Note: This was written in 2009. I have not updated any of the information here.
Note #2: All names have been changed, except for the horses.
The REAL Epilogue
The REAL Epilogue
So where are all those horses now?
Leo
Leo, after I ended my lease on him in 2003, went on to be leased by several other people before he was relegated to be a complete school horse. He was used in several lessons a day until his age caught up with him. Unless I'm wrong, he's pushing 20. His owners came and pulled him out of the lesson program and into semi-retirement in early 2009. He is currently at a different farm, has a million cute halters, and several lesson kids doting on him. He no longer jumps.
Speck and Aaron
Speck was put down in July of 2007. Aaron is now a prominent competitor under Danielle on the North Carolina Dressage and Combined Training Association circuit. He was reserve Horse of the Year in 2009.
Bucky
The horse who used to torture and pick on Teddy became the horse I rode. I leased him for over three years and during these three years, we were reserve state champions twice, scored 74% in a dressage test, outrode all the big-name trainers in our classes, made our debuts at First Level, and started schooling elements from FEI tests. Now that I'm at college, someone else is leasing him. That someone took him to a Top Ten in hunters at State and qualified him for the Southern Regional 4-H Championships.
AJ
AJ, the cantankerous Appaloosa gelding that I catch-rode to a championship in a monsoon, was sold about a year later for a ridiculously high price. I have no idea where he is now. If anyone knows, please let me know. I would love to know if he's still as vicious.
Dancer
The last summer that Teddy was undersaddle, he was burdened with soundness issues. On those days, weeks or months when I couldn't ride Teddy, I rode Dancer. He was fantastic, and that summer was the one when I jumped Dancer 4'6" and showed him 3' a few times that fall. My friend started leasing him a little bit later, and after he had a quarter crack, he didn't jump for a year. He's now used in the lesson program and slowly getting back into jumping. I still ride him occasionally to give him a tuneup or work on dressage.
Seeker's Cole Trickle
Unfortunately, Seeker didn't work out for me, and I gave her back to her former owner. Said owner discovered that Seeker was going through false pregnancy, and that was what was causing Seeker's behavioral changes. Once the hormonal issues was resolved, Seeker was back to normal and the owner sold her to a family. The family uses Seeker for trail riding, and Seeker loves it. I guess Seeker just didn't enjoy being a hunter mare for me.
Skippy
One of the two horses we got for the trade of Teddy and Lucy, Skippy was given back within a few months for Lucy.
Sport
Sport stayed with us longer. In February of 2007, he was being picked on by some geldings and tried to jump the fence, but instead got his legs entangled in the wire. He was lying on his back for at least forty minutes while we tried to cut the wire and free his legs. Ever since then, he has had a very large scar on his left hind leg. The scar tissue also developed a cyst, which was considered inoperable and Sport couldn't be ridden. We gave him back to the home.
Lucy
When she returned to us, Lucy was a pasture ornament for years before Jodi started using her in the lesson program. Lucy rapidly became an asset, and soon was leased out to one of the girls as a hunter mount.She is twenty-five and still jumps small things!
Larry
Annette's horse, which, if not for that twist of fate, would have been mine, ended up with a torn suspensory and had to be retired from riding in 2004 or 2005, I can't remember when, and is now a pasture ornament. I know for a fact that Annette loves him dearly and wouldn't trade him for anything in the world.
And what about the people?
Dawn
I stopped taking lessons from Dawn years ago, but I still look to her as my mentor and friend. If there's any issue I have, I go to her and ask for her advice. She's the one who usually reassures me that a weeping cut on Bucky is nothing more than a flesh wound, and it always turns out to be right. She retired from her job and now works at the barn almost daily giving lessons and fixing things.
Amanda
After Amanda left Wiley, I have no idea what happened. I heard she bought a horse, but sold him soon afterwards. Does anyone know where she is?
Dana
After my short stint as Dana's student, she eventually stopped giving lessons at the barn. She came by Magnolia a few times to give lessons. Her older gelding died last summer, so Dana officially declared herself out of the horse business. She sold me several pieces of tack and sold Diane a pony. She is in the process of selling her farm.
Danielle
I continued taking lessons from Danielle occasionally, until she got married to a cowboy in 2005 and left to establish her own farm in Thomasville. Several people left as well, and last time I heard, she didn't have any children yet. Danielle is currently a graduate student seeking a Masters degree.
Annette
Annette graduated from Vandalia Christian Academy in 2008 and now goes to UNCG. She discovered a love of jumpers in 2007 and has since then switched and shows her buckskin gelding, Joker, in the lower jumpers.
Jessica
Five years after I started taking lessons from Jessica, I still do! She is no longer my hunter trainer but my dressage coach, and she still works me into the ground every week. She has taken to trying to encourage me to pop Bucky over a crossrail, a vertical or a small oxer. Lately, I find myself relenting to her wishes, which now has her saying that I'll "be back in the hunter ring in no time!" Somehow, that's a scary thought.
Derek
Derek still works out of his base near Raleigh and gives lessons and clinics in Natural Horsemanship.
Elyse
Elyse graduated from high school in 2008 and now goes to a community college. She owned a mare called Fyffe for about two years before her grandmother came and took Fyffe back to Texas. Last I heard, she was living in Texas.
Samantha
Soon after Teddy was retired, Samantha and her husband moved to Georgia. Samantha bought a horse and unless I'm wrong, she's running a barn. She also recently had a daughter. Yay for Samantha!
Kelsey
Kelsey recently graduated from the North Carolina State University and got accepted to an university in England for graduate school.
Jodi
After she graduated from Michigan State University, Jodi took a job in California and only recently came back to North Carolina. She got married in November of 2008 and now is busily working, giving lessons, and riding horses for other people.
Isabella
After Isabella and her mother left, Isabella went off the radar for years. I recently reconnected with her on Facebook.
Becky and Peter
Becky and Peter left Magnolia in August of 2005 and established their own stable in Thomasville, where she trains from. I see her at shows now and then.
And what about me?
Well, I started leasing Bucky soon after I gave Seeker back to her owner in May of 2006. Throughout that summer, I spent as much time as I could with Teddy - I cuddled with him, napped in his hay rack, and tooled around with him in the pasture. He followed me everywhere without a halter or lead. I switched from hunters to dressage in July of 2006, and have never looked back since then. I gave up my lease on Bucky when I left for college in 2009.
0 comments