Barefoot Girl Just Wants To Have Fun

Lilly has great eye appeal; is a smooth strided, alert, athlete and has incredible feet which have been barefoot her entire life. She would be a good team penner or barrel horse but she has the ability to do many things. Lilly has an “impressive” pedigree and would make a very good choice for a brood mare if you are seeking to produce intelligent offspring with great eye appeal and athletic ability. On the side of her dam, Lilly’s pedigree includes the famous halter horse stallion Impressive, however, Lilly’s dam Little Laurel Lilly tested HYPP/NN and therefore could not pass the defective HYPP gene to Lilly. Lilly was born June 3, 2004 and trained by the breeder’s son who is a well-known and well respected local trainer in area where she is from. Lilly was purchased from the breeder by a friend of my mother’s in August of 2007. Lilly was loved and well cared for in that home but seldom used in recent years. Several years spent mostly in the pasture had left Lilly’s body overweight and her manners a bit rusty. I purchased Lilly and her adopted brother in October of 2013 with the intent of retraining them and reselling them to a home where they could have a job and be a joy to their owner. The initial pick up was alarming for Lilly since she had not left the property in several years. I must say her behavior left me wondering what I had gotten myself into. But I have been very pleasantly surprised at how well Lilly has responded to time I have invested with her. I would like to say I trained her but reminded her is much more accurate. Lilly was very curious to see her new home and after just three training sessions, she convinced me that she deserved to have a fun day, so riding bareback with just a halter and rope, we explored the farm together. I have taken Lilly on several trail rides and this weekend even had the opportunity to herd cattle with her. She enjoys trail riding a great deal but she absolutely loved herding cows. She worked hard in difficult terrain, responded perfectly to my requests and never asked for a rest. Trailering is now very easy with Lilly, I stand outside the trailer and ask her to walk on which she does willingly. I am still going on with her when I unload just to be sure she does not turn around but she gets on and off in a relaxed manner. In my opinion, Lilly’s new owner should be competent, confident, love to ride and love to have fun. My reasoning is that Lilly is eager to get going at whatever you have planned for her, except groundwork, which she does she would much rather take you for a ride. I have not seen Lilly be mean, just eager. She may paw the ground while you are tacking her up and move around to better see what everyone is doing. I do not lunge Lilly before I ride her and when I get on she is eager to get going. I require her to flex laterally before she steps off which she does willingly. She has never tried to run off but she will ask to go faster. For instance she will slide from a walk to a trot or a trot to a canter. She has always gone back to the gate I asked for with no trouble. But even in the correct gate, you can feel in her stride, her desire to go faster. I would like to find Lilly an owner who enjoys this as much as I do instead of training it out of her. Lilly would be good to anyone who loved her but an inexperienced or timid rider might find greater enjoyment with a horse that needs encouragement to get them going. The only negative I have for Lilly is that she suffered an injury to her left rear leg at about age three or four and scar tissue is visible. After the difficult and stressful loading process when I bought her and the 6 hour trailer ride from Pa to Ohio, that same leg had some visible swelling and caused Lilly to limp. It did not seem to hamper her spirit or slow her down, she was still ripping and tearing in the pasture. The limp and the swelling both subsided and I estimate that the work I had her do herding cattle was harder than anything 95% of riders would ever ask of her.