But it may be the latter that will prove the most difficult as she, with the help of HorseHand’s Jodie Kelvy, finished training ‘Dude’ and the time to say goodbye is fast approaching.
In December last year Colleen bought Dude at a sale where it seemed no one was interested in buying him.
‘‘He’s come from a drought-affected area. He was in the ridden section and I’d seen him the day before but I thought he’d end up too much money for me,’’ Colleen said.
‘‘Then there were two women arguing over a $20 bid.
‘‘I thought ‘this horse is going to go for dog meat’, I asked Jodie what she thought and she said ‘well, he’s in the ridden section and hasn’t thrown anyone off’.
‘‘So I put my bid in and got him — he’s young and he’s a gorgeous fellow.’’
And so, after hours of walking around the sale and finalising their list of horses to buy, Jodie and Colleen bought the one they hadn’t even considered, the four-and-a-half year old, 15.3 hand son of an Appaloosa thoroughbread cross.
But it paid off.
‘‘This wasn’t the original horse she’d picked, it just happened — it was like a gift,’’ Jodie said.
‘‘In the round yard his head was up and his eyes were open, he looked really wild and so no one was really interested in him. In a spur of the moment we went ‘yep, it’s that one’.
‘‘You look at this horse and think how could he have just been left (at the sale) these horses are just unwanted because people don’t understand them. They want a trained horse but they don’t want to work him.
‘‘He’s a really laid-back horse, he wants to do as little as possible and so he won’t do more than you ask for.
‘‘I like that in a horse and it’s good for people who aren’t familiar with horses.’’
On the first night Dude was in the HorseHand paddocks, he’d already broken out for a midnight snack yet didn’t run away.
After 10 days of tutelage under the watchful eye of Jodie, Colleen is now ready to auction Dude off to his forever home, with the proceeds donated to Community Living and Respite Services’ Opening Doors project.
Colleen said she would like to thank the following local businesses for their support:
Garage Doors R Us, Ray White Echuca, Metaland, Sun River Home Park, Laser Plumbing, H&A Kent Property Maintenance, AustClean Echuca, Doms Tree Service, Campaspe Glass, Peats Office Equipment. Nu Manz Embroidery for all embroidery, including Dude’s rug, a rain sheet rug donated by PETStock Echuca and a $100 voucher donated by WB Hunter Echuca.
Dude will be auctioned off by Ray White Echuca director Lynn Hall on Sunday, February 3 at 11am at HorseHand. Colleen said Dude was a gentle, sensible and eager to learn horse who would be best suited for a therapy horse.
One condition of the sale is that the future owner will attend a training session in Sixth Sense Horsemanship with Jodie from HorseHand.
To view Dude prior to auction, call Colleen on 0400696898.