Jasper

In 2004, I was getting in the car at the food store after picking up some chicken food. My kids said look look at that appaloosa in the horse trailer.  My kids knew my favorite horse was an appaloosa and I had always hoped to own one.  I looked across the parking lot at an open stock trailer with a red roan appaloosa looking back at me.  The lady that owned him was coming out of the feed store and heard my kids talking about him, it was early fall and we had the windows down on the car.  She walked over to me and said he is for sale, we were on our way to the auction with him.  She said she would much rather him got to a home instead of possibly getting bought by the meat buyer at the auction.  I asked her how much do you want for him ( I expected to hear a price that was high for me like $1200) the lady replied $400.  I thought for a moment.... that my husband would throw a fit...then I though about my dream right in front of my for a price I could afford.  I asked her would you deliver him?  She said YES I asked if she could wait while I got the money out of the ATM....She said YES☺

Within 45 minutes I was the proud owner of a 2 year old appaloosa gelding.  My husband came home and actually though this was neat.  Jasper was his name and he spent the rest of the day enjoying a pile of hay while we groomed him.  The next morning we went hurriedly out to see Jasper and feed him.  He came right to us from across his pasture but he seemed to be much more alert and didn't seem to like the kids too much.  It didn't take me long to realize he must have been sedated for the auction.  I had heard of people doing this when selling a horse but why me?   The dream horse..my appaloosa... I've waited 20 years for.  Well, he will need to be trained I thought.  I began reading everything I could find on horse training from the internet and library.  I watched some John Lyons videos and ordered his series of books.  I checked out a Parelli video at the Library and was instantly hooked.  I became the house wife horse trainer. 

When I owned horses as a kid they all did what we wanted and we rode all over, went swimming in creeks and spent the whole day in the saddle everyday.  I don't really remember much about training them.  We just rode and it worked?! 

So I trained with Jasper everday and he improved alot but he still didn't like kids and tried to bite them.  My husband said why don't you get a pony or a mini the kids can enjoy too.  The kids are such a big part of my life that I thought about my Dream horse and decided to do what is best for the family.  Another Dream Appaloosa will come into my life again one day if it meant to be.  So I set about the task of trading Jasper for a pony or mini.