In the beginning I wanted a horse but I didn't think I could afford one until January of 2017. Now that it's July of 2017, I've had BeeGee for a year and 8 months. Things happen for a reason and often a good reason. I've had horses before but I can't really say that I knew them. They did their jobs and had their personalities but that was about it.
When I got BeeGee, I really did not know him. He was very different from the other horses I'd known: Dandy the Arab, Sing the Paint, Prince the Appaloosa, Clipper the Appendix Paint. Sing was the greenest horse I'd had but she was very sweet and very slow. Prince was probably the best trained horse I ever had, followed by Clipper. Prince and Clipper had different jobs. Prince was a cow cutting champion, a great team roping horse, and a child's lesson horse. Clipper was my hunter/jumper.
BeeGee is an Off the Track Thoroughbred and very sensitive. Our initial meeting went well but then things rapidly went downhill when I tried to treat him like I knew how, based on my previous horses. He doesn't like to be pushed and doesn't have much confidence. He demonstrates his amazing athletic ability when exploding from frustration. I had to start over with him and then he suffered a suspensory ligament (or tendon?) injury and had to be on stall rest. That was the true beginning — coaxing him through stall rest that nearly made him crazy. Then handgrazing and walking, lots and lots of walking. This is how I really got to know him. It would've been easy to give up but I couldn't because he showed me the sweet, willing horse he can be. This is where we go forward.