTDT (been there, done that) horse with a quiet disposition. She's been jumped before and would also be good for a beginner. She's in our price range and the trainer said she's almost positive the owners wouldn't mind letting us have her on trial here on our property. She's currently fully pastured and that's the only problem I see with her, barring a vet-check. I plan to bring her in and stall her at night and she might be our only horse for a bit. I'm not sure how she'll respond to either the stall or being by herself. The trainer did mention (and I'm not sure if she was serious) that she has a lame horse that she'd lend us if we needed a pasture buddy.

So, we'll see. We're not rushing things this time. Hopefully this time we'll make a fully informed decision and will get a keeper horse.