May trade for a new horse thoughts please?

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

How did your horse visits go today?

 

[arabianequine]

OMG the appy a big fat NO! Got stories to tell but not so good turn out. Ffree horse the owner was not there or ignored me and I believe he is lame she would not answer or return my calls either got lots of video on all but the black gelding is the only prospect and it is a no too. I will tell more soon still out of town I will update with video soon and not everything on the appy is on video but I got a buck though you get the idea k well thank you for asking sweet.

 

[EweSheep]

glad you made a visit!

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

Oh - I can't wait to hear about the details and see some video.

I just noticed you're from 'The Dry Washington'. Seems like horses are so much cheaper on your side of the state.

Hang in there - the one for you is out there for you to discover. Can't wait for an update.

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

Are you out horse shopping today as well?

If you're in Eastern Washington and traveled 3-4 hrs, did you come to W. Washington?

Do you want me to keep my eyes out for free horses in my area for you? I see 1-2 weekly since I check Craigslist farm & garden and the free section daily.

 

[patandchickens]

Honestly I would suggest IGNORING all photos in ads, except (only in some very specific circumstances) they show things that should warn a novice rider away from the horse. That is, I would not go drawing optimistic expectations from photos, nor mildly-pessimistic ones either.

As I think wc has said, the conformation requirements for "I want a basic sensible horse to get me back riding again" are exceedingly loose, and you can even waffle a little on soundness if you are ok with absorbing the risk of things taking a turn for the worse and being unable to use or resell the horse easily. Although for a heavier novice rider I would not bother driving far to look at horses with structurally- or muscularly-weak toplines.

What you really need is excellent temperament and good fundamental training and the right "click" with your own personality, none of which can be assessed from a photo. Do not be impressed with photos of the horse being ridden well, or having someone lie down atop it, or anything like that -- says nothing about what the horse will be like for YOU.

I *would* suggest a novice not bother (or anyhow not drive very far at all) to visit horses whose ad pictures show them being ridden in highly dysfunctional ways... extremely hollow, pulling against bit, prancing behind bit, anything like that. While it is *possible* it's just rider error and the horse would be fine for you, it is not very *likely* in my experience. Also if you care significantly about long-term soundness there is a limit to how far it's probably worth driving to look at horses who you can see signs, in their photos, highly suggestive of lameness (consistant pointing of one foot in multiple pics, muscling abnormalities that usually reflect lameness, super messed-up hooves, hocks straightened due to dropped hind pasterns, etc)

Really, though, overall, ad pics don't mean much more (for a novice wanting a general userfriendly horse) than "new, improved!" does on a box of cereal, or the color of a piece of candy

JMHO,

Pat

 

[WIChookchick]

I did that trying out horses for a client, trying to find him one, he would send me out or have me call the people and every time I went or tried out a horse..
There was at least One or two major NO's and I knew it would not be a good horse for him and his family. Then Dillon fell into my lap, just minutes from where
my clients horses are. He is older, is a hard keeper, slightly arthritic, but broke to death, and the amount of riding, which is half an hour a few times a month IF that...
He is in horse heaven.

What I did was to do things ON the back of the horse that I know a beginner/rank amateur would do, waving arms around, sitting funny, legs back too far, thumping the horse's sides,
while pulling back on the bit, yelling and waving my arms about.. "Hey MOM!! look at me!!"... The horses would put their ears back, back up, give a little crow hop, go forward very quickly..
Things that would scare or freak out a beginner/novice. ANd I knew the horse would NOT work for my client.

Hope your visits went well.. we are dying to hear how it went.
Carol

 

[arabianequine]

I know you all are waiting to hear and see. I was up very late last night by the time we got back and did other things here. Then was up really late on the computer....I got everything saved to my computer and now gonna work on getting each horse uploaded into photobucket in its own album today. Sorry for the wait.

It is not a problem for me to drive around.....we live in a very small town and not many to choose from so that is expected to have to drive a little. We also enjoy going out of town once in a while. We do other things while we are out of town.

@ Sweet Cheeks.....that would be great. I live in eastern washington. I do have family over there though. We are talking about coming that way to visit before weather gets bad. We went torward spokane from here and then up toward canada to elk. We went in a big circle we took the back roads there and then came back into spokane and came home on 190.

I will probably be going to hermistion oregon next. We are located in the middle of all the bigger cities.

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

Hey Terina (great name by the way) -

Don't worry about getting things uploaded just for us gawkers, especially the horses that are no goes. (ok, maybe the video of the one bucking).

As far as skipping the photo ads as suggested by Pat, I like looking at the photos. All of my dogs are rescues and I went to look at them based on their photos. Same with the horses - I have a thing for pintos.

I'm single and when I was dating and doing the internet dating thing, I didn't even look at the profiles without photos.

For me, I want to know what I'm looking at. I want to know if I have a connection and/or find one appealing to me.

I'll post some ads as I see em. Though your additional challenge is finding someone that wants to trade some cattle or would you look at a horse for sale in addition to free?

 

[mama24]

Aw! Can't wait to hear your update. I didn't think any of the horses looked all that bad. The Appy looked like she had an attitude to me, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. lol. I also didn't think the dark gelding looked bad, just underweight. And I also learned to jump on a 30 yo little mare, so getting an older horse if you are a beginner rider doesn't sound like a terrible idea to me. So she might only last a few more years, but you'll be more experienced then and your filly will be ready to ride.