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Post by kya on Dec 28, 2007 21:49:40 GMT 1
I went to see a large mare with a view to breeding her, and was told her foal was close by at an outfarm. Couldn't resist a look, so I followed the farmer up there. He pulled into a filthy yard and walked up to a windowless metal shed. Pulling back the door, I had to squint to make out a pathetic bay colt, clotted with filth and standing on a bare, dung spattered concrete floor. It had lived in the dark with little grub for three months. Foot and Mouth had just hit us here in Ireland, so we had one day to move him before the travel ban.
He was a grandson of Clover Hill, and nice looking under the grime, so I decided after two weeks of climbing over fences and sneaking him food to buy him. I gave the guy a few hundred pounds (twit) and with the help of a true horse whisperer, we managed to load him and take him home.
There followed two years of near misses with a very screwed up young horse who regularly tried to kick my head off. Finally he caught me in an open field dung-picking and double barelled me straight into the air in front of my husband. He carried me inside, and when I found my jeans were full of blood I passed out. The day we sold him he got loose and cornered me in a box. I ran up the talk bars like a Rhesus monkey to escape. Seeing his hairy Irish ar--se going up a ramp was without doubt one of the happiest days of my life.
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dingbat
Grand Prix Poster
Posts: 2,481
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Post by dingbat on Dec 28, 2007 22:26:32 GMT 1
i've had a couple. but i'll write about my first pony!
i was 12 - parents none horsey. badgered them forever to have a horse and finally they agreed. looked at one for £350 but it was almost dead. some1 dad worked with said they have a friend who was an instructor who knew of one for sale for about the same price. off we went. she and the instructor came with us.
got all horses in (alarm bells should have rang but we were clueless). rode the horse in the field. he was fine and instructor gave some pointers. anyway - i liked said horse. price was suddenly £750 but mum and dad then felt guilty and let me have him as i wanted him.
dads friend was picking him up for us (13.2hh welshxarab type, grey approx 18 yrs old- sold to us as a first pony).
anyway - day came for him to be collected. wouldnt load. 2 hours later wouldnt load! naughty pony! so we finally got him (a week later!) and turned him out in his new field (with 1 other pony). never to be seen again! couldnt catch him! i went every day but no - still couldnt catch him. it was the school hols so i sat in the field every day reading hoping he'd come. we fenced off a bit and herded him in so he was alone but he wouldnt come.
when we eventually caught the animal and rode it - it used to run off with me! in the field he'd canter off - he was strong. on a hack he'd bolt when he got in a field and didnt stop until he hit a gate (would slam on the brakes a foot before!). jumping he was also way too strong. we hired a school and e did the wall of death round the outside and i couldnt stop. (never did that again!) one time fenced off a jumping area and he did the same in there, i fell off and he dragged me through a newly cut hedge, ripping my face and arms.
anyway, i stuck with him and in the end could school ok in the field and hack ok as long as i didnt let him gallop (couldnt stop if you did). he was great in traffic. could also catch him ok as long as you didnt put him out just for an hour. we could never keep weight on him though.
had him just over a year and we went on hol for 3 weeks - leaving some1 to look after him. when we got home she said he'd been ill and had to have the vet. (she spoke to mum). mum had the vet again as he could only do so much without us being there apparently. mum made me go to school so i wasnt there. when i got home she told me what the vet said. he had a thorough examination and he had cancer on his 'bits' (a fluid lump came up on his belly) and the vet said it was bad and likely spread to his kidney/liver by now. he also had a cataract in one eye and the vet reckoned he was at least 26 years old! anyway, he had some drugs for a short time but it was coming up to winter and really it wasnt fair to put him through winter when he was feeling bad. mum and dad werent willing to pay out massive vet bills just to keep him alive for pointless reasons. so he was put to sleep. regretabally he was taken away for it to be done (not my decision) and what made it worse was he didnt put up a fight to go in the trailer.
i am crying now!
this was 11 years ago. i am just glad he was looked after the last year of his life because i dont think he was before. i'd have done even more for him if i knew more then, like i know now. the vet reckoned the previous owners knew he was ill when they sold him. some people are horrible! (they werent exactly poor either so money wasnt the main reason. horses were on their own land).
