New Horses....

After my lesson with Rosso, a woman from WY brought her 8 yr old, green broke, TB/Dutch Warmblood cross mare to get some video. The mare hadn't had anything done for a year other than farrier work, vaccinations etc. She loaded, trailered in from WY, had never been to Rex's arena. She unloaded nicely, walked calmly on the lead around the arena... the blanket came off and she was turned loose.

She calmly walked around the arena, walked up to people for attention...the owner had to chase her around a bit with the lunge whip... even then, she mostly trotted... galloped a couple times... once the chasing stopped, she would walk up back up to the people to be with them. No snorting, no bucking, nothing you might expect from a horse touched for the first time in a year let loose in a new place. She seemed perfectly at ease, confident and relaxed.

She isn't papered. She has a lovely topline, very nice conformation... she moves wonderfully and could certainly do any work asked of her. She is 15.2 or 15.3. Dark bay... asking price $4,500. Rex thinks I could get her for $4,000.

Man.

I was/am really tempted. I was really impressed with her demeanor combined with her ability... and the price... I liked that she was smaller....

However.

I have a hard enough time finding time (especially in winter) for my two riding horses. I'm just getting over brain bugs with Rosso who is also a green broke 8 yr old.

However, he is a big scardey cat which is what my brain bugs get going about and this mare was so calm and handled everything with ease. I can tell you when I take Rosso to a new arena, it will NOT go so well. It's not that I'm projecting, it's just absolutely not his personality to take things that much in stride.

If I didn't have Rosso, I'd scoop this mare up quickly. I really did like her that much.

But I do have Rosso and in this market... well. I have Rosso. He's a good boy and pleasant to have around, I'm not going to unload him - but man. I really, really liked that mare's temperament in combination with the rest. She is still green broke which means I'd have much work in front of me.

After my trials and tribulations with Rosso I had sworn off the green horses and I keep saying my next one will be broke and ready to go.

Big sigh for reality.

Speaking of new horses....

My neighbor who watches me with binoculars? Mrs. Kravitz? (she watches everyone with binoculars...it's not just me)

She lives behind this family... this family is directly to the East of our house. This family is not really the smartest family when it comes to animals. They had horses in their pasture once with a sagging fence held together with a mish mosh of hay bale twine, barb wire, rotted wood posts, t-posts, smooth wire... sort of whatever they could find. The fence was low enough in areas for me to step over without effort. The pasture is weedy and sparse. There is no shelter. There is trash and debris in the pasture. Their horses routinely got out and would run screeching up and down the roads.

One night when their horses got out, my 2 yr old Holsteiner colt, the one that I'd saved up to buy by working 2 jobs for years, tried to jump our fence. He didn't make it and injured himself so badly we had to put him down.

I wasn't so pleased when three horses, two weanlings and an older mare, showed up in this family's pasture.

They are owned by someone else. He came over and patched the fence a little better than it was before. The horses haven't gotten out. Not yet anyway.

He comes and throws hay to them once a day. The weanlings have large bellies and look wormy. They all need their feet trimmed...they aren't starving or completely neglected. They have water and feed once a day. Anyone with horses in this family's pasture is a dumbass, in my book, anyway.

The guy shows up and tries to get the weanlings to come to him... they are leery and don't come to him. He chases them around the pasture... stops... tries to get them to come to him and when they don't he throws sticks or rocks at them and stomps off.

Shrug.

It's not really the best situation by a long shot.

What's this have to do with Mrs. Kravitz?

Well, she's been looking off and on for another horse. Her two horses have had lameness issues. She hasn't found anything because she doesn't want to pay very much money and she wants a horse that is dead broke, trained in basic dressage and 100% sound. She thinks by offering a good home someone would give her a free horse or a horse for less money.

She's been watching the debacle in the neighbor's pasture and in the last cold snap, she marched over, paid the man $700 for one of the foals. She took the one she liked the best and she called to tell many at the barn we all ride at. She says she couldn't take it anymore - watching them suffer.

Mostly everyone gave a large, collective groan.

Mrs. Kravitz wants to ride at Third Level by the time she's 65, yet she won't listen to the instructors or judges or clinicians. She has a different answer for why her horses won't do what they need to do to progress and she's sort of her own worst enemy. It's not that she can't physically do the work...it's that she gets in her own way and will never really progress because of this.

So when she brought home this horse... no one saw much good coming out of it.

Mrs. Kravitz was over the moon about the little horse. She begged me to come look at it... she showed me how she can hug it around it's neck, kiss it's nose, lead it around and how she's taught it to stay. The weanling left behind was calling and calling... I asked if Mrs. Kravitz was bothered by it. She told me no - that one is a spitfire and it bites. She didn't feel bad it was left in the pasture and she didn't feel bad for the older horse because it wasn't a baby.

The next week the farrier came out.

The farrier told her the little horse was a conformational train wreck. He said the other weanling in the pasture had straight legs and was the better horse of the two.

She asked me if I wanted the horse she rescued for free.

*cough* No.

Now she tells me she feels so bad for the other little horse. She didn't feel bad last week.

And here I had sort of convinced myself... well, if she wants to save a horse and have a pet... so be it. Heck, we just brought home a "mutt" puppy that needed a home at Christmas time, who was I to judge?

Turns out tho' she didn't really want to save a horse... looks like she wanted a cheap, young horse that might turn into a star riding horse. Now that she knows it's not going to be, she is looking to find a home for it.

In this market?

A crooked legged weanling with little training?

Sigh.