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 | | From: | cindi | | Subject: | the search is on! and the first candidate... | | Date: | 19 Jan 2005 23:33:42 -0800 |
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 | Went to see the first "lesson horse candidate" today. 20 year old qh
mare, declared kid safe. I was excited when we first got there since
she was being groomed and had a very very quiet look about her. She's
stout and relatively cute. As I got closer, I noticed they had a chain
over her nose. For lunging, they said. Huh? They had admitted to me
that they know practically nothing about horses, so the chain, well,
who knows. She sure didn't seem like she needed it - I have never used
one except on stallions to let them know "this is the time you come out
of your stall and get to actually breed." But anyway...
So, we asked who was going to ride her for us and if they wanted to use
our tack or their tack or what. The parents don't ride and had bought
this horse for their kid, who now has a pony. The kid flat out said
she will not ride this mare to show her to us. We asked why she
wouldn't ride her, if she'd ever done anything to scare her, and she
said no, she just prefers to ride her pony now. I said, but we aren't
asking you to ride this mare instead of your pony or to ride her to do
anything on her - you guys are trying to sell her as a kid safe horse
and if you won't even get on, that's a bad sign. But she still said
no. So, hm.
The mare had clean legs and was great about letting me pick them up.
Good range of motion of the legs. Feet looked good but too long.
Teeth looked good. Eyes looked clear. Kept out of my space. Looking
good. But wait! What is that I detect! EXTREMELY sore in the back,
over the withers and at the loin. This mare hasn't been ridden in 6
months so I suspect she has hock or stifle issues that are causing her
to get a sore back - or maybe she just has a sore back for who knows
why. But it was definitely sore.
They looked disappointed and like they didn't really believe me. We
decided to saddle her up and see how she reacted to that. She was fine
for saddling, but once in mounting position, she started pinning her
ears and tossing her head around looking mad. We worked her a bit on
waiting until she stood calmly, then backing off to reward her, and she
did get a lot better with each step, but she still acted sore. So we
pulled the saddle and began to leave.
Then they came up with a story that when they first got her, she was
acting like she was sore in the back, so their vet checked her out, and
decided she was just faking it. So, mostly just to give them a reality
check, we get the saddle back out and saddle her up again. She was
still reactive to our mounting agenda and came at me with her teeth
this time, so, I proved my point. Heh. I palpated her all over again,
and she was totally non-reactive to poking and prodding and whatnot on
all other parts of her body except her back. So I explain I don't
think it's that she's just a pissy mare or a mare who's sensitive to
being touched. It's her back, plain and simple.
I feel sort of sorry for this family because they have this mare and
one other that their kids are now afraid to ride, and they are going to
have trouble selling them, and they told us we could have the second
mare for free if we bought the first one - but guess what? I walked
away. :-) Amazing, I know.
Next installment tomorrow, after we go see the school horses who need
to be sold because they are great horses but the school just has too
many. Hardy har har.
take care all,
cindi
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| | From: | cindi | | Subject: | Re: the search is on! and the first candidate... | | Date: | 20 Jan 2005 07:55:35 -0800 |
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Robin Ryan wrote:
> Sounds like you need to rescue the the mare and make her all better!
> Tempting? Sounds like you're thinking about it:)
It is tempting. But I've done that a few times already, and it's
always been a monetary disaster for me. This time my goal is to buy a
horse I can start using right away in my program. And I'm sticking to
it! :-)
cindi
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| | From: | cindi | | Subject: | Re: the search is on! and the first candidate... | | Date: | 20 Jan 2005 00:20:07 -0800 |
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| I forgot to say, I took the halter with the chain off her and put my
own on and lunged her and she was GREAT, super responsive to my voice
and body language and sound at the walk and trot. I hope they stop
with the chain!
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| | From: | Robin Ryan | | Subject: | Re: the search is on! and the first candidate... | | Date: | Thu, 20 Jan 2005 13:05:21 GMT |
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"cindi" wrote in message
news:1106209207.319628.68930@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>I forgot to say, I took the halter with the chain off her and put my
> own on and lunged her and she was GREAT, super responsive to my voice
> and body language and sound at the walk and trot. I hope they stop
> with the chain!
>
Cindi,
Sounds like you need to rescue the the mare and make her all better!
Tempting? Sounds like you're thinking about it:)
Robin
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