My first horse was Grady. I've talked about him before, but he is truly my first love. It really was love at first sight. My parents had finally agreed to let me get a horse and had found a knowledgeable horse person to help us out. He was the first horse that we went to see, and ended up being the only one.
We showed up and it took a while to catch him in the field. He was 16 years old, a bright chestnut color (he is my favorite color: that of a shiny copper penny, though at the time I hated that he was a "brown" horse), 15.3hh QH. I had never really ridden horses (except for my bratty neighbor's horse) and most of what I knew how to do came from reading books. I was (and still am) a major bookworm.
I walked, trotted and attemped to canter him around a little dirt paddock and decided right then and there that I wanted him. He was perfect in my eyes. We bought him and I started taking lessons on him. Even though he was a brat, I still loved him. I didn't matter that he tried to buck me off daily, enjoyed scraping me along the fence, and rolled in the mud after hours of careful grooming.
What makes me love him the most is how much he tries for me. We've broken most of his bad habits and even after having the winter off I can hop on and he remembers everything. He tolerated me as a beginner and helped me learn to ride, developing that stubborness that has helped me to work with difficult horses and inspired me to become a trainer.
Next was Jazz. She has an almost opposite story of Grady. I didn't want her. My mom wanted a horse that should could ride with me and I was going to use this horse to do 4-H because Grady didn't really understand the concept of doing a pattern.
There wasn't anything that made me dislike Jazz, but we just didn't click. I rode her and she was perfect. I just didn't like her. My mom decided that she liked Jazz and we bought her. I took lessons on her but nothing really changed. I still didn't like her and she didn't like me much either. She wasn't much of a people horse, she liked to convince Grady to gallop away when I came to ride them. She didn't respect me, though she was never bad, but I couldn't earn her trust. She never bucked me off like Grady, though I did fall off several times through my own fault.
I can't exactly pinpoint when I really started to bond with Jazz. We did very well our first year in 4-H, making it into the medallion class. My work doing Parelli with her really paid off and she began trusting me. I switched trainers and started doing dressage and trail, both things that Jazz preferred to pleasure. We really grew together. I started trusting her and in return I have her complete trust. That is what I really love about her. I can ask her to do really scary stuff, like drag a heavy log through a small waterhole (which by the way was really hard, but Jazz didn't even bat an eye) or jump a giant oxer covered in flowers and while she'll be hesitant, if I ask her to do it, she'll try.
Then came Jetta. I had been looking at buying a new project horse, this time set on a Thoroughbred or a more dressage/hunter type horse. Jetta was the first horse we saw (again with the firsts) and one of only two horses that did not have any issues. One mare had issues with her reproductive system which were outwardly visible (yikes!) and one gelding had four clubbed feet (though it might have been because he was growing too fast for his body). There was only one other horse in contention, but he was more expensive and had one slightly clubbed foot, though I wasn't all that worried about it. What won me over was Jetta's attitude. She was so curious and sweet. She let me hug her face and snuffled me all over, ending up nibbling on my shoes. It just clicked immediately. There have been times when I've questioned why I got her, as she can be stubborn and a little obnoxious, but I still love her <3
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