Riding Esmae

At long last, meet Esmae, who this blog is named after. Esmae is a gorgeous Arabian horse, and an Eqyptian Al Khamsa. That doesn't mean much to me....I bought her because it was love at first sight - hers. When she was six months old I was visiting a friend's horse at a local ranch, and Esmae saw me and started running back and forth and going nuts. She instantly caught my eye too, and we never could tear ourselves away from each other after that. I didn't want my first horse to be a baby Arabian who was not at all trained and had a LOT of spirit...but I was ready for a horse and none made the connection she did in that first instant. So, when she was eleven months old, she came home to be with me for the rest of her life.

She's very possessive of me and used to chase other horses away from me, even biting them. She's super competitive and likes to be first in any trail ride whenever she can manage it. She and I have had a lot of learning experiences together since I never trained a horse before and I am only an intermediate rider. She goes to trainers periodically to further her education, and she is doing wonderfully. I take her out to ride as often as I can, which is not nearly as often as I would like it to be. I like nothing better on this earth than riding with Esmae.

This is a picture of her tacked up for our morning ride this morning in Eagle, Idaho. We rode up to a rocky canyon and looked across at the hawks, the birds and the ground squirrels. It was a great ride and I look forward to the next one, though it will likely have to be a few weeks away due to another big work project I have to push through.