I'm kind of new here, but not new to horses.
I started taking riding lessons with a friend-of-a-friend who lived on a ranch when I was 9. When I was 11, my dad bought a 17 year old grade. This horse was very, very sweet. I rode him alot as a little kid. We didnt ride him one winter, and my dad had me show my grandma i could ride. I could tell Jimmy was barn sour, and told my dad. He said, "Nonsense! Make him canter so Grandma can watch." Well..Jimmy cantered..then galloped..down the road, towards the barn. It was thanksgiving day, and I, the 11 year old, rode screaming down the road, with Jimmy's head back by my foot in the stirrup. I eventually got him stopped. But was very shaken. Didn't ride again for a very long time.
That horse died of cushings several years later.
For my 13 birthday, I got to pick out my own horse. The one I picked…was drugged when I test rode him. He became completely different, frequently bucking once we got home. A vet exam and opinion later it turned out it wasn’t his fault: He was proud cut which didn’t help. Sold that horse to a cowboy who could stay on him.
We began frequenting a horse auction not too far from where we lived.
We bought a paint pony for my little sister, mostly as a lawn ordament..Turns out she was a broodmare, and wasn’t terribly rideable.
We also bought a 4 year old paint gelding at the auction SWEET AS COULD BE, EASIEST HORSE TO RIDE. WE loved him..right up until the third time he coliced, and he had to be put down.
My dad bought another paint from a guy who was desperate to sell. This horse was 6 yrs old. And huge. He had a habit of bolting..and eventually bucked my dad in the middle of no where, and he couldn’t really walk for a week.
Those horses went back to an auction. At the same auction, we picked up a very old, sweet half dead mare for my sister. I got a 2 year old mustang filly out of insanity. I also bought at the same auction an 19 year old Arab mare (I had always, always wanted an Arab). She was broke, and really sweet. But soon after getting her she started dropping weight. Teeth floating and adding Equine senior to her diet didn’t help. She died of cancer in my lap 10 months later. The vet who did the euthanasia said she had probably had it longer than we’d had her, and the lady who sold her to me at auction just didn’t want to see her die.
I’m 19 now, and TO this day we still have the mustang filly, and Im thinking about getting another horse, as a project for the days I don’t have college classes. I really, really REALLY want another arab. I want a horse I can take in an arena and run around with…But Im also scared. Scared that it seems the only horses people sell are either sick, or problems no one wants to deal with.
Are all horses like this? DO ALL HORSES BOLT? Or have we just had some bad apples, and unhealthy ones?
I started taking riding lessons with a friend-of-a-friend who lived on a ranch when I was 9. When I was 11, my dad bought a 17 year old grade. This horse was very, very sweet. I rode him alot as a little kid. We didnt ride him one winter, and my dad had me show my grandma i could ride. I could tell Jimmy was barn sour, and told my dad. He said, "Nonsense! Make him canter so Grandma can watch." Well..Jimmy cantered..then galloped..down the road, towards the barn. It was thanksgiving day, and I, the 11 year old, rode screaming down the road, with Jimmy's head back by my foot in the stirrup. I eventually got him stopped. But was very shaken. Didn't ride again for a very long time.
That horse died of cushings several years later.
For my 13 birthday, I got to pick out my own horse. The one I picked…was drugged when I test rode him. He became completely different, frequently bucking once we got home. A vet exam and opinion later it turned out it wasn’t his fault: He was proud cut which didn’t help. Sold that horse to a cowboy who could stay on him.
We began frequenting a horse auction not too far from where we lived.
We bought a paint pony for my little sister, mostly as a lawn ordament..Turns out she was a broodmare, and wasn’t terribly rideable.
We also bought a 4 year old paint gelding at the auction SWEET AS COULD BE, EASIEST HORSE TO RIDE. WE loved him..right up until the third time he coliced, and he had to be put down.
My dad bought another paint from a guy who was desperate to sell. This horse was 6 yrs old. And huge. He had a habit of bolting..and eventually bucked my dad in the middle of no where, and he couldn’t really walk for a week.
Those horses went back to an auction. At the same auction, we picked up a very old, sweet half dead mare for my sister. I got a 2 year old mustang filly out of insanity. I also bought at the same auction an 19 year old Arab mare (I had always, always wanted an Arab). She was broke, and really sweet. But soon after getting her she started dropping weight. Teeth floating and adding Equine senior to her diet didn’t help. She died of cancer in my lap 10 months later. The vet who did the euthanasia said she had probably had it longer than we’d had her, and the lady who sold her to me at auction just didn’t want to see her die.
I’m 19 now, and TO this day we still have the mustang filly, and Im thinking about getting another horse, as a project for the days I don’t have college classes. I really, really REALLY want another arab. I want a horse I can take in an arena and run around with…But Im also scared. Scared that it seems the only horses people sell are either sick, or problems no one wants to deal with.
Are all horses like this? DO ALL HORSES BOLT? Or have we just had some bad apples, and unhealthy ones?