[QUOTE=BeastieSlave;3177390]
BTW chester’s mom, she claimed that A Thousand Acres was “not based on any family that I personally knew. It was based on King Lear.”[/QUOTE]
I didn’t look back in the thread, but I believe the reference to ‘some family she knew’ was the family in Barn Blind. That’s what people were talking about.
A Thousand Acres has always been billed as a take on King Lear.
[QUOTE=TB or not TB?;3177177]
“I gambled that she would, uh, find herself a nice home on a broodmare or stud farm, and she did.”
You can tell she was flabbergasted by the question. :lol:[/QUOTE]
I guess we all gamble if we sell a horse but we gamble more if we sell one at an auction where the meat buyers clean up the remnants back at the barns. Of course we don’t know if the agent would have sold WW for less or not, plenty of them do though so I don’t find it unfair at all. We don’t know how badly she wanted the mare off her bill.
Waterwheel is up for sale again on Craigslist. I don’t want to link the ad or include the price, but she looks in good shape, and listed at a safely higher price than she sold for a decade ago.
“Waterwheel( Grindstone x Our Wild Rose) is a 15.3 2000 thoroughbred mare for sale to a loving forever home. She was raced twice and formerly owned by Jane Smiley. She loves to do dressage and cruise the trails with her friends. She is very capable of teaching the ropes to a young rider or amateur. She can be a kick ride for a beginner or bust move with a more advanced rider. Goes in a snaffle, is great on the ground and for the farrier, not marish and no vices.”
It seems sad. Somehow. I hope the mare gets a soft landing.
Jane has certainly lost a fan here.!
They don’t say what Level in Dressage she has shown.
As far as Jane goes, we expect that as an author she has a level of intelligence that just doesn’t appear to be there.
I realize that there weren’t, 10 years ago, the number of re-run organizations that there are now, but there were some. I guess her research into the racing world didn’t extend that far.
I will post the ad, since the ad is leveraging Jane to sell the horse. https://inlandempire.craigslist.org/grd/d/norco-2-talented-dressage-trail-horses/6790367450.html
This person seems to be selling 2 aged mares as “low level dressage” horses so most likely of deteriorating soundness and/or increasing maintenance costs. We know of WW’s injury background, of course, not mentioned here, WW is looking for her “forever home”. That shit pisses me off, you dictating a “forever home” for a late teens horse when that should’ve been YOU.
Wish they were closer, I’d offer a forever home if one was given to me but I wouldn’t pay $2500 for either of those.
There are horse people, and then there are horse owners. Jane Smiley falls into the latter category.
It’s too bad that she can’t go to Old Friends’ mare band. It seems like the kind of backstory that could get her accepted.
Ok I’ll be the contrarian. I see nothing wrong with the ad or selling these mares in general. They are priced right, in good condition, well presented and seemingly honestly described. I would rather see a novice or average rider with horses like these than something fresh off the track.These are mares that can probably teach a novice a lot as opposed to green + green = black and blue.
There is a real movement afoot that views selling a horse as wrong. But that is how riders obtain horses most of the time. Not all of us are breeders and you can outgrow your horse. But that is not to say that those horses don’t have something to offer to riders at a lower level.
When I was a kid, I had the pleasure of sitting on some serious dressage horses in their twenties and they taught me training level. It is probably too over the top to call these mares “schoolmasters” but it is the same concept. I honestly don’t understand the angst.
the mare has a lot more options now as a quiet safe riding horse than she ever did as brood mare of limited success,
Devils advocate here…perhaps JS, coming 70, has reasons for selling not shared with the general public and should not be universally judged and condemned.
Note Jane sold the horse in 2008.
Still, i hope the mare finds a good home. She would be 19 now. Too old to breed, not that she should have been bred anyway. It is good they gave her some basic skills.
I agree. Selling horses is a good thing. Not a bad thing.
What I do not agree with is someone selling a horse insisting the buyer be a ‘forever home’.
I don’t object to selling horses in general, but unfortunately there is a very real shortage of good homes for horses like this in their late teens and older.
I’m definitely not part of any such movement, and I would resent anyone who lumped me in with them. But I’ve bought and sold enough horses, and been around enough middling lesson barns, that I recognize when aged horses that have outlived their utility are offered up for sale. Real “schoolmasters” represent decades of training. They are seldom sold and are often leased or lent, and then gracefully retired.
These horses might offer something to low level riders, maybe for a couple years, but how fair is it to pawn off end of life care on these likely green/unsuspecting new owners or risk a trip to the auction when they rapidly accumulate maintenance costs? It is hard to see how WW, at this age and with her injury history, can remain riding sound for long without treatment.
All I ask is that people are honest, and had the ad not mentioned Jane, or insisted upon “forever home”, or used other phrases like “through no fault of her own” and “herd reduction”, phrases which tell you NOTHING about the horse’s qualities and are designed to tug heartstrings and abdicate responsibility for getting rid of an unwanted horse, I wouldn’t have commented.
I wonder what happened to the Comic Strip she was carrying when sold. (I don’t have a paid account anywhere but if you enter the breeding as a ‘hypothetical’ on equineline the nicking stats for Grindstone mares bred to Comic Strip come up with no results.)
I don’t really care if someone sells a horse or not, but Smiley’s comments about “overpopulation” seem a little silly to say when she sold her as a broodmare in foal at a sale where that’s the only reason someone would buy a lightly-raced mare with a produce record. Just say she became a broodmare and was sold as one, don’t try to pontificate. (I’ve never read her horse books. I did read A Private Life and would like those three hours cumulative reading time of my life back. It was a long slog of waiting for something to happen but nothing ever did.) I do think it’s kind of funny the new owner apparently got this ‘dominant mare’ who could never be some little girl’s pet to what sounds like a dressage schoolie who will pack you around or step up as necessary.
But how else are the beginner riders supposed to get appropriate mounts?
I just started showing, so I bought a twenty-something to show me the ropes. I figure maintenance costs are part of the tuition.
Sounds like WW wound up with a good home who will find her an appropriate next home.
Not commenting on JS’s actions but from the photos/ad for WW right now it sounds like she is at a price not to be in terrible danger and has had training/experience sufficient that she stands a chance of finding a nice, light riding/low level dressage type home. I’m really not ready to criticize the CURRENT owner for trying to resell at an above-meat-price a horse with an honest sounding description. The photos make her appear like a nice mount that might really suit someone.
Where is “Island Empire?”
I think it’s a waste of resources to send her to a tb rescue, as some have suggested. This owner made an ad showing a couple of nice mares who need new homes and didn’t suggest anything that would make you think a rescue needs her or she’s in danger. There was no “needs to be gone this week or she’s off to the auction” or anything like that. I read the ad (if I were the current owner, I would be pissed that someone posted it here to rip on me, btw), and it sounds like she took good care of the mare, taught her something, and will now take the time to find her a new partner. If you all are interested in “saving” her, then step up and get her. Otherwise, move on. It’s perdectly fine to sell a useful horse.
Inland Empire is an area east of Los Angeles, CA. It is area that used to be solely agricultural, but is becoming more urbanized over time.
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