Riding Romeo

 Monday I test rode a bay gelding by the name of Romeo, who is being sold by an operation that resells unwanted horses. He is an older 18-year-old gelding that has competed in both hunters and eventing, reaching all the way to Preliminary level for eventing. Though he may be a bit old, he still can do a lot of jumping and has a lot of go left in. My parents and I didn't plan on getting him, but Meghan thought it would be good to ride different horses and build a portfolio of what I want in a horse.

 One of the people working there rode Romeo first, then Meghan, and finally me. When I rode him, I made a small circle in the huge arena. After getting a feel for his walk, I trotted him, switching directions after several circles. His tempo is consistent in both directions; I don't need to constantly adjust his speed, which is good. Next, I cantered him. heading left first. His canter isn't very hard to sit, though I had a little trouble stopping him when heading to the right. It's amazing how much go he has for his age.

After the ride

 Romeo seemed like a nice horse. He was friendly, his tempo was consistent, and he didn't at all act like he was old. However, there were some downsides that made us decide against him. He doesn't have papers, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that means that the only things we know about his history is what we were told: he raced a little, went to a hunter barn, then was sold to eventer. Somewhere along the line something bad must have happened to him because he came to the facility a bit swaybacked, caused by a long period of time not being worked, and underweight. The question is, why wasn't he worked for so long? He also has a trouble with one of his ears being touched when bridling, proving that he might have been mistreated at one point.

A cute face.

 I'm passing on this horse. In the mean time, the hunt for the right horse continues.