So several years ago a lady came out to look at a yearling halter colt I had for sale. He was nice enough, not super fat and bulked up but nice enough built and enough substance to show at the world level. I had a smattering of all sorts of disciplines hanging around; I was in the middle of changing disciplines so I had my halter horses, western all arounds, my sisters cutters, and my newly acquired hunters. This vile woman proceeded to criticize every damn thing about this colt, spitting out conformation critiques that were blatantly untrue, then starts tearing apart all the others horses as she starts walking past all their paddocks. I put the colt away and was pretty much like “well thanks for coming out… (silence, indicating it’s time she loaded up her horrid screaming brats and leave”. She eventually did leave. Then a week or two later emails saying she wanted to come look at the colt again. I replied with something diplomatic but firm like “This isn’t going to work and I will not let one of my horses go to someone who ridicules and belittles every shred of what I work for. Have a nice life.”
Had wonderfully bred HUS weanling I posted for sale; by one of the leading sires in the industry, and out of a multiple world champion producing mare. This colt looked to be headed down the same path as his siblings. I had him reasonably priced because I don’t exactly live in the show horse capitol of the U.S., so I take in to account that high quality show homes are going to have to travel for one of my horses. Well this kid messages me about the colt. I knew he was a kid, but whatever; I was wheeling and dealing my own horse deals by the time I was 17 or 18, so I won’t judge. I entertained the kids questions for a bit. Then he asked how much I was asking, and stated that he didn’t have much of a budget. I told him the price and he then told me “oh, no that’s too much. I can only spend X (what would equate to 1/5 of what I was asking, and 1/3 of the stud fee of the sire)”. I left that message without a reply for a while (like 2 minutes) trying to figure out how to tell this kid he’s barking up the wrong tree, when I really want to A ) ignore him, or B ) unleash my unfiltered crazy bitch. Then I get this message “hello?”, like he deserved a reply and was expecting me to drop my price. I told him sorry, can’t go that low, thanks.
Crazy neighbor (I think everyone has one of those, don’t they?) who has been politely banned from my property for stealing things shows up one day and is standing at the gate, since he’s knows he’s not welcome. My sister is watching the place for me while I was out of town, and she knows about him so she is leery when she goes out to the gate. He asked if she would come look at his mare (rescued arab); she’s been down for 3 days and she doesn’t look so good. He described what sounded like neurological symptoms. My sister politely declined to go look and suggested he call a vet asap. He gives some excuse about how the vet doesn’t like him or something and won’t call back/come out. My sister sends him on his way, then turns around and calls the vet. Turns out cray cray owed the vet some big bucks, and vet refuses to go out until the bill is paid. Well we felt bad for the mare, but no way am I risking dragging back some neurological issue to my ranch. 2 days later he comes back and asks my sister to borrow the tractor to dig a hole for the mare. She him hawed around for a bit and made some excuses as to why she couldn’t come dig a hole for him, so he went away. She was feeling guilty a few hours later and went to his place to take a look and see if the tractor could even get up the hill and found the guy had just about finished digging the hole by hand :eek: We live in a hard, dry, high mountain desert with tons of rock shelves under the soil. And this guy is no spring chicken. Turns out, the mare had west nile that she had contracted in a different state in which he “rescued” her (term used loosely).
I’m sure there’s more, but these come to mind. My horses have been at home (aside from an occasional 1 in training) for the past 15 years or so. So I don’t have much for crazy boarder stories.
