Horse Shopping

No. not for me.  I most definitely don't need another horse, but after much agonizing, Riding Buddy has decided it's time to look for a new trail partner.  Her horse, Hawkeye, has gotten pretty arthritic in the last year or two and after adding up all the years she realized that his age is higher than she thought, more like twenty than 16.  He is having more and more trouble, especially on steep or uneven ground and that's nearly all we ever ride on.  It is especially a problem because he is becoming very trippy, not wanting to bend his knees and they have had a few nasty near-misses where he has almost fallen down with her.  It's the exact same reason that I retired my old mare, Suki, a few years ago.  Her other horse is 26 and has already been retired for some time.  They will both always have a loving home with RB.  Neither will ever end up one of those poor lost souls listed on Craigslist or run through an auction.  You know the ones.....

"Older horse for sale cheap or free, only marginally crippled, but past his due date through no fault of his own.  A good home a must of course even though we're perfectly willing to ditch him after 20 years of good service with any stranger willing to take him off our hands so we don't have to deal with him in his old age."

Anyway, time for some younger blood in the barn.  Despite all the many unwanted horses floating around in the world, it is not at all easy to find a good one.  Horse shopping is tough.  There are usually a lot of good reasons for those horses to be unwanted after all.  Don't get me started down that rant though.

The search has just begun and, so far, this is the first candidate....

A lovely 5 year old Morgan mare bred and raised at a friend's farm just a few miles from here.  She is quite green still, but has 10-12 trail rides under her belt.  She has good, tough feet, which is major given all the foot trouble RB has battled in the past few years.  A smidge back at the knee, but nothing too serious, it's very common for the breed and in the "draftier" breeds in general.  She might have sore knees when she's 20, but who among us doesn't?  Her one real downfall is that she has never been off of her very isolated farm.  She has a decent brain, but very little exposure to the world.  Much training is needed.

Her parents were standing just a few feet away.  Mom is on the right and the handsome, studly hunk on the left is her father. 

I have to admit, I've always had a particularly soft spot for Morgans.  My very bestest horse ever was a half Morgan and so was Suki.  As a teenager, I worked on a Morgan horse farm in Vermont, I had some really great rides on those horses.....