This is Bones. He was my 23rd birthday present to myself because I’m slightly insane. He is a 12 year old off track thoroughbred and had a pretty rough beginning. He was bred in Michigan and raced when he was 3 & 4 years old (Can’t Miss This was his racing name). Someone bought him straight off the track and let him stand starving in a field for a while. He almost went to slaughter, but my trainer bought his poor skinny self and brought him home. She nursed him back to health and called him “Bones” for obvious reasons. He was used as a lesson horse for a few years which is how I fell in love with him.
A couple years after I started riding him, my trainer sold him. I was heartbroken and asked her to keep track of him so I could buy him down the line. Almost a year passed, and the people who bought Bones ignored my trainer’s advice about how to care for him. He apparently became extremely difficult to work with and the girl who owned him was afraid of him. They put him up for sale. Luckily for me, in the time he was gone, I had gotten a better paying job and my trainer negotiated a great deal for me. I bought him and never looked back. Now, he is spoiled rotten. His favorite food is Twizzlers which I buy about 20 pounds at a time. That’s why he follows me around like this:
As for being difficult, he still can be from time to time, but that’s true of any horse. The key as a rider is to figure out how to work with that. Even on our bad days (AKA the days I eat dirt) I love this guy to pieces. And for his part, he can be a stinker for me, but he always takes care of my friends and my husband. He knows how to be a good boy when it’s important.
Also, shout out to Alaina, the wonderful high school senior who comes out to ride Bones the days I can’t and gets him to do way more cool stuff than I have the balls for! You gotta love someone who appreciates your quirky horse as much as you do!