Ben has a new home

I met a very nice prospective buyer named Lundie.  Saturday March 12th she came out to meet Ben.  She spent about 3 hours or so at my house.  I had an instant connection with her.  We went riding thru the woods and down the trails across from my house.  She fell in love with my horse and Ben responded well to her.  He is usually impartial to whoever is handling him, except for my husband who he is a bit wary around.  But Lundie more like me – has that gentle easy way about her and he picked up on that, as I did.

Lundie said she had another very well trained horse to go and look at Sunday and she would decide after that.  The other horse was a black Quarter Horse that was being deer hunted off of, which means he’s trained to stand while shooting a gun off his back – a horse with a lot of hours of training behind him.

She called me Sunday evening and told me that while the other horse was very impressive, she just didn’t feel an emotional connection with him, and she had fallen in love with Ben and his gentle ways.

So, she’s buying him and all of his tack.  She’s exactly the kind of person I was hoping to find for him.  I couldn’t have hand selected someone better.  She and one of her friends are coming up Friday to take him home.  I took the day off.  She has already made arrangements with her husband that if anything ever happens to her, Ben comes back to me.  She wants me to come and visit her as often as I like.  She and her husband don’t have any children (she’s 65) and since she spent so many years teaching college classes, she has “adopted” children all over the place and wants to bring me into the fold! :)

So, I’m very happy for both of them.  She’ll keep in touch with me and tell me stories about Ben.  I’m just sad for myself.  I’m imagining Friday and for awhile thereafter it will be hard for me.  Even in the past when I’ve moved Ben over to a pasture to graze, it killed me not to have him there every day.  He talks to me every morning and evening – really anytime he sees me, even if I’m just standing on the back porch.  And if I go outside and do anything in the yard he follows me from his paddock.  So I’ll miss him terribly.  But on the other hand, he’ll be loved and petted, and most of all – ridden.  It’s what he loves and what he was meant to do.  Plus he’ll be giving Lundie a freedom she’s never experienced, and judging by her character, it will be something she will cherish.  So, I know it’s the right thing to do.  L