Indy’s Post

Since my first two rides have been on Indy, I figured I could give you all a little more background on her.

Indy is my first horse. When I came back to Feather Run Farm, she was there. Bethany and Becky bought her off the track when she was three or four, and she was trained for all the time she was there. She started six times racing in Indiana, failing every time. It was evident she did not enjoy racing. I met her in the paddock, and when I walked back down the barn aisle I saw her for sale ad on the bulletin board. I pointed it out to my mom almost sarcastically but somehow feeling like someday it may work. Reasonably, she shrugged it off. I wasn’t surprised, and it didn’t phase me, so I moved on.

Throughout my days of riding back at Feather Run, my confidence turned from down-the-drain to the best it’s ever been. In the process, despite my dreams and whimsies, buying a horse (especially Indy) became completely off the board. And yet, as I went through with my first lease, I talked to my mom and my trainer, spilling my daydreams about owning a horse. I forgot who said it, but one of them said “Who knows. Maybe your horse is on this farm right now.”

Eventually, both myself and my mom were feeling very confident in the saddle. We went online and bought a green rope halter. As she pulled it out of the box, she said that the halter would hang in our house until there was a horse that belonged to us to wear it. I was enthralled and excited beyond belief that we were actually going to buy a horse. But the way she said it hinted that this said horse was going to be far in the future. It was funny that this horse was in the paddock right in my own barn the whole time.

I had wanted a horse for my entire life. Even if I didn’t know, my parents knew when I was small that owning a horse would never happen. None of my parents ride or were involved in the horse business at all, although my mom took lessons as a kid. The next best thing was taking lessons, but that never happened either. I didn’t know why, and I sat, jealous and horseless, until I started taking lessons in sixth grade. The stereotype is that all good riders grew up in the horse business, but I consider myself an exception to that stereotype (but that’s a story for another day).

Back to Indy. It was in January of 2018 when it started becoming a possibility. Defying all odds, mama came to me and said, “Let’s go look at Indy!”

When I met Indy in the paddock again, this time actually convinced that she may be a possibility, I instantly fell in love. She was only five years old, and green as grass. I was still a novice rider. Every reasonable fiber of my being said that buying a green off-track-thoroughbred probably wasn’t the best fit for me, but after touching her sweet nose and her baby silk young-horse coat, all my doubts went instantly down the drain. Indy was perfect.

(Pictures that we took on that day)