Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Buying the wrong horse

by Julie Carter

Buying horses is like buying cars, dating, or even picking out new shoes. What looks good on the “shelf” isn’t ever a guarantee it is going to be as good as you had hoped.

I, meaning me personally or any one of several people I know that should all know better, have been dinged by the horse trader on more than one occasion. The topic always brings about soul cleansing confessions.

This from one of those that should have known better:

“Last year I bought a horse at the Spring Horse Sale for $900 and sold it at the December sale for $500 and never looked back. I finally got a set of shoes on that outlaw before the sale. It took two of us and a lot of drugs. We even gave the horse some. He never learned to neck rein but I did get the buck out of him long enough to sell him. He sure was purty though!”

I personally bought one of those really “purty” ones that was represented as a “little cinchy once in a while.” It wasn’t long before I realized I owned a horse that needed a shot of drugs before you could saddle him. He only flipped upside down when you pulled the cinch too tight or too fast and that only happened once in awhile. Sometimes he waited until you were sitting in the saddle.

One cowgirl made a trip to the heart of Texas to bring home a big gentle giant she’d bought as he was standing in knee deep grass that hid his pigeon-toed stance. He came with a high recommendation for his gentle ways and since his job was to raise four ranch children, he made the trip back to New Mexico. The worst part for the cowgirl was trying to explain to her husband why she paid perfectly good money for a horse with front feet that were looking at each other.

Then there was the nearsighted barrel racing horse. He could and would turn like a rat in a barrel but the problem was he would do it about ten feet in front of the barrel. Hard to win a barrel race that way.

And the mare that was bought at the race track with a head exactly like a mule. When the wife took her husband to see the horse, she had the owner back the mare out of the stall. The mare looked like a million bucks –all the way up to and until the very long ears.

The sale ring horse that would kick your head off your shoulders if you surprised him went back to the sale ring.  Usually those kinds of horses that come from a trader take another trader to get rid of them.

It seems to be human nature to fall for “purty” and ignore every warning signal that sets off alarms in us, telling us to move on, don’t buy this one. I think humans have a tendency to pick their life mates the same way. Someone said to me recently that it is easier to abandon a man than it is a horse. You don’t have to worry about who is going to feed him.

And the most honest reply I got when asking about the horse they shouldn’t have bought was, “Really, almost every horse I ever bought I shouldn’t have.”

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarternm@gmail.com