Zillennial Friend

So, for clarity, I'm just coming back from a quick trip to Los Angeles. I'm notoriously bad a preparing for vacations. Last minute packing meant that 1) I didn't schedule any posts for this week, and 2) the one post that I did schedule for last week went up with no pictures. Oops . . .

Back in January, I was attending the monthly fireside chat with Young Black Equestrians. One of the attendees mentioned that there was a mustang adoption event coming to Okeechobee in late February. Now, I'm certainly not in a position to buy a horse right now, even if the mustangs go as cheap as $25. Despite that, it seemed like a cool event to attend. I texted my girlfriend almost immediately.

Spoiler alert: she didn't get me a horse either :(

I let Trainer T know in passing and figured she might want to go just out of curiosity. Word got around, and the group of adult women in my trainer's program were all interested in attending.

Let me rewind for a moment though. The first time we went to Saturday Night Lights at WEF, we met up with one of Trainer T's friends (and student), M. One thing to know about M: she's the queen of snacks. Pumpkin seeds, lemon cookies, Nutella pretzels, fig bars, Reese's cups . . . you name it, she has it. Anyways, she mentioned that she lost her "millennial friend" recently because they moved to a different state and how she needs a new one to keep the youthful energy in her life. And because I'm sitting right there (and also very young), I, of course willingly hopped into the roll. I am, however, not a Millennial. I'm a "cusper", right on the line of Millennial and Gen Z. My age range has been dubbed Zillennials: all the perks of being a Millennial with a dash of Gen Z's dry humor. It's the ongoing existential crisis of Millennials mixed with Gen Z nihilism. The anxiety is palpable.

The quality of Zillennials is that we're enablers . . . or maybe that's just a "me" quality, but I refuse to take any personal responsibility on that and will, instead, blame it on my birth year. Just because I am not interested in buying a horse, doesn't mean I can't convince someone else to get one.

I spent a couple weeks compiling info. The goal was to build off of my trainer's success with Destello and find a horse with a similar demeanor. I knew immediately that they should look at where Elisa Wallace's Fledge and Rune came from. They're Nevada born, but I couldn't find the exact herd, so I put down Nevada and Oregon as preferred points of origin. It was also worthwhile to find something that was a little flashy in color. The bigger, the better. No mares. Not crazy requirements by any means, but strict enough that it narrowed down the pool significantly.

The group ended up going on a Friday when I had work. I didn't hear anything the day before, day of, and even day after. I just figured they didn't find anything that meet the criteria.

And then this cute face appeared on Saturday afternoon!

He's a 2.5 year old gelding from Nevada. No name yet, but we're going for things NV themed. Everyone was sold at the adoption event by how calm and friendly he was, despite being wild up until maybe six months ago. Guys, this horse is so cuddly. Like, obnoxiously interested in people and getting attention. He's also big, at least for a Mustang. At his age, he's already close to Destello's height. The focus now is gaining trust and making sure he's comfortable around people. Then the real training can begin.

His first, official thoughts on carrots