Tell that to the Percheron mare who would lie down after one trip around the field with the manure spreader. Best day ever was when she was struck by lightening.
@red_mares Too bad you didn’t know how to fix that with the “secret cure.” They literally RISE UP (looks like levitating! Ha ha) immediately, and don’t go down again! I learned it when my newly purchased mule foal went down on the trailer ramp, refused to get up!! We tried being nice, nothing worked until the secret cure was applied by husband. She could not get up fast enough and NEVER laid down on us again!!
Yes, pulling a spreader is hard work, one of the reasons my Grampa used it as a “trained horse” measuring stick, on being well trained for farm work. That mare sounds like a real pain. I bet she had some other no-fun tricks to avoid work.
Spreader “education”. Love it!
Agree 100%. They want a road trip, an adventure, a tale to be told endlessly afterwards to a rapt audience, pure and simple. And if the horse ends up being worth the trip, all the better, because it will be the great ending to a story worth the telling again and again.
I legitimately don’t understand why you can’t just let these two completely separate people do their own thing.
I recently went on a road trip to see a horse show/shop at the vendors with a friend, and to my knowledge my neighbor has not yet spent twenty minutes describing the situation to online strangers, had opinions on who was driving (my friend drove, if that’s all right with you), or discussed at length that I could have purchased a cheaper vest closer to home.
But who knows, maybe he started a reddit thread and is promising to keep his online friends “updated if anything happens.”
Well, the trip is now a NoGo.
Friend was sent videos that show either 2 different horses, or the same horse years apart.
He is no longer interested.
Friend 2 is All About the Roadtrip, with reason.
She was widowed just 2 years ago. Husband was not in good health for years prior, so any travel was limited to how fast she could get home in an emergency.
Bring a widow myself, I understand getting used to The New Life.
I contacted a local (competitive)Driving Club I have ties to & asked about horses being stepped down from competition. There are 2 whose vids I will share today with Friend. Both a 5h drive, but better than 12.
@meupatdoes Why, Bless your heart.
You do your friends & travels. I’ll do mine.
You did notice this was a vent?
YTA.
This is none of your business or concern.
You could choose to be supportive and interested in the adventure.
You could choose to put it out of your mind entirely.
Instead you chose to insert yourself into other’s business and have the hubris to be put out that you were ignored. Their silence speaks volumes in that they are being kind enough to avoid telling you to mind your own business. Unless he ASKED YOU to help him find horses to look at, it’s not your concern.
YTA.
Huh?
What thread are you reading?
What “silence” are you referring to?
Both friends asked for my input.
& Got my 2¢, same as posted here.
Nobody in this scenario is being ignored.
Ummmm… the silence you’re complaining about. You sent stuff they’ve ignored.
Nowhere have you stated that either of them ASKED for your help. I reread your OP. If they did, you didn’t share that information.
What a hateful thing to say. Have you ever been struck by lightning?
Or if you actually meant “lightening” (whatever that is) maybe that’s not like being struck by lightning.
You never knew the horse. It was a gift from God. She was lazy & ill-tempered and would also kick. No one needs a draft horse like that. The old man got paid from the local ‘insurance’ fund because the mare was registered. That she died before she hurt anyone was a gift from God. I’m not really interested in whether you like that or not.
And yet you took the time to respond, criticizing a poor work horse who probably could have benefited from some proper training or at least given the benefit of the doubt and a humane death.
Or was she just left out in the pasture in a thunderstorm to be struck by lightning because no one gave a crap about her?
She was out in the field with a bunch of horses because she had a colt by her side. She could go in, she could go out, she stayed out in the thunderstorm. Horses do that. The ‘poor overworked work horse’ was never asked to do much and didn’t do it readily when asked. The filly was adopted by a Haflinger mare whose own colt was old enough to ween. There was nothing nefarious about the situation, it was literally an act of God.
Missing Facts you need:
BOTH friends asked for my opinion on the trip.
Friend did answer my email, not interested in the STB. He owned & bred a small string of racers, one became one of his first Driving horses.
Friend 2 wanted to know if I could go with them.
Yesterday Friend shared the video he was sent.
In a word: Appalling.
Horse was put to a forecart - not a deal breaker, but:
Breeching was over the tail & not attached to shafts < no holdbacks
Tugs/Shaftloops also just slipped over shafts, no wraps, no overgirth.
Driven on a road with no traffic, at Walk only.
The single car that passed was going so slowly Friend thought it must have been driven by a Confederate of the Seller.
So:
Deal is Off, for now.
Search will continue in Spring, with a possible trip to the next Driving Horse sale in January.
I admit your “struck by lightning” post put me off a bit.
Tone is hard to read in replies (sometimes).
But with the added info, tongue in cheek, right?
I worked at a lesson barn with an antique (mid-30s) schoolie.
He was beginner safe, but had his own agenda.
Leading my trainer to say one night, after a particularly frustrating lesson, where he’d had to literally chase horse into a trot:
“isn’t it time for him to die?”
That night, horse did.