It was the end of the summer in 2014. My parents were on their trip to Italy. My trainer, Caity, and I were starting to look for a horse. Now at this time I had a horse and his name was Hank. I needed a horse that could jump higher and get me to higher levels. Caity and I started looking online for horses, preferably a thoroughbred. We narrowed it down to five horses and one of the main ones that we wanted to try out was Seattle. The whole time that we were looking for horses my parents were in Italy. I was so sad because I knew that I could not try any horse out until they got back. While they were in Italy, I sent them text messages and emails every day about the horses. I was telling them how much I wanted to try the horses out when they got back. My parents kept on saying that I just had to wait a little bit longer. I waited day after day for them to get home. Then the day finally came. It was Saturday, August 9, 2014.
           

It was a hot and sunny day. We thought it was just an ordinary day in Texas, but we did not know that that day was the day that I would fall in love with a horse. We went through the normal routine when trying out horses. Wake up in the morning all excited wondering how the day would be. Then make sure I have everything I need, meet Caity at the barn, get lost for a couple of minutes, pulling in, stomach churning, walking into the barn, meeting the owner and trainer, and then the moment came. I walked through the barn with the trainer telling me everything about the horse and then, I saw him standing there in the cross ties, ears perked wondering who I was. He was so pretty and sweet. He was a sixteen hand bay thoroughbred with a white scar on his hock. I could not wait to get on him. The only flaw he had in the cross ties, that we knew of, was that he was afraid of the fly spray, but we could work on that. He was all tacked up and ready to go and so was I. We walked out to the outdoor arena where they had some jumps set up and a mounting block. I was so eager to get on him, but I knew I could not because we had to wait for the trainer to ride him around a little bit. Then Caity got on him to see how he felt. She had some doubts about him, but who does not when they are looking at a new horse. She took him over a few jumps and he looked awesome. Then Caity got off and said,
           

“Are you ready? It's your turn.”
           

“Yep.” I said with not too much enthusiasm because I did not want to sound like a five year old. I felt so nervous but excited at the same time because I did not know how it would go. I walked over to him and petted him so he knew that I was there and about to get on him. I walked up the mounting block and got on. It felt a little weird at first, but it was normal because it was a new horse and a horse that I was not used to.
           

“Make sure your brakes work.”
           

“Ok.” I stopped my seat from moving and gave a little pressure with my hands and he halted. I reached down and petted him saying,
           

“Good boy.” and I asked him to halt again and again, and he did what I said every time.

We walked around the arena a couple of times doing transitions and changes of direction. The first time I started trotting, it was a little weird because Hank and Seattle's gaits were a little bit different. Hank was fast and Seattle was slow, which was probably the biggest difference, but I eventually got used to it. We went from walk to trot and trot to walk, changing direction along the way. We also did some leg yields to make sure he was moving off of my leg. Then we cantered. Now before we cantered I thought it would just be an ordinary canter; bumpy, long and strung out, weird, and uncomfortable. What to come next was something I did not expect. As I asked for the canter transition, it took him a second or two to get it instead of jumping straight into it, because he is lazy and slow, but he got it. When I got him up and going, I was amazed. His canter was so smooth and fun to ride. As we were cantering along I was smiling from ear to ear because I felt like I was on top of the world. If I ever forget how this day went, the one thing I would remember is how I was smiling when I was on him. Next we went over a couple jumps. First was a cross rail then a little vertical. The first jump was weird because he was not in front of my leg and I got thrown forward, but then we didn't it again and again and it got better and that was the end of us trying him in out. I was sad because I did not know if I could ride him again and I did not know how Caity would feel. After I finished washing him off, putting him in his stall, and giving him some treats, my mom and Caity said that we were leaving and that we were going to go to Quail Run on Tuesday to do some cross-country and see how he is there.
           

Tuesday came. Caity, my mom, and I met seattle and the trainer at Quail Run and when we pulled up, I saw seattle and he was already tacked up. Caity got on first again and warmed him up and took him over a couple of cross-country jumps. Then it was my turn to get on. I took him over a few jumps and felt great. He was so awesome and took great care of me. He never took off with me and listened to my aids. When we finished, I washed him off and tied him back up to the trailer. While I stayed back at the trailer with him, my mom and Caity talked to the trainer about bringing him home for a trial, but they would not let us. So Caity told her that we really liked him but since we could not take him home for a trial, we wanted to talk about it and let me sleep on it for a couple of days. We told her that we were going to look at a couple of more horses since Seattle was the first one we tried out. When Caity told me that we could not take him on a trial, I felt so gloomy because I wanted to see how he would do at home. She told me that we needed to talk about it.
           

“So what did you like about him?”, said Caity.
           

“Well I like how he did not take off and get heavy on his forehand.”I said
           

“Yea I agree, he was very light on the bit. What else did you like.”
           

“His canter is amazing! It is so smooth and fun to ride. It was even better on the cross-country course because when I asked him to hand gallop he did. Then when I asked him to come back to a collected canter he did immediately.                                                                            
            

“So what did you not like about him?”
            

“He is very lazy, but that can be fixed. There really is not anything else I did not like about him.”
            

“Yea, I agree. That will be the main thing to work on.”

The biggest problem was that he was the first horse we tried out. She told me that I needed to sleep on it for a little bit, but I knew that I did not have to because I knew that he was the one. Even though he was our favorite, we still tried out a couple of more horses but that was a bust. After we tried out two more horses and they were not good for me, we decided that Seattle was the one and we wanted to buy him. We called the trainer and told her that we wanted to buy him. Instead of my parents buying me a horse and just saying he is mine, I got to pay for some of him and it is more special.
           

It was a August 17, 2014 and it was time to take Seattle home. I was so excited and happy to take him home. When we tried him out I did not know what was to come, but when I got him I knew that it was a perfect match and he was going to be my future horse. I guess you could say “first time's a charm”.