My friend S sent me an ad for a lovely, strong looking Russian bred mare, which has an unforgivable amount of white (Is that even allowed? Up over the knee?), but is much closer to home, and reasonably priced at 3500. And a great age - 11, that's perfect, unless, well, of course unless she's been standing around having babies most of her life.
They say she used to be ridden on trails but they haven't had the time lately, so they're selling her. I really hate her coloring, but I'm not looking at color right?
I get to meet her tomorrow at noon. Yay for shorter road trips!
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Regarding the bay gelding, I was surprised when I spoke with S about him. Surprised because she was so supportive after all the annoyance. She said bucking in the arena at the request to canter is nothing to worry about, her horse does it too because he's also the lazy type. She says after all these years they're only now working on it. She said I should go see as many horses as I can, and probably waiting til Spring would be better because she feels he's overpriced for what he is/knows, and that no one would pay 5500 for that.
I found a portion of the owner's website that features the clinic she took the horse to, with some nice photos of him. I question, how do you tail a horse who's been trained to back up when you tug his tail? : ) That isn't in the photos, it's just something she showed me he knows. Here is the link - scroll down to Parelli Fast Track 2014 for pics of the horse being Parelli'd.
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I found a funny, funny ad today, where an Arabian is offered online "needs a job to do" and get this, for FREE, you can come teach the horse how to lunge, do ground work, and be ridden. You don't have to pay anything, but you are expected to help out regularly with picking up manure. *LOL*!!!
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Sunday S goes back to Haegerhof where she bought her horse, where I had a bad experience cuz of the lies*, and she will check out their sale horses for me. They are breeders but also dealers - they go to Poland and Hungary regularly and bring a bunch of young Arabs to Germany, then get them started under saddle and make a tremendous profit. S is almost adamant that I buy from them. Their horses are nice, I admit, but the lies*.....
Here is the horse I asked her to check out. I like a horse who can drop under saddle at that stage in training: )
(* - They lied by saying they had five horses in my price range that were going well under saddle on trails. When I arrived, if you remember, they had only three, and one had such crooked legs I wouldn't ride him, and the other was actually not trained enough to let anyone else ride him, so that left only ONE HORSE that met my criteria, after I drove halfway across Germany in the snow, and he was a challenge to ride. I can do without the lies.)
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Sunday I get to go see Mara - FINALLY. I had a little bit of a scare when they ignored my emails repeatedly, and then when we called, they said they might sell her because she's lame and bucking. WTH. Finally I get to find out what happened, and since I'm being forced to have cake and coffee at the new owner's home first, I'm hoping they don't hate me.
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9 comments:
cake! but...bucking? wth?
I don't know anything about unforgivable whiteness...Hana has a lot, and we've always forgiven her.
I'm not as thrilled about the grey gelding, maybe because the pics are kind of pathetic?
Cake? Oh, I guess I've been a bad blogger if I haven't stressed how important cake and coffee in the afternoon are to German people. Like you go to have dinner with the family, but first, coffee and cake. And then, finally, dinner. After hours of ....slowness. Things move slowly here. They scorn our hurried culture. I dread this because I just wanna see Mara, and the cake is always lacking in butter or cream or sugar. Hana's a rockstar, her white is not even noticeable.
That mare is pretty, though I don't love the gray gelding, he seems out of proportion, but sometimes it is just a bad photo. And weird about Mara, I'm hoping to hear the rest of that story. I would hope they know to let a new horse acclimate before doing too much.
I want a horse that is already doing what I need. Not lots of mileage necessarily, but I want to know the horse is being ridden, out on the trails, likes that job, etc. I am not concerned if they don't like the arena. I don't either, just enough to do learning work. You would think Major was the biggest slug ever in the arena, you have to really push him to move out and he tries all evasions (though not bucking). I guess they all have some issue, it's just what you want to deal with!
I constantly shake my head at some of the things Germans say about horses, like the bucking. That's always a red flag. People in the states can have odd ideas, but the good horse people I know are hardened realists and pragmatists. No offense, but S causes me to often shake my head. I think you are a more knowledgeable equestrienne. And now Mara lame and bucking? Oh, dear. Please take your time.
Bucking in the arena, hmm.....a few years ago an arena bucker dumped me and broke my back.
I will admit that it hurt like crazy and I was so mad that I got back on the horse. Thanks to muscles in spasm everything was held together and I'm still walking. (How stubborn men can be!)
So maybe don't choose a horse that bucks. Or at least give a chiropractor the opportunity to see whether the problem can be put right.
Too much white? All that matters is whether the horse can do the job safely.
There are good Arabians from Hungary and Poland. I used to have a splendid Hungarian Shagya Arabian. But there are poor horses too, and the studs need to sell all of them. (Well, the really bad ones probably go for salami.) Anyway, why the fascination with Arabians? Wouldn't a nice safe cob do the job with a whole lot less fuss?
Oh, I think that Russian mare is a pretty little thing. Are you going to try her out?
What can be going on with Mara? I hate hearing this news, but am so glad that you are going over for cake. And to see Mara. Seems like she'd be bucking if she was in some sort of pain. . . It is impossible not to worry about her, we all have an emotional investment in her. :/
You have a good weekend.
K.
Both of those horses are very nice looking, just a caveat about the grey, horses will drop under saddle if they've been drugged. I hope Mara's okay. I didn't know that about cake.
Poor Mara. Feel bad for horses constantly sold, churned. Its scary and hard on them. Being taken care of, fed well, then not. Would love for you to get bay guy. He would pay you back
Irish, I think we have the same shopping priorities. Baasha hated the arena too, I even used spurs!
Kitty Bo, I appreciate that. I don't have many friends here, if that's not obvious.
WHP, you know how some people are loyal to some types of cars? It's like that with me and Arabians, but moreso (I'd actually consider owning cars other than Toyotas and trucks other than Chevys). I fell for Arabs in the 7th grade and knew I'd be unhappy with anything else even at that age.
Kay, she's fine, woo hoo: )
Redhorse, well both the bay and the grey dropped, we'll see what happens.
Chicago, Mara's living the good life, and being loved intensely.
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