Fate caused you to buy your horse?

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MagicMelon

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Just wondering if anyone has any stories about a time when you thought it was fate you had to buy the horse you did? Like any coincidences etc.?

I think I was meant to buy one of my current horses. He was born in Portugal and called Retinto (Tinto basically). My mum used to live in Spain, her dad worked for the famous mining company Rio Tinto for years before they came here. On the way to view Tinto, we saw a number plate which made into "tinto" and the yard he was at was right beside the Tinto Hills!!! How flipping weird is that. I just thought that those coincidences are just too odd. We did buy him and Ive never regretted it
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I'm sure most of you know the story of how I came by Donkey. I'd bought Stinkerstonker straight from the breeders field in Oxfordshire. 7 months on and over night I lost her to colic. I was about to go and see another horse (CB of course) when I found on a website of breeding records that Stonks had a full younger sister. CB Horse Society put me in touch with her owner - who had also bought her from the field and now was only 20 miles from us - and was willing to sell her - fate or what??
 
yep that was deffinatley fate when you had all the signs !!
when i brought my first horse we went to devon to see him,rode him etc he was perfect,before picking him up told a few people and found out that he use to be kept at our yard years ago that was wierd,when we got him back to our home town he started calling out like he new he was back home again !!
 
Yep, in brief...

Lost beloved mare to colic...totally devestated. Couldn't eat, sleep etc. Had a dream 3 months on of my mare coming to me saying..."you have to move on, it was meant to be, and then showed me jumping a chestnut/bright bay horse"

few months on again, saw loads of horses, some chestnut/bay horses, just about to give up, and was told about one locally.

Went to see her and she was the image of the black mare I lost, same eye same big ears, and I knew I had to have her. She passes a 5 stage vetting (though I wound have bought her if she hadn't)

Passport arrived 2 weeks after I got her home....Closely related to my dead mare.

I still have her, and she is the best horse I could have wished for. What colour is she...Chestnut! Coincidence, I like to think not.
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We where on our way to view 2 foals at the time missy and another foal by crosstown dancer , was going to view crosstown dancer when we got lost so decided to go and view missy instead and low and behold we bought her, there where people on their way to view her but couldnt get there for another half hr so Im pretty sure they would have snapped her up if we didnt get there .
 
When we were looking for a pony for the girls, a friend showed me an advert in the Bargain Pages, which simply said 'Black gelding, 12.2hh'.

I protested that:
a) I wouldn't buy ANY pony out of the bl**dy Bargain Pages full stop!
b) 12.2hh was too small for what I really wanted!
c) There was no information on the pony, so it was probably vile anyway! lol

She kept on & on about it, saying it couldn't hurt & you 'never know'! I finally went with sinking heart to look, just to shut her up really. (Left it for ages & was surprised to find pony still for sale - presumably everyone else had been put off by the lack of any real info as well!)

Pony turned out to be 13hh, not 12.2hh & was the 'bordering on perfect', Little Black One. It really was 'meant to be'!
 
Yes, deffinately meant to be. I moved to Derbys, met some friends, started riding and bringing on their Welsh D then started to sort out a permanent loan agreement. He got colic and had to be pts which devasted me as we were building up trust and he would do things for me that he would not even for his current owners! Looked for weeks for another horse but nothing could replace my loss. Then a work colleague of OH's saw an advert for a Welsh D in LLandudno! So rang up and lady sent pictures...fell in love hook, line and sinker. When I spoke to my friends about potentially viewing him they recognised the sellers name and it transpired that the lady who was selling my horse had actually backed and broken the horse I had previously hoped to loan for life!!! She knew him really well as did their families!
She was the only lady (apart from me) that had been able to get the horse doing things as he regularly had others off!!!
I went to see the horse and he was mine and have never looked back since. It is a small world really given that we were in Derbys, my horse in Llandudno and I had actually looked through the magazine myself and missed his advert completely and binned the same magazine that my OH's colleague found the advert in!!!
 
