r/Equestrian • u/Life-Memory9880 • 6h ago
Social How to surprise someone with a horse?
Looking for fun ideas! This will be his official first horse .
I am a lifelong horse person. I started dating my now husband when we were 18 and broke. He’d never even met a horse before me. In college I volunteered at barns and did anything with the possibility just to ride. My husband sacrificed his own hobby (soccer), to surprise me with my first part lease on a horse I loved when we were 20. When we were 24 and freshly married, he was fully supportive of our first ever horse. My horse dreams would have never been possible without him. And then about 2 years ago he surprised me again by informing me he’d been secretly taking riding lessons so we could go on an equestrian vacation (which was super fun by the way and he did amazing). Basically, I am so incredibly lucky to have such a supportive spouse.
Fast forward a few years, we are financially stable and own 2-3 horses at a time. I have a personal horse and then usually have 1-2 project horses that I get (usually) out of awful situations, keep for around 9 months to a year to recover, build back up, get vet care, and put some buttons on them before finding them homes. He’s so supportive and loves to come along but this is definitely my hobby. He has always talked about maybe eventually us finding him a horse so we can each have our own horse, but then backs down saying concerns about how he knows project horses are a hobby of mine and another permanent horse would decrease the horses I can have as projects at a time. Until, beginning of this year, the horse we got in, my husband adores. Oscar is this man’s whole world. he’s at the barn with me multiple times a week just to see and love on this horse. I’ll look up and he’s just bareback riding this horse all over the property, totally smitten. He got a little choked up a few weeks ago when he asked me when we were selling Oscar and that he respects that rehabbing horses and finding them forever horses is my passion, but this one (in his words) “is really going to hurt”.
On reflecting on it, I’ve decided to keep Oscar. We financially support 3 horses at a time generally, and going from 2 project horses to 1 at a given time is fine by me. I also enjoy Oscar, but I see just how much he and my husband have bonded. So, I want to do something cute to give him Oscar. Oscar is papered, so maybe signing over papers? A name plaque? A silly giant bow? We are taking Oscar and my horse trail riding to the river with friends next week, maybe something there? Any ideas I’d love! I know he’s going to be so tickled about the whole thing. This is his first horse and a hobby he’s supported me so much through and I want to make a big deal about this :)
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u/Turbulent-Trifle9012 5h ago
this is the cutest thing I've read all week omg
put a giant bow on Oscar at the river and hand him the lead rope with the papers rolled up inside the bow, maybe a little name plaque attached too. watching his face when he realizes Oscar is his would be priceless
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u/TIL_eulenspiegel 5h ago
I love this, just chiming in to follow the story! (And I also want to know which equestrian vacation you two chose!)
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u/Life-Memory9880 5h ago
We went on the Scottish Castle Trail ride through Equestrian Escapes! It was so fun!! He’d been taking lessons with my best friend/instructor once or twice a week for like 7 months. My whole barn was in on it so he could make sure he was taking lessons when I wouldn’t be there. It was a week long intermediate trip and he absolutely crushed it! I was so impressed! I’d wanted to do one (a bucket list thing) but when we go out he mostly rides trails together at the walk or he pokes around bareback on a horse so I just assumed that would be too much for him and a big ask to ask someone to get that consistent for it to be fun and safe for both of us. We were going to go to Europe because his biggest dream was a Europe trip. So I thought we were going to plan HIS dream trip, and then he surprised me by purposing we do HIS dream trip on horseback. It took me a long time to compute that he’d been secretly training for this haha.
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u/sweetbutcrazy Dressage 5h ago
I would put a big bow on Oscar and ask him to go check on his horse as casually as possible
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u/Hallmarxist 5h ago
So exciting! Congrats to you all. I love the silly giant bow idea. I especially love the name plaque because he would see it everyday and be reminded of this special moment.
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u/Natural_Swimmer2005 5h ago
My boyfriend asked me to go into the barn a few Valentine’s ago. I walked in a saw the mare id been pining over with a HUGE red bow around her neck. It was SO cute and sweet!
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u/Mean-Bandicoot-2767 5h ago
Maybe a heart shaped dog tag with your husband's name engraved and secretly put on the bridle in a way he can't miss it, so when he pulls it out of the trailer at the ride he can kick off the surprise?
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u/FarmSkool 1h ago
I’m thinking about that semi viral engagement trend (or was it just one post? 🤔) of a girl picking up the horse’s hoof and the proposal was there. What if you taped something under his foot and said to your hubby at the river. “oh my what is that?!”
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u/MamaOwlInGlasses Jumper 3h ago
I love this!!! Maybe a new halter nameplate and/or stall plaque for Oscar that says “owned by [husband’s name]”?
As an engagement photographer, I’m trying to think of some cute surprise you could come upon while trail riding (like a series of signs in the ground?) but most of the ideas I’m having would probably spook my horses so that wouldn’t be a great start… 🤣
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u/Illustrious_Stage351 4h ago
No one hate me, but I think this is a bad idea. Animals should never be a gift. What about if he can’t support this horse? I saw your comments about him taking lessons for a few months, but jumping straight to being responsible for a horse is a huge jump. Is he out enough to truly take care of Oscar? Kind of sounds like you’re using him as an excuse to get yourself another horse and burden him with the bills. Which, if you can afford is fine. But don’t make it sound like it’s a gift for someone else who’s not an experienced owner. Maybe ask him if he’s even interested, more lessons, and then see about it later
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u/Life-Memory9880 4h ago
Maybe I didn’t explain well. First, we already technically own this horse. So bills have been ours since February. But I’d consider this horse and all our horses mine at this point in time. So it may sound silly to others, but officially keeping him and officially the horse being his will be a big deal to him even though technically we already pay for and own this horse.
Second, I am still in the picture in both their lives. Hopefully forever,lol. So ownership will never been strictly on him to navigate. He may only come out a couple times a week, but I will continue to work on and with Oscar additional times a week. But I will be working on HIS horse and he’ll be a permanent member of our family :) it might be hard to explain, but it would not be me simply keeping another horse. This will be HIS horse, I’ll just be there to help make sure it’s all smooth
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u/sundaemourning Eventing 4h ago
i thought you explained it perfectly clear. and i think this is just the sweetest thing ever.
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u/icedfreakintea 5h ago
Reading the first part of this post I was thinking, get in a prospective horse you think he'd like, but call it a project and let him fall in love without the pressure. I love that thats how it already played out!
I think signing the papers into his name and maybe a stall name sign for Oscar would be a cute gift, (love the big bow idea too) and maybe a gift card or trip to a tack store/website for hubby to pick out a blanket, brushes, halter/lead, whatever goodies Oscar gets as his own now that hes a permanent resident.
If you want to be (a little bit) mean about it... You can lead in with "so, Oscar has a new owner now" then hand him the papers with his own name there 😅