Naive friend buys a SECOND horse. The saga continues

[TheBigEasy]

Several months ago I posted about my friend who has never owned a horse or taken lessons bought a horse sight unseen via an online auction.

If you missed it, here’s the link.

The naive friend-buying-a-horse - update post 118

Even before I read through the whole thread I was considering posting that although I love reading train wreck threads and your friend did just about everything possible to set herself up for failure, I’m also a four-time example of the fact that taking even free horses sight unseen (and knowing almost nothing about them) can sometimes work out wonderfully. And it sounds like your friend may also have found a gem despite herself! I’m certainly not a beginner, but two of my freebies came right f…

So fast forward 75 days from my last post on that thread.
Maresy is coming to the end of her 90 day training. Mare has made great progress and my friend has taken a few lessons on her and can now trot. She’s also taken lessons on schoolies, but 12 lessons does not a rider make.
Mare is still quite forward and sensitive, and is not a beginner ride.

Soooo… since friend has learned all this, and has a daughter who also wants to ride, she figured she’d go ahead and buy a second horse!!

Thank goodness, she enlisted the help of the trainer this time. And of course she still wanted a real Friesian. Trainer seems to have found her a very nice, well bred mare and a price point to match.

Ya know the saying that a beginner doesn’t need a 30k horse, but needs a 5k horse and 25k of lessons? Yeah.

So she and the trainer fly to the coast, she immediately falls in love. 5 year old broke to ride with not a ton of training. Mild mannered push ride, gets a PPE (thank God) - so at least she’s got that going for her. Weaning a foal so couldn’t come home immediately.

She ships home soon, and is going directly to the training barn for 90 days while mare #1 comes back to the boarding barn (not a training barn).

Sooo in another week she’s on her own with a still-green, forward mare who she plans to let her teenage daughter ride, and in another three months she’ll have two green mares.

There is a visiting trainer whom she can lesson with, but not a resident trainer, so with the exception of lessons, she’s going to be pretty much on her own.

Oh, and she still doesn’t own a saddle for either of them but there’s all new sets of matchy matchy fly bonnets, bell boots and custom halters.

I’m beside myself.

[GraceLikeRain]

So the saga continues. If either horse appeals to you, stay positive from a distance. Twice I’ve been offered lovely horses for free in somewhat similar situations. One too many falls off of a good bur green horse and the wealthy green owners were too proud to sell and didn’t really need the money so they offered them up via word of mouth. One I still kick myself for passing on.

Hoping for a miracle success story but not even having saddles for the horses seems like a sign of things to come.

[clanter]

been an ongoing problem for decades if not centuries, currently I lay the primary blame on Hollywood movies… if Alec Ramsey or Velvet Brown can do it then I can too, it was so easy for them

[BatCoach]

Welp. Folks like her are the reason the Fresian and Gypsy vanner markets stay hot. Is her teen a a new rider as well? Are there no trainers close to her where she can board and be in full training ?

[TheBigEasy]

Daughter is a new rider also. She sent me a video of the two of them in a lesson. I’m quite concerned with the ability of her daughter being able to stay on the back of mare #1.

I don’t know if there’s a barn nearby that she could stay in full training at. The boarding barn she’s at is so beautiful, super clean, heated. All the luxuries. She’s in love with that. I would be too, except for the turnout - 6-8 hours of turnout in individual pastures.
I don’t get that. They have the acreage, fencing, etc to have those horses out much much more. Not going to be ideal for young green horses, especially if she’s only able to ride 3x a week or so.

There’s just no wise horsemanship in any of this.

[quietann]

@TheBigEasy

I would be too, except for the turnout - 6-8 hours of turnout in individual pastures.
I don’t get that. They have the acreage, fencing, etc to have those horses out much much more.

IME, this is usually a labor issue. Turning out for longer means having a second set of workers to come in the late afternoon/early evening to bring horses in, feed them etc.

The best I have found, in several boarding barns, was turnout around 7:30 to 8:00 and turn-in at 6 to 6:30 in the summer, or 4 to 4:30 in the winter (I am in New England.) This meant having a second person do turn-in, and sometimes a third person for night check.

[TheBigEasy]

Yeah I get it that’s it’s likely a labor issue. There are 10 horses at this barn. Ten.
Put up some run-ins and leave at least some of them out 24/7 a couple days a week.

It’s just bizarre to me to stable horses 16-18 hours a day while lovely pastures sit empty.

My friend doesn’t know or understand the implications of turnout, so this falls on deaf ears that being in a stall for so long may affect their attitude when taking them out.

The turnout issue has been beat to death here on COTH so not looking for that argument. It’s just another issue where she’s clueless on and thinks having a stall is superior without any understanding of the pros and cons.

[BatCoach]

Oh boy. No good can come if this. Let’s just hope no one gets hurt and the horses don’t get too soured.

[quietann]

Would the pastures hold up to 24/7 turnout, though? In my area, land prices are so high that any sort of pasture at all can be hard to find. Heck, even a stall with a run-out is nearly impossible to find except in more backyardy places.

[TheBigEasy]

The farm is on 120 acres.
12 pastures each one acre. One pasture per horse. Two spare/rotated pastures.

Relatively speaking it’s on cheap land.

The balance of the land includes some leased farm field and fallow land.

Land prices are not the driver in this situation. I totally get that in many places land prices drive turnout arrangements. That isn’t the case here. I agree, it’s labor.

[OverandOnward]

Why are new-to-horses people so casual about the danger of horses that do not have sufficient training?

Why are they ready to expose their children to a danger of a horse accident that could affect the child for the rest of their lives? Even be life-threatening?

Would they let their kid play russian roulette with live bullets in the chambers?

I have watched this before, as have us all, I’m sure. I will never, ever understand this.

[TheBigEasy]

Thank you. Exactly.

I think it’s naïveté. They genuinely are ignorant of all the things that can go wrong, how fast it can happen, and how catastrophic it can be when dealing with a half ton animal with it’s own mind.

The risk increases exponentially in reverse relation to the amount of training.

I begged her to buy an aged schoolie.

[MapleBreeze]

Dang that trainer is a lucky girl!!!

[clanter]

Oh boy. No good can come if this.

we did get a very good deal on a lightly used horse trailer when the new comers found out that owning riding horses were not really that great of idea… but they had the experience that allowed them to brag at the bar that they once owned a horse

[NancyM]

LOL New horse owners repeatedly beating head against a wall. Good thing they are rich. Haven’t learned much yet.

[FjordBCRF]

In the words of Homer Simpson…“D’oh!”

[BrownDerby]

@clanter

we did get a very good deal on a lightly used horse trailer when the new comers found out that owning riding horses were not really that great of idea… but they had the experience that allowed them to brag at the bar that they once owned a horse

Friend had a similar experience. Picked up a near new Ford 350 dually with a custom paint job. The owner had purchased it and a LQ trailer after six riding lessons. Then injury and discouragement.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

I’m starting to think this person doesn’t need riding lessons, but rather a good financial advisor and a therapist.

[Mersidoats]

At least the Gypsy Vanners (in general, every horse is an individual) are mild mannered, mostly lazy, and generally giant golden retrievers. Of all the horses out there, they are the most beginner-proof, besides a QH.

Two green broke Friesians. Ye gods…

[Alex_and_Bodie_s_Mom]

@TheBigEasy

Oh, and she still doesn’t own a saddle for either of them but there’s all new sets of matchy matchy fly bonnets, bell boots and custom halters.

I sincerely hope in all the frenzied buying that your friend also purchased matching helmets and safety vests for her and her daughter . . .