Author: Elaine

I brought Hap home this afternoon from where he had been boarded at my trainer’s for almost eleven months.   I started leasing Hap to a young woman last December.  We originally expected it would only be for a couple of months while she and her father looked for a horse for her, but the horse search took lots longer than expected.  (I remember when I was looking for Hap I felt as though I had seen every horse 16 hands high and over in Colorado.  And most of the ones that were even vaguely suitable were obviously lame. Why would anyone try to sell an obviously lame horse?)  The young woman found her horse not long after this photo of Hap at Aspen Ridge Horse Trail in July. However her father, who is a nice rider, had fallen in love with Hap in the meantime, and leased Hap to ride himself since then.  He can’t ride him enough in the winter to be worth the lease, so Hap comes home for the winter.

I’ve felt occasionally guilty about a 24 year old horse working for his living, if you can call five hours (if that) under saddle a week working.  However, between Hap’s extreme athleticism, my conservative care for him over the years, and plain good luck he is still in great shape.  This past year I’ve gotten a bit of a kick over watching peoples’ jaws drop when I tell them his age. 

Magic, the old mare I am boarding for a friend, seems to have taken fifteen minutes to transfer her affections from Rags to Hap.  Fortunately Rags, the dominant gelding, doesn’t seem to care.