More Adventures in horse shopping

Went to look at another horse yesterday. Sounded ideal in the ad: experience western & English. Trail ridden and jumped by a child. Cute, registered and a decent price. Useless pictures and no video, but close enough to be worth going to see.

So we pull up at the facility, and my first thought is that this place is way to chaotic for me to want to try out a horse! Children everywhere. On big horses in the dirt arena (gymkhana night apparently), running around playing, on horses in the pens....everywhere. It was like an after school care with horses program.

We manage to locate the horse and owner quickly, and it seemed odd, but the horse was already saddled, yet not really well groomed...still had little bits of "stuff" on its neck and back. Usually this is for a reason, and sure enough, when I felt under the saddle pad, she was thin. Not rack of bones thin like the one Rhiannon looked at, but definitely had no extra fat either. Seller's answer? "They all are". No idea what that means. Still, cute horse, albeit finer than I expected.

Seller led horse to the indoor which we hoped was quieter than the crazy outdoor, albeit very small. Unfortunately there were two more small children on big horses careening around what was pretty much large round pen, stirring up an insane amount of dust. You could literally hardly see the horses! Fortunately the children were willing to head outside so we could have the space to ourselves and the dust could settle a little.

Unfortunately, as those horses left and the seller started to pull down stirrups and such, the little mare leapt forward and spun around. She got a little better, but remained jumpy and spooky for the time the seller rode, and the seller couldn't really get her to canter. It hardly seemed like a horse that was being jumped by a young child! Still, the horse wasn't looking dangerous, and I kind of  wanted to see how Jessie would look on such a refined horse, so she went to get her helmet.

Meanwhile one of the young riders came back to the arena to see if we were done:
"Are you riding Princess now?"

                            "Princess is actually my horse."

" Keyanna used to ride Princess but just couldn't stay on her. I don't know why, but she just kept coming off."

                             "Oh" (subtitle would read "please just go away and shut up little kid!)

I said nothing.

At that point Jessie came back with her helmet, and went to get on Princess, but again she went nutty, so we opted to not bother. I then filled Jessie in with what the little girl had said...out of the mouths of babes comes the truth! To be fair I don't know if the owner knew the kid that was jumping her was coming off her regularly, but her single syllable response made me think yes.

Sad thing is I think this was actually a nice horse, who at one point was a kind horse, but just couldn't handle her current environment and lost it. While the seller had been riding I had been standing just outside the door to avoid the dust and was half watching the "lesson" in the outdoor. It made me cringe on so many levels. Kids with toes down just hanging on by the safety of the big western saddle, yanking their mount around by the curb bits in their mouths. Cantering around with only semi control, likely kept safe mostly by the small confines of the arena. I don't imagine the jumping lessons were much more safety orientated.

I can see why the place was popular with parents though: just kids having fun on horses or running around, but I don't think the horses were having much fun. None of the kids looked mean or anything, just cruel through ignorance.

Still, I have to wonder...where did they find all those saintly big horses?

On to the next one!

Karen