The First Year, of the rest of my life

Hi! My name is Rebecca. As "wild horsefeathers" would put it, here is one (big) girl who'd rather clean a stall than her own room. I spend as much time as I can with my horses, and I even managed to get a job working with horses too. I can't believe I get paid to be with them, in fact! (But I do have bills, so keep those paychecks a-comin', please.)

I'm a proud member of www.horsetopia.com 's web forum community. There, I'm known as DappleGrayMyWay. I chose that screen name as an honor to my first horse, Tule, who is as you may have guessed a dapple gray horse. I'm occasionally saddened to think on his color progression to fleabitten, but that is still years away...I hope!

I have three horses.

Tule (that name is pronounced too-lee) is almost six years old now, a TB/Arab gelding (what some call an Anglo). He's more of the classic TB in most ways, including his general willingness and somewhat more excitable temperment. Tule has "cow sense," which came as a complete surprise to me...but on the other hand, I shouldn't be surprised, because this horse can quite literally do anything. We've been taking lessons together now since last April and I think we've really come a long way together. In fact, our trainer just yesterday suggested that we're probably ready to consider our very first dressage test. Tule appreciates having a job to do, and with me, he's going to learn them all.

Pepper is the horse I intended to be my son's. She's a chesnut grade quarterhorse mare of unknown age, but our best guesses put her at about fifteen years old this spring. To my dismay, Pepper was sick from the moment we brought her home last March, and we spent months trying to make her better. Finally, in August, Pepper had surgery to deal with a badly infected gutteral pouch on the left side. I'm happy to report that she made a ful recovery. However, in the time it took to get her better, my son's riding skills surpassed her abilities. So, Pepper will live out her days as a pleasure trial riding horse that anyone can hop up on. She doesn't mind that one little bit.

My newest equine family member is Dillon, or GBM Pocos Smokin Dun, a rising 2-year-old AQHA dun gelding. Dilly is pretty much my dream come true horse; I've loved him since I first laid eyes on a photo of him way back in April of last year! His breeders, the Ganns of Tennessee, are wonderful people; here's their website http://home.earthlink.net/~vpgann/ for more about them and their program. I was able to bring him home on January 17th, 2009. Dillon has a sweet personality, lots of intelligence and curiosity, and I know that we're going to have the most incredible time as a team together.

This blog will serve as an online journal to chronicle the journey I've been living for the last year and a half as I've taken steps to make my dreams a reality. I will post updates often, and share photos along the way. Feel free to make comments or send me emails...when I'm done knocking the mud off my boots, I'll sit down to share!