Please, No More Road Trips

Really, I'm not enjoying this whole horse hunting thing.

"In the latest installment of Cindy Goes Horse Shopping, we follow our heroine as she coerces her husband into driving her 100 miles north of Los Angeles to a small town that barely registers on Mapquest."

Last night my husband and I could hardly sleep. Ron was concerned about getting on the notorious Southern California freeway system before dawn in order to avoid the usual bumper-to-bumper melee. I was simply too excited to sleep. I was so sure that several glorious trail riding prospects awaited me several hours away!

Well, I was wrong.

We drove through the pre-dawn darkness, hauling an empty trailer, certain that it'd return with cargo. I cradled an envelope of cash that represented my entire horse buying budget. I really felt that I'd researched the horses I was going to see: the photos were nice, the seller provided all kinds of details and, as an added bonus, they were a bit negotiable on the prices due to the lackluster market.

After almost 3 hours on the road, we arrived. Right away I knew I was going to be disappointed. I saw the two mares at the top of my list standing in a large dirt paddock and thought, "Oh no, that can't be them!"They really didn't look much like their photos. But we'd come all that way so I decided to remain optimistic.

When the two girls were pulled out of their paddock, it was obvious that the one mare was not much bigger than a large pony, so I didn't bother to ride her. The other was stout enough, but when I climbed onboard she was very uncomfortable at the lope. In an adjacent pasture was the one gelding I was interested in. He had a sweet face and carried himself like a sound, athletic horse that could really trek down the trails. But when I climbed in the saddle and tried to work him in the arena, he revealed an annoying tendency to fall in on the turns. Badly. Though I reasoned I could fix that with some arena work, there was no denying that this was not destined to be a love affair. I didn't want to spend my bundle of cash on him. I made a respectable offer, which the seller declined. So the trailer went home empty.

Once again I'll use the analogy of comparing horse shopping to dating. Today it was like going on a much anticipated blind date that fell far short of expectations. Wally's just going to have to be patient, because I'm not having much luck finding him a stable mate.