 Elite Veteran
Posts: 899
  
Location: Idaho | I guess I have formed a bit of anxiety of the past few years. I used to have 3 horses, now I am down to one. (one passed away, the other one I sold.) But I guess because the one I sold, I got royally SCREWED. I was told he was a 2D barrel Horse and a smoking pole horse. They showed me video's. He was a friend of a friend, I trusted my friend and my friend trusted her, so I said.. alright, I can do this. AND she came with a list of good references. So I said, sure! Could the horse run barrels? Yes. Could the horse run poles? Yes. I tried him on both and he did great. He was a little underweight, no problem. But what I didn't expect was.. The horse was blown up, which I found out about a month after I bought him. He had really bad ulcers. He needed a chiro. He needed his teeth done. If you put him in a situation he didn't want to be in, he would take off running.. and you couldn't stop him, until I threw a pretty big bit on him.. then he listened to a point. He would try to run you up fences If you took him to a barrel race, and if you got him to turn to the pattern.. he would stop dead in his tracks at the first barrel. I seriously think somebody starved him at one point, because he would eat his good like he would didn't know when he was getting his next meal. That calmed down after a while too. But I rehabbed him and retrained him, to the point where I could ride him in a snaffle and would have no issues. I treated him for his ulcers(which made a huge difference in his behavior), took good care of him and kept him for two years before I sold him. He was a pretty boy, outside the barrel pen he WAS a nice horse. He was an amazing trail horse. Once he got all fixed up, he was 15.3 1100 lbs. Nothing spooked him. But he wasn't a barrel horse, and that's what I paid for. That's what I was told he was. I put my faith in someone, and they lied to me. So yes.. I have anxiety, because now.. I don't know if people are being honest or not. Especially with the way the horse economy is, people will say whatever they want to get rid of a horse. Just makes me extremely weary.
I would really like to get a second one, something more further along but my baby.. which is not so much a babe anymore (he's 5) is now coming along real nice. And it comforts me to know that I raised him, that I know he doesn't have any problems, that he doesn't have any issues, that he hasn't been beat, he hasn't been abused, he doesn't have ulcers, he hasn't been ran into the ground and I just know how he is. I think if I were to get another horse, as much as I want an older one.. Unless I -know- the horse, and the people who are selling them, and know they are taking care of them, I think I'd just want to raise another baby. Because at least then.. I know what I am getting.
Edited by DashNDustem 2016-08-09 8:47 PM
|
Folks on-line