Red Flags

I had decided last fall after my sweet victory on the trail ride that I needed my very own horse (I used Okie, a friend's horse on that ride).  We have two riding horses, but they're actually my kids'.  Last week Jay found a horse on craigslist that looked very appealing.  She was beautiful, old and appeared to be just what I was looking for.  Bummer, she was in Indiana, three-and-a-half hours away. We corresponded with this girl about her horse and she was insistent that she see us with the horse, not just come, exchange money and papers and be on our way.  She wanted me to be there and see us together.  Wow, this must be an amazing horse and a very loving owner.

Jay asked her to send more pictures and she even had a video she sent of her with the horse playing games.  The horse would twirl around in a circle without being touched or lead, she would go forward and back with this girl and stop on a dime...again, without being lead.  Awesome. I need an idiot-proof horse, seriously.  This has to be perfect.  If she can do that kind of ground work, she has to be awesome.

My birthday was this past weekend so I decided yes, I want this horse for my birthday and off I went.  Jay was working so I had a friend who knows horses come along with me.  We'll call her "Karie" for now.  We take off on Sunday morning with the truck and trailer in search for my perfect horse.  I remember right before Karie came that there were two questions I wish I had asked:  Does she ride western?  Do you trail ride her?  But I didn't.

We had a lovely drive all over Indiana.  (By the way, I'm pulling a trailer on the interstate and around Indy...no accidents.)  Oh yeah...I did say several times I was thankful it was empty...yikes!  When I had called the girl earlier that morning and told her what time we were leaving, etc, she was quite surprised when I mentioned it was 3.5 hours.  Yes, it was 3.5 hours one-way.  What a long day...but I am bringing back the perfect horse!

We finally arrive at the farm and instantly had a connection with these folks, they had chickens, goats, a calf and a horse in their fenced-off yard.  Oh, yeah, Karie and I could so relate.  The husband had Johnny Cash blaring from the shed, oh yeah, I love that too.  We are greeted immediately by the college-bound girl who is selling the horse.  She told her younger sister to go get mom, so she could help her letting horse out.  Mom comes, armed with a Nerf squirt gun.  Hmm, okay.  Girl goes after horse, horse runs from her.  Red Flag #1.  Girl finally does catch horse and leads her out.  Large squirt gun is to keep goats from getting out while they let the horse out.  Interesting.  May have to keep that in mind. 

I'm a talker, I know that.  Jay says sometimes I say too much (really?).  I can now understand what he means.  Girl starts telling us about her horse, who is as beautiful as her picture, and things begin to unravel for the purchase.  Mom is no help.  The horse is very afraid of fireworks, guns and other loud noises.  One time the horse got colicky and they couldn't get her to poop so they threw fireworks at her, which scared the poo out of her.  Red Flag #2.  Yikes.

Four years ago, a guy, who had been bucked off for "no reason" and liked to whip the horse, gave the horse to this girl.  Red Flag #3.  This girl never whips her though.  Okay.  Finally, I ask the question that I wish I had asked before we even headed out on the adventure, "Do you trail ride with her?"  Her answer, "No, but we've seen her being ridden before."  Red Flag #4.  What does that mean?  You haven't trail ridden her, but you've seen her trail ridden??  I'm not following.  I suppose it might mean that the guy who gave you the horse rode her on trail rides before he got rid of her because she bucked him off one too many times after he had whipped her.

Mom says they usually just ride her on the road.  Okay, that's no big deal.  I understand if you don't have someone to ride with, you do what you can.  So I ask the girl if she will saddle her up and ride her around.  There is NO way on this earth I'm getting on her.  And I should say, you know how it goes when you're trying to sell something or show off your kids and instead whatever you're selling won't work or your kids are acting like caged animals?  That's kind of how this went.   According to mom and girl, "She never does this."  "I can't believe she just did that."  Okay, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt here...a little.

Girl tells me that she is trying a new saddle pad because maybe the old one was what was bothering her.  Okay, my mind is churning.  You've had this horse four years...so she has the horse smell the blanket and tosses it on her back.  So far so good.  She then gets the saddle, has the horse smell it and tries putting it on her.  Fiesta rears a little.  "She never does that."  Okay.  All the while, I keep seeing girl look at mom like "HELP ME!"

She leads Fiesta around telling us all this stuff she can do on the ground, which is impressive, but I'm really wanting to use her to ride...because honestly, I thought that was the purpose for a horse, but I'm learning.  So again I ask her to get on the horse.  Mom says, and I quote, "Maybe you should clap in her ear to de-sensitize her first."  RED FLAG #5.  Yes, they have shared the horse is afraid of loud noises, but this seemed a little alarming to me.

So the girl claps several times in the horse's face/ear area and Fiesta does not like it.  Not one bit.  She continues clapping and eventually, Fiesta calms a little.  Again the looks from daughter to mom...unnerving.  Girl finally gets on Fiesta and Fiesta starts dancing around, not cooperating, not enjoying someone on her back, etc.  The thoughts going through my head, actually about 1 minute in, were something like this, there is NO WAY I'm buying this horse.  So I'm trying to formulate in my mind a nice way to tell them this is not the horse for me, but I can't seem to spit it out.  I know there is no reason to see anything else this horse can do (or won't do) because I am not taking her home today or any other day.

I keep looking at my friend Karie for some encouragement and don't see any sign of hope there.  Thankfully, we both had on our sunglasses.  Karie was being nice in that she was letting me decide for myself, I think...because I really had my heart set on bringing this perfect idiot-proof horse home with me.  Finally, I told them that although she was a beautiful horse and may be a good match for someone, she was not the match for me.  I knew I would take her home and be too afraid to work with her. 

As we are preparing to leave, the girl mentions that her grandmother is selling a mare but she lives 20 miles away.  Karie and I figured we had come this far, what is another 20 miles?  So off we went with directions to find a guy named "Bubba" and no, I'm not kidding.  We find the house and Bubba and his wife, who are delightful people.  They obviously have a love for horses and go trail riding all over the Midwest with their horses.  Dixie was a beautiful mare that could almost have been a twin to Woody, Madolyn's horse, and although she was very well trained, she was a little too much price-wise.  We declined and headed back home.

I did learn a few things from this trek.  There are some very important questions I need to ask before seriously considering a horse, and on my way home, I thought more and more that maybe it's not so much the horse that's the problem, maybe I should be working on my skills instead of trying to find a horse that will solve all my problems.  I hope to start working with Woody at home and try to become more confident, and maybe then I can find the perfect horse without so many red flags.