> I've had people tell me they thought this had happened to them, that > they rode a horse at the owner's barn, it was a nice horse, they take > it home and it goes crazy. >
Personally, I've never been misrepresented or lied to, though I'm sure it happens. I've bought and sold horses across country when I was raising curly bashkirs... being a rare breed, you often have no choice. I never had any disappointments on either end that way, but have experienced a few disappointments on both ends (buying and selling) after actually seeing the horse in person prior to purchase. In all of these cases, it had nothing to do with drugs or misrepresentations, but rather the horse itself being unhappy in its new surroundings. One example was where I sold the sweetest, most affectionate mare I had to another breeder in the state. I heard that she later told another breeder that she was the "meanest horse she ever saw." Apparently, after some time, the mare pinned her against the stall wall and gave her a pummeling with her hind legs. She finally figured out that that mare craved a lot of attention, and, having a rather large herd, this lady hadn't been giving it to her. Once she started loving on her, the mare turned back to her old self. Then there was the first pony I bought for our homestead. Sweet as could be and picture book cute. All the kids got to ride on her, and she seemed to really enjoy them and was perfectly calm. Got her off the trailer and she turned into a beast. Scared the wits out of my kids... would actually run up to them and bite them in the shoulder, and kick at every opportunity. She was just plain furious to be at our farm... missed her bigger 2 horses that had been her "moms" at the previous farm, and was outraged that all we had were a bunch of goats (which she chased and tormented if given the chance). A mare we recently got was an absolute handful at first, and it has taken a couple months for her to settle in. If we weren't experienced with natural horsemanship and patient, I'm sure we would have been very unhappy with her and might have felt that she was misrepresented to us. Some horses are just more sensitive to changes in their environment than others. Meg