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Post by fin on Dec 28, 2007 22:46:03 GMT 1
Oh Mel, that's awful
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shadow
Intermediate Poster
Posts: 162
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Post by shadow on Dec 28, 2007 22:47:10 GMT 1
Not a buying experience but I did some work for a horse seller/dealer (yes I know a bit stupid really and I have the scars to remind me that it was a bad idea.) and I had a couple of really bad (attempted) selling experiences. We had a very nice irish cob mare who although quite green was a nice type. A woman and her hubby came to view her, the woman said she had ridden for 10 years. I rode her first W,T,C all fine I asked her if she was happy to try her. She said she was, I helped her to mount off the block and noticed at the time she was a little tense but thought it was just because she was on a new horse. She walked round for a couple of laps of the school. The mare being a little green veered off the track slightly-still in walk. Is sugested she steer her back to the track she promptly burst into tears and began hyperventilating badly to the point the noise started to frighten the mare making things worse. I told her to dismount but she couldn't, in the end her husband had to virtually drag her off. It turned out that although the woman had ridden for ten years, the last time she had ridden a horse it had bolted with her she had lost total control and got thrown onto a car. This was her first time back on a horse as her husband had suggested conquring her fear by buying a horse. It was awful I felt so sorry for her. Hope this isn't too off topic
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Post by maggiesmum on Dec 29, 2007 0:04:58 GMT 1
I still own the damm thing - he had a bad back, heel pain and a few screws loose! He now has - a bad back (again!), low grade lammi and slightly less loose screws - we'll get there one day! On the upside, he's stunning to look at and moves like a dream! Smudge suggested I should ride the other one and just keep him to look at................... Lol
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babycham
Grand Prix Poster
A Genuine "School Master" !!!
Posts: 1,782
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Post by babycham on Dec 29, 2007 0:28:44 GMT 1
Mine was a palamino that i bought for my daughter. I piad £1.500 for here , 10 yrs ago! she tried her in school, horse was very calm, watched the owner jump her etc. She was lovely, 15.2hh arab x. We gave her a few weeks to settle in, and then daughter rode her in school, she was on her toes, so decided to take her for a quiet hack up country lane.. big mistake. She reared, went down, back up, and fell back over onto my daughter, completely falling on her. Horse got up and bolted off, when we finally got help, husband ran daughter to hospital, and i caught horse,she had split her poll open etc. I called previous owners, and managed to get someone on the yard- that said, this horse had never hacked out, her life was stable, box, jumped then back home. She admitted the horse had been drugged before we went, as no one would buy her. I couldnt get hold of the owner, and as they sold the horse, they had no forwarding address for the lady i bought her off. Needless to say- daughter wouldnt ride her, we had a very experienced rider come out, and she said this horse was def not a novice ride, the moment you picked the reins up,her head went in, and if you collected the reins, she would literally jog, she jumped like a stag, but was just too much for my daughter. I couldnt take the risk of her nearly killing anyone else. So i sold her as a field companion for £100. I later found out the guy that bought me had tried riding her, and she ditched him, literally, so she is now just a field companion!! The scary thing is.. reading all the other threads, she is the 3rd palamino? ??
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Post by pinkpony on Dec 29, 2007 0:35:08 GMT 1
Poor dingbat.
Ive never ever had a bad buying experience because boo hoo Ive never owned my own...sob sob...(dam my mortgage.....)
But my work mate was telling me about his bad selling experience....he advetised this hore as not novice ride, forward going etc, and had a lady come to veiw it. He just so happened to have the vet and farrier at his yard when she turned up. He noticed that the lady was dressed all in brand new gear, which made him sus....He said then was she sure this horse was what she was looking for, as not a novice ride?? She said she was sure. But she could barely mount and jabbed this sensitive tb in the ribs and horse did jump (as you would) and she fell and broke her arm.....she tried to sue this guy?? Case got thrown out....but blimey....
