There are good days and bad days working horses.  It’s always the great days that no one sees and there’s no evidence of.  I am beyond lucky to have 2 very special, talented horses to work even if no one sees their best days but me. Ideally, their best days would be at a show, in front of God and Country and everyone else, but alas, we are rarely that lucky.

As an AOT,  it’s been a very difficult road (with a stint somewhere in the middle where I just about gave up) but I have learned a lot in 10 years. People have asked me how I do it.  Well, honestly, I didn’t know I had another choice. I can’t afford $2,000-$3,000 a month for professional training (the going rate here in KY is between 1,000 and $1,500 per horse). This doesn’t include any farrier, vet, or other needs. It’s also well above what we pay for our mortgage so… yeah. We are not in a financial position to pay more for horse training than we do for a home to live in.

When you don’t have money but you have work ethic and an undying stubbornness inside of you that refuses to give up, you can create your own 5 figure horses out of next to nothing. Granted, they may not be the best of the best, they may not ever be world champions, they won’t win every class they are entered in, but they are FUN. They are (Mostly) SAFE. They are talented. And if I were to go out and purchase horses of this quality at their current training levels, they would NOT be cheap. Even with their quirks.

$500 horse on left, “free” horse on right. However, just because they didn’t cost much up front doesn’t mean they haven’t cost. They have both had a LOT invested into them. They are worth every ounce of frustration, financial hardship, time, and sanity that I have invested into them.