I’m out in the grey Irish sea again, not sunning my body on a holiday
but on a work trip seeking out horses. Ensconced on the Isle of Man
ferry after a day driving and peering over stable doors and throwing
tack on bright shiny animals. This isn’t my first jaunt across to the UK
and each trip is actually a little like a mini break, what could be
better than sitting on other peoples nicely schooled horses and
wondering if I’d like to bring them home with me.
I’ve been recently involved in searches of all kinds, dressage horses,
showing horses and ponies. On the previous trip I was testing show cobs
and found the most mannerly gent of an Irish horse that I’m hoping to
get out on later this month, it’s been such a long time since I’ve
dusted off my show tweed and there’s several people only too happy to
see me wearing my bowler hat as I look like some sort of vaudeville
comedy act in it.
With more clients and horses coming in, I’m getting the chance to ride
more horses some of which are show horses and even I can’t believe I
managed to work up to a proper gallop here and there and I’ve even begun
jumping again.
This current trip has me looking at ponies again, a true all rounder and again I’m not surprised this time by how many are Irish bred like the show horses I’ve viewed. My last trip home to Ireland was looking at broodmares and young-stock at Goresbridge horse sales and I think it’s about time I got back there again to see what kind of horses we can rustle up. I’m still pony hunting and also looking for a nice ladies riding horse, of course I’ll do my upmost to persuade them all they should be dressage riders, even if they only dip their toes in the dressage arena for now. I’m sure it must be part of my lifes mission to convert everyone to the virtues of dressage.
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