Well we came home with a new horse on Saturday! We've been "casually" horse shopping for most of the year, looking for a quiet horse that would be suitable for a very small child or an inexperienced adult, without a giant price tag and without being too tall. Still ended up spending a little more than we wanted but I think Dexter will be a good fit. He has a very kind eye and is so quiet.
He's a 10-year-old AQHA gelding (pedigree). He's about 14.2 hands. A little butt high, but that's okay. Nothing too fancy on his papers but in this case, papers didn't matter much. Needed that quiet personality!
Now the sad side of the story .....
I went and tried him out on Wednesday night. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing and so I tried to get over their quick before it got dark. Overall, he rode good but he didn't stand still very well for mounting. Not a big deal; we can work on that.
Well, I suspect that THIS was the reason he didn't want to stand still... :eek_color:
I have never seen a horse with such bad saddle sores from the cinch! The boy poor.
And the dumb thing is, neither myself nor my mom saw them until we got him home and were brushing him up to go ride. Now, this picture was after we cleaned him up and took care of the wounds. They were NOT there when I rode him Wednesday night. I was holding my 5-month-old baby when we went to pick him up Saturday morning and my mom looked him over pretty good before we loaded him up. We missed it because the hair was matted around them and the seller had some sort of purplish wound ointment on them. You just couldn't see them against his black coat!!
So we were pretty disgusted when we got home and discovered the extent of the sores. Obviously, we won't be able to ride him with a saddle until they heal.
I just kinda had this "feeling" with Dexter of "please take me home and give me a good home!" He seems so sweet tempered so I still am glad we have him. He stood like a champ while we cleaned up his runny eyes, snotty nose, cinch sores, and scratched on his back white foot. Just needs some loving and attention!
Typical stereotype "cowboy" we bought him from. Sad thing is, we know the people so you'd think they'd take care of a horse.
Anyway, negative thoughts aside, Dexter has a new home!
He's a 10-year-old AQHA gelding (pedigree). He's about 14.2 hands. A little butt high, but that's okay. Nothing too fancy on his papers but in this case, papers didn't matter much. Needed that quiet personality!
Now the sad side of the story .....
I went and tried him out on Wednesday night. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing and so I tried to get over their quick before it got dark. Overall, he rode good but he didn't stand still very well for mounting. Not a big deal; we can work on that.
Well, I suspect that THIS was the reason he didn't want to stand still... :eek_color:
I have never seen a horse with such bad saddle sores from the cinch! The boy poor.
And the dumb thing is, neither myself nor my mom saw them until we got him home and were brushing him up to go ride. Now, this picture was after we cleaned him up and took care of the wounds. They were NOT there when I rode him Wednesday night. I was holding my 5-month-old baby when we went to pick him up Saturday morning and my mom looked him over pretty good before we loaded him up. We missed it because the hair was matted around them and the seller had some sort of purplish wound ointment on them. You just couldn't see them against his black coat!!
So we were pretty disgusted when we got home and discovered the extent of the sores. Obviously, we won't be able to ride him with a saddle until they heal.
I just kinda had this "feeling" with Dexter of "please take me home and give me a good home!" He seems so sweet tempered so I still am glad we have him. He stood like a champ while we cleaned up his runny eyes, snotty nose, cinch sores, and scratched on his back white foot. Just needs some loving and attention!
Typical stereotype "cowboy" we bought him from. Sad thing is, we know the people so you'd think they'd take care of a horse.
Anyway, negative thoughts aside, Dexter has a new home!