Who ever came up with this saying was the one that was GIVING the horse. Has anyone here ever been given a free horse? Have you ever looked in his mouth? Come on, you know who you are. Well I guess I should give you some background. Warning: this will be long.
Three years ago, a friend of mine told me of a job at a stud farm down the road. I was in heaven. An exotic and rare breed of horses was at my fingertips, over forty in all. The stallions were sometimes breed to thoroughbred mares for a sport horse. One of the worst mares was a bay mare called Cat. She was truly evil. She attacked horses and people. The way the long barn was built there were two stalls separated from all the others by the stocks. We always to put Cat and her only friend, another thoroughbred mare named Emmy, in these stalls. Cat would attack the wall between the stalls if she had another horse next to her. She would ripe up her stall, dump her water, and lunge at horses walked past her stall. The stallions had to tease her last because if she weren't in heat she would make the stallion rethink his position. Even when she was in heat, she was a banshee and had to be bred AI because she would still attack the stallion. You had to keep a chain on this mare or she would trample you. When a new mare was brought into the broodmare field, Cat beat her up so bad she was bruised outside and in. We couldn't breed her for a month. Well, the owner had had enough of this horse; she wanted her gone. I had always wanted a thoroughbred and she was trained dressage. So I asked how much. I was told that this mare was bred to the nines and worth more then I could ever afford. The next day, I was cleaning one of the stallion stalls when the owner came in. She said I could have her if I got her out of there right now. But I was told I could not have her papers unless I actually bought her. OK. I could live without her papers. I was told that Cat was 9 years old. Ok, I know what you are thinking. Why would someone want a horse like this? She was dangerous, right? But you would be surprised what a little one on one can do with a horse like this. No stress, good food, and a little TLC can change a horse. Last October, I got a call from my boarding facility. Cat was choking on her feed. She always bolted her food, plus the owner against without my knowledge was feeding her dry shredded beet, really huge chunks. She had started bolting her food because her life at the stud farm. Three hours and four thousand dollars later, Cat was at least a little better. She ended up suffering pneumonia. I haven't talked to the women who owned the barn where she was being kept since. Since, I have had Cat's teeth done. When the dentist looked at her teeth, he told me she was in her late teens early twenties. I wanted to contact her original owner, the woman I got her from was a third party; Cat was her friend's horse. I got her phone number and talked to her for over an hour. Everything I knew about this horse was wrong. The only thing that was right was she was a thoroughbred and her name was Cat. The woman was more then happy to send me her papers. Cat was actually nineteen years old. She had been trained to race but had never made it, though her full sister won over sixteen thousand. The woman was only happy that Cat had gotten a good home. I have been trying to bring back an eleven-year-old mare to training, only to find out she is nineteen. No wonder she was having a hard time of it. So now I own a nineteen-year-old thoroughbred mare and a thirty-year-old Icelandic horse gelding; I knew how old the Icey was when I bought him. I don't think I will ever trust someone when buying a horse. So next time someone tells you to "not to look a gift horse in the mouth" ask him or her why not. Now I have changed her food, blankets, and training to better suit her age. A horse I had been seeing with me for a very long time, has had that time almost cut in half. I also might not have spent so much to save her from a choke. At her age, she could have very easily died but we thought she was younger and could easily bounce back. Well, hindsight is twenty-twenty. Janine
