Buying a Pasture Buddy

So today I want to jump ahead a little bit from where I left off. Yes I do have at least 2 other blog posts I want to write about before I declare myself offically caught up, but I want to write this while it's still fresh. So this past Sunday, I went to a horse auction. At the auction they had a good choice of horses to choose from. Before the thing started, I went into the back and got a good look at all the ponys and horses there. I took a notebook back with me and wrote down any horses who caught my eye. So before I continue, let's talk about what I was looking for in these horses. 1) I did not care if the horse could ride or drive. It would be a plus, but I had a small budget and wasn't going to blow it on a riding horse. There are other things I'd like to have with my spare money. This was to be a horse to keep Elsa company and just mellow her excitedness out.

2) The horse had to catch my eye. I don't care for most paints, but I do like creams and duns. There were 4 palominos there, 2 duns (one of which was a dunskin, otherwise known as a dun buckskin), and 2 leopard appys. There was also an old Percheron gelding broke to ride adn drive and a MASSIVE Belgian molly mule there broke to ride and drive. There was also a halflinger cross there broke to ride and drive. All of these caught my eye, although the last 3 all had signs of issues that really made me hesitate.

3) No sign of agression towards another horse. Elsa is so big, that if the horse tries to be agressive and Elsa turns and kicks them, she could do some serious harm. I was not there to throw money down the drain.

4) The smallest I could go was a large pony. Seriously, I know little shetlands go in with drafts all the time, but I didn't want to risk it. And I don't buy tiny ponys for my girls because in a few years they'll just out grow them. Then it will either just sit around in the pasture or be resold.

5) The horse couldn't show any signs of agression or aggitation towards my 3 year old, Serenity. Little miss Serenity was going around climbing on the stall fronts trying to pet every horse's nose. I can't sit around worrying about what happens if my children sneak into the pasture and there's a dangerous horse.

6) I'd preferably really would like the horse to be friendly enough to come and seek attention even in the strange surroundings of a sale barn. There are many new horses and people about and it can be upsetting to some horses. At the very least the horse shouldn't be jumpy to the point where I wonder if they're going to kick or bite.

Now truthfully I'm not interested in sorrels or bays too much (in light clean legged breeds). They're so dag on common. (I know, I know, there's no such thing as a bad color. But there is such a thing as a boring color...to me) However as I walked through the stalls Sunday night, I kept finding myself looking at this young horse with the "loose horse" lot. These were horses that either the seller didn't want to pay to have riden at the sale, or who were never broke. And just looking at this foal, I knew it wasn't older than 2, so there was no way it was broke. And it would most likely be in my price range. This foal was bay with 2 blue eyes. You may think the reason I was attracted to her or wrote her number down was because of her blue eyes, but that couldn't be further from the truth. If anything, her blue eyes make her a bit creepy. Her eyes are the reason I wrote her down, but not because they're blue. This little filly (who I wouldn't know was a girl until the following day) was nothing special. She's little, she's bay, she stood in the back of her stall behind another horse and wouldn't come up to the front. If anything she'd shy away a little. But something in her eyes spoke of a gentliness inside her. They were soft and kind eyes. So I wrote her number down. 6133.

As luck would have it, the prices at the barn were higher than expected. I'm not exactly sure why they were so high compared to how they've been, but it put most of the horses I liked out of my price range. This auction lasted for FREAKING EVER, mostly because people brought their trash to the auction to be sold off with the tack. And I'm talking broken halters, broken down saddles, odd pieces of rope, just trash. And the auction house HAD to sell it, and no one wanted to bid, so tack lasted nearly 5 hours alone. This isn't unusual, and I really wish the auction houses would screen crap, but it is what it is. The way they auctioned the horses off was ponys first, then riding horses, then loose horses. This girl was maybe the 5th to the last horse to come through. It was 10pm and I was exausted and frustrated. This sale shouldn't have lasted so long, the prices were too high, the auctioner was spening 20 minutes per horse trying to get the price to start off higher than anyone was willing to pay and then again after the winning bit attempting to get someone to bid just 5 more dollars, and they had auctioned the horses off out of order. So this girl came through and started off at $150, and I bid. I'd already lost the bid to one of the dun horses I'd wanted, and I was seriously beginning to wonder if the second one was even still back there. I won this filly's bid at $230, which is a bit much in current market prices for an unpapered, unbroke, 2 year old horse. But I'd gone with a budge of $300, so I was happy. The other dun I wanted came through a few horses later and went for the same price. I'd wished I'd gotten him, and he was one of my favorite colors, but it was what it was and I didn't feel buyers remorse over my purchase. It was late, so I paid and went home. Not before stopping in the back to check on my filly though.

We were going to have someone from the auction haul her home, but it was going to cost me over $150 to have them do so. Having paid only $650 to have Elsa trailered half way across the country, the thought made me sick. So I called and cancelled. I'd find another way to get her home the next day. Since this is a strange horse from an auction, I went about setting up a quarantine area for her Monday while my mother called around to see if we couldn't get a friend to haul her for less. I decided to take down my round pen and put it up attached to one half of the barn so she had a run where she could get out and see Elsa, but not touch her, and yet have an area where she could get out of bad weather.