I think I had mine through fate. I had lost my old Highland and spent 12 months getting the money together to replace him and taking the time to get over losing my Highland (I'd had him 10 years). I got the catalogue of the local sales (45 mins away) and marked about 15 that would be potential ones to buy. I went through it with two very experienced people who'd gone to auctions and knew the tricks people would pull to sell a horse there.

When we got there we went round all the ones I had marked and a number of them were not as described or doped etc. We ended up with about 5 that were suitable but the bidding on them started above my top end of my budget. I was gutted when it got to the last 4 or 5 of the day and I had nothing to go home with. I was really wanting to get back into ownership and not have to wait another month to the next sale. The second last horse came in the ring and it was a late entry so i'd not had the chance to check it over in the stalls but his face was just to die for. I melted as soon as I saw it. The two ladies looked at him walking and trotting in the sale ring and gave me the nod to bid on him. Off I went at sensible money but someone else wanted him too. It slowly crept to the maximum I could afford so I hung in there and paid £50 more than I wanted to and got him.

The girl who was riding him stripped his tack off, told me he'd done a bit of everything and fled!
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I knew nothing more than this about him so gave him a clean slate and started from scratch. It transpired 2 years later that he was kept about 6 miles from where I work and that the admin at worked used to work with his old owners. I went and saw them and found loads of his history which was very colourful and involved broken jaws, hospital stays, rearing and nearly being shot. He was bumped off to the sales by a dealer to get rid of him for the family and swap him for something else. The family were assured he wouldn't go to the sales so were gutted when they heard that he had. They were thrilled to hear that he was behaving and in good hands
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I dread to think what might have happened to him if I hadn't got him
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I suppose fate had a part to play when I got Moon. She was on the yard to be broken, produced and sold. I'd taken an interest in her and was doing all the work on her to get her ready to sell. I was the only person she'd actually do anything for!
Had an awful event with Boss and I decided to retire him and my parents said 'well what about buying Moon' hadnt really given it much thought before then but it just seemed so right. So I have to thank Boss for being a little sod and letting me down big time as I now have my mini Moon
 
A bit of fate when it came to buying George, I was looking for a native cross no bigger than 15.3, so when I did my online searches I always limited the top height to 15.3 - one day I forgot to limit the search and up popped George, I was going to ignore it but he was only down the road and I loved his face- best thing I ever did, he is one in a million!
 
I happened to stumble across my pony when searching for one to buy, was going to dismiss him because he was in Manchester so too far away to risk going to see if he wasn't what I wanted, but just happened to be going to Manchester the following weekend for a Westlife concert so went to see him, and left my deposit!
 
Yes i think mine was down to fate too, I had to return my loan horse due to illness and so we decided to buy my first own horse. So we had arranged to go and see a 14yr old ex advanced eventer on isle of wight, but they had flash floods and so their manege & hacking was completely flooded so they said not to bother coming as I wouldnt be able to ride her. As I was so upset my dad took me to see a 5 year old tbx show jumper locally - I was adamant I didnt want a youngster and didnt want to go! - but it was love at first sight! 5 years on hes still going really well - touch wood! :-)
 
Yes I believe fate was involved. I had given up riding after totally losing my confidence a few years before, and had just really caught the 'horsey bug' again. My mum bumped into some old horsey family friends of ours and in conversation had said I wanted to ride again. The friend said she had the most perfect horse for us that was on her yard to sell, her daughter was currently riding it. It was a 4yr old coloured 14.3hh and twice my budget, I wasn't really interested because I wanted something a bit older and quiter that had been there and done it, around 16hh. Mum and Dad were dead against me getting a horse again, but a few months later we were driving past their yard and thought we'd pop in and say hi. Saw this pony and just fell in love, I'd never seen anything so stunning! Dad was still dead against it but mum really liked him, and about a month later I persuaded them that maybe we should see him ridden. He was an absolute sweety, so laid back. All in all it was about 6 months between first seeing him and buying him. I'd been riding him regularly and had just fallen in love. Have never regretted it for a second
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You could say that it was fate..
When I was looking for a horse 4 years ago I went to a yard selling a few horses, and went specifically to look at a few 6/7 year olds that had done a bit and were ready to go eventing. However I looked at a few, didnt particularly like them and was just walking through the yard looking at the horses not really liking anything and was ready to go home.
Came to the end of the corridor, and there was Owens head over his stabledoor and, it was just something that he had in his eyes that made just had to buy him there and then pratically !! It was like a instant gut feeling.So I bought him even though he was 4 and had done nothing and was prob faar to much for me at the time !

