When Usko passed away I got this panicky feeling welling inside of me when I thought that there wouldn't be any horse waiting for me at the stables. I got a massive urge to check out the internet pages for any Finnhorses for sale in Sweden. There were two... Finnhorses are hard to find outside Finland. One was very close by us, and I contacted the seller. Didn't hear from her, and I assumed that he was sold (he was, I found out much later on). So, I asked after the second one, which was located as far south as possible in Sweden... The seller seemed ok with me, so I made a quick decision - only dithered for one day - and booked a flight to go and see him. I watched the videos of him several times over and knew how he moved and how he was ridden before. So, I had a pretty good idea of how he looked like before I flew over in the beginning of May.
We hit it off pretty well with the seller and just kept on chatting from the start. Pöly was with his two other pals in a paddock, but was easy to catch and didn't mind to be alone in the stable to be tacked up and taken to the grass school. He had not been ridden for a while, so I suggested to lunge him a little bit at first before riding to see how he was. That went fine, he was tuning into me totally fine and was under control.
Then the seller rode him first. And then I got on... and almost panicked! Oh my, he was just so totally different to Usko!! Narrower and smaller, but had a huge stride nonetheless. I had no balance.. my legs felt like they were dangling freely... I felt that he felt my inner panic and was startled himself as well. Only for a minute mind you, outwardly he was totally fine since I didn't pull on him or show my own panic in my body either... But that is why I was walking and walking and walking as long and low as possible... for a long time. To gain confidence that he was not going to take off with me or dump me on the ground. And to gain my own balance with him.
Of course he did not even think of taking off or dumping me and he was very well schooled to light aids. I just needed to connect with him. And we did. He relaxed into long and low, we trotted for a bit and he relaxed eventually to that as well. He didn't have any topline muscles, so trotting was a bit difficult and cantering without a strong hand to lean on was nearly impossible. But I had seen the videos and he could move fine when he had had more muscles. Even though the seller and I had totally different riding styles, he was smart enough to adapt rather quickly, so I was very pleased. It didn't matter that the trot was difficult and I could just about get him cantering, he was adapting, wanted to listen to me and was tuned into my aids.
Before I jumped off him, I knew that he's for me - wasn't sure of the husband though... I knew that he would freak out during his first ride... and was afraid that Pöly would do the same, since the man tends to grip when he freaks out causing possible freaking out in the horse as well. Plus Pöly was a bit small for his liking for sure. Nevermind, this was the one horse for me. The seller was a bit taken aback when I said on our way back to the stable that "ok, I'd like to buy him if you think it's ok for you to sell him to me". And she was a bit shaken when I suggested that she'd phone a vet there and then to come and do a check... It was a bit fast for her perhaps. Well, we signed contracts and agreed on price and so on and so forth. We both couldn't quite believe it went so fast, but it felt good, so why not.I flew back home. The vet checked him the following week and found him to be totally fine for the purpose ('hobbyhorse'). In the meanwhile we were very busy getting everything ready for him at this end. And he was transported to us here less than two weeks later. He hopped off the truck a bit dazed and disoriented, but totally fine in the late evening of the 20th May.
So, meet Pöly, our new charmer:
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