As I was doing this, my mother came outside to tell me I needed to do damage control. Our friend was going to trailer the filly, but when he'd gotten in contact with the auction house's owner's wife, she said there were no more horses there. Honestly I have no idea why she claimed that as there were several horses still there. But I digress. I went inside and tried to get ahold of someone. The man who was going to haul her to us had trailered her the night before until we canceled, but he hadn't even left the yard yet so he had just unloaded her. I called him back just to double check though. The woman attempted to say that either someone had taken my horse, or I hadn't bought her through the auction. This heated me up under the collar. For one, I had the reciept with the horse's discription and hip number on it. But they're supposed to check the horse's numbers against the reciepts as they're loaded to insure someone doesn't take the wrong animal home. If my horse wasn't there they'd better find it or return my $230. This wouldn't be the first time something I'd bought at an auction had been stolen.

In the end we ended up getting ahold of the Auction House owner. He assured us the filly was still there. Our friend who first was going to haul her though wouldn't be getting off work soon enough to do so, so we called another. I ended up paying $100 for them to go and get her, but at least I saved $50. Which will be put towards wormer and a vet visit.

Here is my favorite part of this whole story though. Sunday at the auction, I decided to take my Alaskan Malamute. We'd recently lost my other dog to a car hit, and she has been really thrown off balance by it. So I figured a day out of the house would be good for her. She is NOT a farm dog, but on the leash, she's a wonderful dog and was pretty much perfectly behaved the entire time. But about half way through the horses, another puppy showed up out of no where. It hadn't been there earlier, and it kept coming over towards us but wouldn't come up to Ember to say hi. Ember is a very friendly dog towards dogs and people, so the site of the puppy excited her and she barked at it. A woman working there, who turned out to be the auction house owner's daughter made this super bitchy remark telling my dog to shut up. (Also that puppy ended up being her mother's puppy). Later that night, it was her boy friend who was supposed to haul our filly. She mentioned him and started talking about how nice and pretty my dog was. I really hate two faced bitches...

As we showed up to pick my filly up, she asked if we were there for the bay with blue eyes. When I said yes (trying so hard to remain polite) she snarkily says we need to back the trailer all the way up because she hasn't been handled. So she was pretty much saying "You won't be able to touch that horse because it's too wild, let alone put a halter and lead rope on it." It meant that we'd have to chase her through the ally into the trailer.

For a moment I thought back on how the filly had shyed away from me in the pen the night before. Had I been wrong about her gentle eye? Was I making a mistake? Had I bought a horse that was too dangerous for me to trust around my children? HOWEVER, I am stubborn. So as our friends backed the trailer up, I went to go see my filly. She looked calm enough. She didn't seem eager for my touch, but she didn't pin her ears or spin to kick me. So I scooted over to her slowly, hand outstreched in a passive form. And sure enough, in less than a minute, I was rubbing her neck and scratching her face. That isn't something you can do with a crazy horse. So as my friends came around to tell me they were ready, I told them I was going to get my halter.

The woman mentioned before, the auction house owner's daughter, apparently her dad had actually rasied the filly. So when she said the horse was unhandled, she was probably right, but I have no idea why she made the horse out to be untouchable. I went back out to the truck and grabbed my halter and lead rope, although looking at the halter I was a bit worried it'd be a tad too big. So my friend went around and picked up some other abandoned halter and handed it to me. It was a tad smaller and just right. In less than 2 minutes I had it on the filly and was leading her outside.

I would be lying if I said that I didn't feel an air of superiority as I walked past the other woman from before with my new filly in toe. Oh yes, I was right proud with myself. She made a remark of surprise, but it was towards the horse, and not me or my ability to halter her and lead her. I on the other hand could only think that maybe she didn't know as much as she liked to think she did, or maybe I was just inately better with horses than she was. Who knows, but I felt right proud about proving this two faced bitch wrong.

I'd have had this filly loaded on her own terms into the tiny 2 horse trailer in 10 minutes. I know I would have. After just 2 I had her stepping into it and sniffing it. But then she stepped on her lead rope and spooked herself, jumping right back out. Apparently the auction house owner, who had randomly showed up, was too impatient to let me try again. He came and shoved her into the trailer. Not how I would have liked things handled. She'd have gotten up there on her own in just a few minutes, and it would have been a great learning experience for her. It's not like anyone else was waiting to load a horse. At least this showed me she isn't prone to kicking.

Upon getting her home, I put her in the barn and shut it off. I hadn't finished with the run, so she'd have to deal with the barn, which was a bigger space than her sell pen. I gave her some water and threw in some alfalfa. After paying my friends for hauling her and waving them goodbye, I went back and finished setting up her run. I opened her gate up to allow her out into it, and she took everything in stride.

Elsa was excited to see another horse. She pacedteh fence line, but there was no squealing or bucking. And the filly couldn't seem less interested in her. Things are set up right now so that the two can't touch. This is after all a strange horse from an auction, there's no telling if she brought something back with her. I am not risking the life of Elsa (a $4,000 horse) just so they can interact at this time.

Today I will be buying wormer for the filly and going to the vet to arrange a farm visit. It's time for Elsa to have a yearly check up and get her vaccines anyways. Probably have her coggins done as well. So I'll have the same done for the new filly (coggins excluded) and have her checked out for any possible illnesses while I'm at it. Once she clears that, she'll be let out into the whole of the barn lot where she can interact with Elsa over the fences. And then I'll put the two of them together. I'm looking forward to have this new filly around. Generally I hate the idea of buying a horse of a breed I'm really not interested in, but this girl is a good girl. My two young kids can ride her for years to come, especially if they want something with a bit more get up and go than a draft.

Until next time everyone!