Toby, the New Horse in Town

Katie on Toby

Megan with Sunset

Megan on Toby

Elska the pony

Hey folks.

I have a new neighbor. Not to be confused with the new neighbors I will have next week. This lady just moved in to the corner house where Izzy (the dog) and her owner (Katie's teacher) used to live.

Her name is Sabrina. She has 3 horses. She thinks my girls are the greatest thing. Give her time...

Toby is a quarter horse. He is 5 years old and is the biggest, therefore he naturally is the boss.
Sunset is an Arabian horse. He is the most beautiful creature when running. Sunset is only a year old and not broken yet. He will be a handful. He ranks 2nd in command.
Elska is a one year old female pony, born in Canada, but purchased from Iceland. She is a rare breed and won't be ready to ride until she is 4.5 yrs old. She is last on the totem poll and tries very hard to push Sunset around.

"Don't let her bully you around like that!" Sabrina shouts to sunset.

Sabrina offered to let my girls come over and meet the gang. We all had the job of brushing Toby before saddling and riding him. This is very important. You must learn to respect and take care of your horse. There is a special bond a human and a horse have. You can usually tell if a horse does not like you.
Horses are wonderful animals. As you can tell...I like them very much. I think they are intelligent and insightful. Instantly I liked Toby. Katie really likes Sunset.
Toby is gentle and caring.
At one point Sunset and Elska were running as fast as they could around the arena and I could tell that Toby really wanted to join in the fun. But because I was on his back, he barely trotted.
Toby doesn't really know me yet and isn't sure what to do with me. As time goes by, and he begins to trust me...I'm sure this will change.
One thing you never want to do is look a horse in the eye. That is an aggressive behavior. Humans are predators. Look down and to the side. They will naturally come to you. Horses like people.

And in this neighborhood...people LOVE horses.

I am going to look into getting lessons for my girls. Living where we do and NOT having your children learn to ride is almost irresponsible. It's like owning a pool and not teaching them how to swim.

At some point they will ride a horse. Even if we don't own one. Many of their friends do.

Besides...isn't this more useful than knowing how to dance?