Congratulations you traded a crazy horse....for a crazy horse?

I remember being all excited when my Dad said he had got another horse while picking me up from my mother's house. Dreams of riding through trails with my dad were getting clearer and clearer. I would ride my lanky (I thought beautiful, my dream) ex-race horse while he would ride this new horse. It would be wonderful...so I thought. I was rather blind to my fathers intentions of getting rid of my first horse. I just thought It would be a second horse for me to ride and enjoy. 

Me Riding Sebastian 2003

I have always like extravagant names for horses, Sebastian was suiting enough for my first horse. It was not a common bland name, which I always avoided. I always wanted something regal and flowing, something to put justice to the majestic beast. So when I asked my father what this new horses name was it hit me with rather bad taste.

Jake.

Who the hell names a horse Jake? (No offense for anyone who names their horse Jake...Personal preference) You name your old, cumbersome coonhound Jake. Okay so not a Storm Chaser or Flying Eagle....just Jake. No show name, no nothing. My dad goes to tell the story that an lady had owned Jake for a few years, was intimidated by him and mostly left him to be a pasture pet. She decided he could be put to good use and donated him to the mounted police unit that my father worked at, and my dad had been searching for a police horse after Sebastian had failed to make the cut. So he said he would take him, well the issue is that the Unit could not GIVE anything away, so my father jokingly said "$25" and the Unit said sure, so my father bought Jake for $25 dollars and brought him home. 

Taken within the first 3 months of owning Jake

Despite the bland name I was determined to find this amazing chestnut paint when I got home. What I saw standing next to Sebastain was a fat, stocky, minimal white paint with a crazy huge head that didn't fit his short neck tied to his body. My 13 year old mind was still full of movies of black beauty, the black stallion and national velvet. None of those movies had horses that looked like Jake. Sebastian fit the dream image more. He wasn't up to expectation.

Even though I didn't like the look of him too much I saddled him up as soon as my father would let me, watch my father take him around a few times then got on myself. I didn't like him anymore on than I did off. While Sebastian was nervous, he walked at a normal pace with long strides. Jake used every muscle in his body to walk, where ever he was pointed, he was going with a purpose. His head swung from side to side from the momentum of him walking fast, his whole body was moving from him eating up the ground at a walk. Soon as you tried to slow him up, he would fight it. I didn't like it, the fast gaits, with little breaks unsettled me. I got off and said I wanted to ride Sebastian instead. The entire time we owned both Sebastian and Jake I preferred to ride Sebastian. 

But the truth was that Sebastian had problems, now I can see he was a disaster. He most likely had bad back problems that we had thought they were attitude problems. He bucked when turned in a circle, got me off once and ran down the road before someone caught him and brought him back. Another time he spooked so hard while cantering I flew off again. Then to put the icing on the cake, at a police training Sebastian threw his head, hit my father in the head then reared up and flipped over backwards breaking my fathers leg. He was always lame after any hard work and was lame with no shoes. He pulled back when tied and overall was a bad horse for me as a 12 year old kid and my father as our first horse. As mad as I was that my dad sold Sebastian I am glad he did it now before either of us got more hurt. I later heard that Sebastian sent a girl to the hospital with a concussion after we sold him, before getting sold again. I always wondered where that poor guy ended up.

But my passion for horses would not die down with the sale of my first horse. I now had to settle for the crazy fast walking, barn sour, high energy, run himself into the ground horse that I didn't really want. But it wasn't going to stop me from riding and there is was going to start.