When Harry met Sally....

Nova is not my first horse.  He is actually my 9th horse.  And so by the time I was looking for Nova, I knew a few things about what I wanted in a horse.

1.  He needs to be low to the ground so that in the event of an emergency dismount, I am not too far up.

courtesy worldnomads.com

2.  He mustn't be wild or I would be disowned by husband.

courtesy zazzle.com

3.  He must be sound and sturdy.

courtesy barnmanagerblog.blogspot.com

4. He must have a good sense of humor.

courtesy images.mitrasites.com

So I did pretty good on 1, 3 and 4 when I found the semi feral 8 year old Haflinger in a field at the breeder's and immediately knew he was THE ONE.  

Under the initially yak-like appearance, all I could see was my dream pony.  Husband sees hairy feral donkey. First words out of husband's mouth: "Can you take him back?!?"

courtesy cargocultcraft.com

Convinced husband that we could not return him.  Also promised profusely that I would not die and that he would be a really good horse. Eventually.

Here's what we started with:

Here's 4 years later:

And... I'm still alive and still married.  I guess sometimes things just work out. :)