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Post by Casper on Dec 29, 2007 7:49:36 GMT 1
Before we got Clover on loan last year and then bought her I went to view a horse that if you believed the ad would have walked on water. More fool me! This paragon of virtue was meant to be ace in traffic, completely unfazed by just about everything but still got some go in her. Cue a 3 hour drive to see a horse who when we got there looked considerably older than advertised, who was spooking with her owner down the lane where apparently she was ridden every day - and who then span and went to bomb off away from a small sized perfectly normal white van... All with her owner on board.
Told the woman that she wasn't the horse for me and promptly left. Apparently she had someone interested who just wanted her boxed and delivered without coming to see her - more fool them if that was the case. They would have been SO disappointed!
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Post by Ryan&Dizzy on Dec 29, 2007 8:45:58 GMT 1
i will never forget the day we had someone out to try one o ours. this horse was spot on perfect... big ploddy cob that did everything the first time of asking. this girl got on hm and he was evil! we stood in utter amazement as hebacked into bushes and tried to spin for home spooking at everything and being a general twit! and he had honestly never done any of it before!
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Post by Casper on Dec 29, 2007 8:49:36 GMT 1
That's interesting Sophie. The rider was probably so nervous that she terrified your boy!
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Post by mags on Dec 29, 2007 8:54:46 GMT 1
I wasnt there but the people I work for had a funny one once. The guy Hadnt said when he rang about horse but he was blind. He turned up with a lady who apparently was meant to give directions to him. Only she didnt and failed to tell him to turn at the top end of the school so horse cantered upto the wall and stopped and he fell off lol.
Mind you at least he cantered, when I was looking for a home for Dan iv had people turn up, just walk him, and say they wanted him. I declined lol
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Post by geeup on Dec 29, 2007 8:54:58 GMT 1
brougth our latest after long conversation on phone about another one, wanted connemarra that could jump average sort of jump and be suitable for me. Were told pony was fro ireland and an ex-ridning school pony ( in good faith) turned out she left Ireland 3 months earlier unbroken. breed unkonwn, turned out to be Riding pony(Xthorughbred?racehorse!Xarab and welsh A & D), wouldn't tie, wouldn't load, hated farriers, so we took her back to basics and rode bridless and bareback. Now we have an absoulte poppet.
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Post by gypsycob on Dec 29, 2007 10:09:45 GMT 1
Mags - that is interesting!!! There is a horse for sale on our yard and a blind man came to try him and fell off!!! This was about 9 moths ago.
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Post by mags on Dec 29, 2007 10:54:59 GMT 1
LOL wonder if it was the same guy
I have just thought of one. I was going to loan a 4yr old skewbald stallion 10 yrs ago. Id been told he'd been ridden round fields and had a nice mouth. He was really difficult to bring in rearing etc but just thought it was because someone had turned mare out as was bringing him in(he lived in a herd with mares etc) Tacked him up and got on without too much problem and he promtly shot from one end of yard to another and back again shaking his head so went to get off as id clearly been done..he wasnt just gobby, he didnt have a clue about the bit. Before I could get off he sank right down on his front end and I knew what he was going to do so I grabbed the breast plate and he went straight up vertical and over on top of me.I since found out he'd never even had a saddle on, I dont think he'd hardly been out of the field
So that swung it for me as was choice between loaning him or been given a 15.2 tb and id never broken a horse from scratch before never mind a stallion with attitude. Dont regret it because chance was an amazing first horse but would love to have him now he had something about him. Unfort he died when he escaped and got hit by a train
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lizziee
Grand Prix Poster
Grand Prix Poster
Posts: 2,230
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Post by lizziee on Dec 29, 2007 11:26:25 GMT 1
I went to see mare in Essex - supposedly a private sale. Got to this yard to see a man riding a horse around the manege with its head tied to its chest. A very rough woman emerged and had the mare brought out by a groom (not the one the man was riding) it turned out she was selling this horse on behalf of the owner.... The mare was Ok, with rather dodgy conformation - but her FEET. They were crumbling to bits. I asked her lots of questions about the horse, and went to pick up her feet for a closer look.The woman started yelling at me very agressively that she'd never had anyone ask her so many questions when buying one of her horses, they usually just bought them as seen, and I had no right to look at her feet and if I didn't want to buy her I should leave I left. Private seller my ....
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