by Shelley Peterson

Created on: February 12, 2009

I grew up in Vancouver and always had a passion for horses but could never afford to have one. Eventually, in my adult years, I was able to purchase my first horse. My husband took me to my first horse auction eight years ago. He took me out back to check out the horses and pick a few that I thought I might like. I was looking for a well-trained horse but found myself ending up at this yearling's stall over and over again. I would tell him, "I don't need you. I need a well trained older horse." I think I was trying to convince myself of this.

Anyway, the auction started and there were some beautiful horses I'd begun to bid on but was always out bid. I was beginning to think that I wasn't going to be able to get one this time around. That's when it happened. We were sitting in the balcony over the door the horses would come into the arena from. All of a sudden this little yearling came through and my stomach knotted up. I turned to my husband and told him, "You'd better give me ceiling on what I can spend or I'm just going to keep going."
He never did give me a limit on this one so I kept bidding until I got him.

We got him to the farm and that's when his personality really started showing. He quickly took a liking to the farm cats and dogs.
When we'd go check the fields the dogs would follow the truck and Raider would get all upset, whinny and follow on his side of the fence as far as he could go. He would watch, wait and make a big fuss when we came back. So we decided to let him out with us to see what he would do. He would follow us behind the truck with the dogs. It was like he was a big dog. This was cute but not the funniest thing I'd seen.

It was a beautiful summer day and my brother-in-law had made some homemade wine. Raider was still wandering around the yard with the dogs and cats. My husband and his brother were chatting across the box of the truck and my husband's plastic cup of wine was sitting on the edge of the truck box when Raider decided to walk over and visit. The guys didn't think too much of it and kept talking.
That's when Raider decided that he should have some wine too. Before my husband realized what was going on Raider had grabbed his cup and down the wine dropping the cup into the box of the truck. My husband was stunned and I couldn't help busting a gut laughing. He immediately started for my brother-in-law's side of the truck eyeing his wine cup. My brother-in-law grabbed his cup just in time. Raider looked dejected and went to sniff on the dogs. Ever since we've had to keep a close eye on our drinks.
Raider is now 9 years old and we still have to be careful where we put our drinks when we're around him.

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