Starting up (again)

So I mentioned in my first post that I'm a re-rider.  What that means is way back when, I used to ride as much as I could and absorbed everything thrown at me, then had a long period of no riding where I lost all that tone and muscle memory.  I had a few periods of getting back into riding, but was doing another hiatus when my friend T. found a lady who gives lessons.  She invited us out to check out the barn before jumping into lessons (point in her favor).  T. had no formal lessons and in fact only rode a few times, but her dream was horseback archery and I couldn't really say no to that.  T. wanted me to come along to the barn since I had more experience and could spot any red flags.

We pull up to a barn that has a house on the property, geese, chickens, dogs, ducks, and guinea fowl.  Good de-spooking material, there.  Unfortunately, when we get out we see C, the trainer, leading a filly with a huge gash going from her chest to her shoulder.  Apparently she found her in the paddock with no signs of how she managed to do that.  T, being a nursing assistant, and myself, with no qualms about blood/gore, watched while the vet cleaned the filly up and stitched her wound.  Fortunately no muscle was damaged and it was located in a good spot to drain.  It was good to see that C. had a good attitude in an emergency. 

We do take a look around the barn and I like what I see.  Large paddocks for the horses to move around on, no halters left on them, plenty of shelter and rolling terrain to get exercise.  Also some cows in another paddock, so there's even more things for a horse to get used to.  They have a variety of breeds, from appy ponies to fancy warmbloods.  We find out that C. used to rescue racehorses, give them time off and then train them up to find homes until the price suddenly skyrocketed on them once breeders/resellers figured out they could get more money from people who wanted to help keep racehorses out of killbuyer's hands.

We meet Flash, the beginning lesson pony who is a rather rotund Appaloosa gelding.  He was C.'s show pony and was the "been there, done that" go-to guy for beginners and assessing skill.  Since Flash knew everything and was lazy as hell, he was great for beginners and re-riders like myself who needed a kick in the butt on getting back some riding muscle.  More on that later...