Linda Eskin's Personal Site

Cooper...

Update - June 2001 - Cooper spent 3 happy years with Christi (below), giving lessons, doing trail rides. Now he has a new human - Brittany - who adores him and gives him kisses on his nose. He will be moving out of state with Brittany and his new mare buddy.

We got Cooper as an almost-four-year-old gelding. He is a beautiful, talented horse, but was too much of a handful for us. We had a few injuries (no permanent lameness, thank goodness), a few new dents in the horse trailer, and entirely too much time spent on just trying to manage him. He was clearly not cut out to be a backyard pet kind of horse. He now has a much better home with our riding instuctor, Christi (shown in the photos), who is working with him and showing him.

He's actually good natured, and a wonderful horse to ride, but everything else is like trying to get a little kid to sit still in church. Classic mistake - new horse owners buy young, energetic Arabian. We finally decided to get him a more appropriate home before we or he got hurt, and before we ruined him through inexperience.

Here is Christi showing him at Willow Glenn stables in the San Diego Area. She's doing very will with him and he is enjoying the activity at her large barn with lots of turnout time, trail rides, and helping out as her horse to ride while she gives lessons (one of the arenas is 1-1/2 acres, so riding along with the student is better than standing in the center, shouting). The last time I took a lesson with Christi and Cooper, she was riding him in a halter and leadrope, bareback, and he was doing great - she even called him a push button horse.

I've been taking riding lessons from Christi (weather and time permitting). If you are in the San Diego area, I recommend her. She's a good communicator, safety minded, and has the happiness and health of the horse and rider as top priorities. She's been especially helpful with basic newbie horsekeeping issues - not just riding.