Video

Taken from the Latin, meaning ‘I see’…

Browsing for some old work files on various ‘not usual’ hard drives, I came across a video clip (no sound) which made me smile loads: Vin, being shown to me, the week before I bought him.

It all came about like this (cue the Scooby Doo wavy vision).

I had a telephone call from Sarah, a friend in Somerset. Sarah said that there was a mare for sale in her area that she had heard was not only a fun horse, but was also a competition (Eventer) in the making.

I took the details, rang the seller and arranged to drive down to look at the horse the next weekend.

The large dark bay mare looked alright in the stable, was easy to groom and tack up and had good manners.

But the moment I sat on her I started getting problems; she refused to move in to the arena. She was the nappiest horse I’ve ever met – to the point where she’d prefer to expend a whole pile of energy in bronking, rearing and trying to buck me off (and failing) than just walk in to the arena.

After 20 minutes of the mare almost injuring herself rather than go in to the arena I called it a day, dismounted, handed the reins back to the owner and walked away.

As I was in the area I drove to a friend’s place – Nicki Stephens’ yard at Burcott, just outside Wells – for a cup of tea and a natter with whoever was around.

My friend Lotty was there playing with her horse. We sat and chatted and I told her about the mental mare. She jokingly said ‘You should have a look at Vin if you’re looking for a good horse’, and nodded at the end stable in the line.

Inside was a big, strikingly good-looking Chestnut gelding who seemed a little cautious but not shy.

Nikki said I should sit on, I said my faith in horses had taken a knock for the day, but if she wanted to show him off to me I’d be interested in seeing him go.

She groomed him, got his tack ready and started working him while I dashed back to the car to get my digital camera which, fortunately, also has a video recording function.

The following weekend, confidence restored by the lovely Beech back at home, I drove back to Somerset to sit on Vin.

We schooled in the arena for ten minutes, we went out for a hack with Lotty for an hour – crossing a big, scary (and very deep!) ford in the process – and when we returned to the yard we went in to the showjumping arena and popped round a small course of 3′ (1m-ish).

And then I bought him.

The video is interesting for me to watch, it shows how far he and I have come; Vin is much more relaxed now than he is on the video, his head carriage is steady, his outline is better and he doesn’t show any resistance – but he’s keener to go on (although in the video you can see that he’s quite keen to go on anyway!).

But for the horsey person looking in who can assess a horse’s character… yep, he really is this nice.

🙂

Sorry about the poor quality of the video, it was my digicam!