Ellie I bought through Sallyf on HHO!! Was going to look at this 4 year old by this particular stallion, put up a post in the New Lounge asking if anyone knew this stallion, what his stock were like etc. And Sallyf replied to my post, asked me what I was looking for, and sent me pics of Ellie, and the rest is history!
 
I'd had the cross country lesson from hell on the mare I had on loan and decided that night that she wasn't right for me and I would give her back and look for a horse to buy.
The next day I went to the yard and the yard manager told me she was selling her horse. I hadn't really got my head round looking for a horse yet but she persuaded me to try him and that was that.
Not sure if it was fate or if she'd heard about my nightmare lesson and decided it I might be an easy target, but she was brilliant and let me do everything with him before I committed myself to buying (didn't take me long though).
She still teaches me and rides him occasionally so its been good for her too.
 
Yes I think fate was involved when we bought Murphy. Daughter had had a mare on loan, but didn't work out and she went back in mid December. We decided to wait until spring before looking for another horse and maybe try and buy this time. On boxing day kids had gone to see their Dad and I was at a loose end. Had a look at Horsequest web site to see what sort of horse we might be able to buy for the money we could raise. Most of the ones I liked were way too much, but found one who seemed just our type and for the right money. Read the details of the advert and recognised dialling code, he was about 4 miles away! To cut the story short, tried him on New Years Day, had him vetted as soon as hols were over and he has been with us ever since !
 
I think Fate has alot to do with alot of things, when we bought my first horse I had put a wanted Ad in trade it, someone called us up (they had gone to shop and accidently bought last weeks trade it) they said that they had a mare in the field that they werent planning on selling but no one was riding it and she sounded like what we were looking for. We went and saw PK and fell in love after having a mud loving grey pony PK was the picture of perfection bay with NO white markings! hehe. we tried her, our instructor tried her we vetted her but she failed. The owners had fully clipped her in the november then the daughter lost interest so they turned her out in the field with NO RUG ON (she is a TB!) in december! No field shelter either ! she had a chest infection vet said if the owner gave her 2 weeks antibiotics then the would go back and revet her for free. we called the owners and they refused to do it, they were gonna chuck her back in the field and "shell get over it!" at this point we said we would take her leave a deposit treat her then buy her if she passed vet, they agreed. So home PK came and we have had her for 12 years now. She is 20 and semi retired but was the best PC alrounder you could imagine, I did all the area teams on her and Gatcombe team SJ then she was passed to my sister and sis it all again, She won alot of classes BSJA, the only bad thing about her was her temprement, she would literally chase anyone but my sister and I out of the field teeth barred! and was bad to be rugged/tacked up, basically a grumpy mare but you could do anything to her/take her anywhere, but we havent bred from her as we dont want a grumpy horse thats bad to do! We think she raced as a 2 yr old then went through stowe fair, think she landed on her feet when we bought her and she has more than repaid us!
 
