Everyone Needs Another Horse

I have a chance to buy an untrained 3 year old. I love the way this horse moves and she gets along great with the horse I have now. I've been working with her for about a month. It's not the best time for me to buy a second horse, but as the title points out, everyone needs another horse. I started out very neutral about the horse. I'm worried about the money it will cost to keep her, in addition to the purchase price. On the other hand, she would be a great horse to replace my aging gelding, who turns 19 in March. I would be responsible for her training. That takes a lot of time and patience, not just a lot of money. And I am not ready to retire Jimmy yet.

On top of all of this, my husband and I are about to close on 17.83 acres in a few weeks, so we are putting out a ton of cash for that. I don't really have the cash around to buy this new horse, but I am sure I could scrape it together. It's being able to scrape together the monthly costs that is a bit of a concern. I know it can be done, but do I want to do that? Will my husband silently be mad at me for putting our money to another horse? Silently? Probably not. I did already tell the owner that I didn't think I could afford to buy her. I offered her a lowish price -- she didn't say no, but she didn't accept it either. So I am still working with the horse until March. And I feel myself coming a bit attached to her, and that scares me. I like the idea of owning her. I like the idea of competing with her. I think she would be a great horse. Can she be MY great horse??

A Picture's Worth A Million Words

Hopefully the final post on the infamous pet portrait saga. Finally the substitute photographer called me back. I only had to leave a million voicemails and be as sweet-sounding as I could be to convince her I wasn't out to sue her. Once she called -- leaving a message on my home phone at an hour that I likely wouldn't be available to answer -- she was apologetic and confessed she wanted to do anything to please us. She'd give us another sitting for free. All we wanted was some reprints of another shot that was at least frameable and giftable and to get on with our lives. We weren't about to go for another sitting. No way. We didn't want to do any other business with this person. So now we are waiting the 6 or whatever weeks it takes for her to get reprints done. Supposedly it will be mailed directly to our home. I'm not totally confident that we'll get what we think we will, but all I can do is wait.

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