All our were a bit 'fateful'
First one, we looked for about 6 month, wanted a PC allrounder, about 15hh,gelding, that my mum and I could both ride. Saw horse after horse, had 3 fail the vet, eventually my mum got chatting to a lady at some dinner party who had a 4 year old TB for sale (as if tha was what we wanted!) Anyway she insisted we go look, it was nuts, the girl who backed it (on a pro riders yard) wouldn't get on it, so we were just leaving, and one of the girls working there said, oh. that one is for sale, do you want the owner's number? Much more our type. Phoned the girl, she ummed and ahhed, said she wasn't sure she was definately selling, and gave us a number for a small local dealer! Anyway, end up being Ryan Prater's dad Vin, and he happened to have one in he had taken in part exchange....ok, so she was 5 not 10-ish, 16hh not 15hh, and hadnt done nearly as much as we wanted but anyway, I fell in love with her and we still have her today! Weird, as she was the first mare we'd seen and we saw 3 magpies as we left home, and three more as we drove in to their yard.... He he, Ryan showed her to us, he must have been about 11 and about 4'10, and she is 16.1...his feet hardly went below the saddleflaps, but boy could he ride even back then!
My lad, he was advertised on Equilink for loan, I called up about him in December despite not being able to have him til I graduated in the July, but despite having 40 calls and 11 people come to see him, his owners were happy to put him on full livery and keep him for me til the summer....still got him again and he is my perfect perfect horse.
And OH's mare....well we weren't going to buy one for him yet, but he was having lessons on her and our instructor said she'd been offered good money for her so was probably going to sell...we hadn't considered buying her ourselves but went home, talked about it, went back to instructor and asked, and she was happy to let us loan her for 3 months to check it worked out, then we bought her!
I do think so often, even if you are looking, a horse will find you if it is the right one....
 
Mine was fate, i had been thinking about buying another horse for a while but did nothing about it, just tried to make it work with the horse i had then i had a very bad day at a show and decided enough was enough so started looking around. After all the problems i had with the last horse i was addament i was not going to get another mare, well anyway found this horse good at dressage and had BSJA just what i wanted, one problem it's a mare so i looked else where, well anyway i could not get this horse out of my mind so had to go and have a look at it. It turned out they had just put her back on the market as the people that were going to have her had just backed out. I fell in love with her and ended up buying her. Get this i just bonded with this hose so well you would have thought i had owned her for years, so i had a reading done on her and one of the questions i asked was why do i feel the way i do about her, the reply was beause we had been together before in a past live. Now belive it or not it's up to you but i do belive in things like that and i was so drawn to this horse
 
When I bought my firdst horse -well, pony- I saw an advert for ride and drive donkeys. I went along, not realising it was a dreadful dealer (he's in prison now). One donkey we couldn't catch, another had bad wounds and feet and the third he wanted to keep. As we were walking across the field this beautiful dapple grey thing flashed past me. I thought it was an Arab, but turned and saw a section A mare. I couldn't afford her but couldn't forget her either. After two months I rang again and she was still available, so I went along, knocked the price down and bought her. She was in a hell of a mess but she was the most perfect pony ever. She taught me so much. Sadly she died at aged 11 from grass sicknes.
 
I ended up with bot of my two by fate/chance. Touchy was sent by uncle as a summer holiday project, she was to be sold, I sold her to guy whose daughter was 12 and he wanted me to have her on loan and bring her on etc, anyway long story short the agreement came to an abrupt end many tears were shed and Touchy was sent over to Anglesy for someone else to ride, 3 days later sheepish bloke comes on the yard and tells my mum to take the horse back because its gone mental ( Touchy is the most lazy, gentle and quiet horse), mum rings me to ask will have her back OH yes! Touchy came home and lives happily ever after! She is the orange one!
Sov is exracehorse that was sent to my trainer to assess by crazy rich lady who has no idea but knew someone in the syndicate who said he was going to be PTS if she didnt want him. She went and picked him up and sent him to be schooled, trainer rang me and asked if I would be interested had a look at him on the lunge (he was too poor to be ridden) rang up crazy lady (Paula) she said I have a good feeling about you take him whenever you want???
He is the handsome one below!
So the moral of the story is quite often the right horse will find you, no matter how hard you look!
 
10 years ago I was looking for my first horse. I had 3k to spend and I looked at about 13 horses all over the country. All the horses sounded suitable in the adverts and over the phone but then fell short of my expecations when viewed in person.
I was getting disheartened by the whole process so instead of scutinising the latest H&H adverts I just closed my eyes and stuck a pin in the 'for sale' page. The ad my pin landed on was for a horse only 40 mins down the road, under budget and it turned out to be perfect for me. I'd say that's fate !
 
A few coincidendces with merlin.... he was owned by a lady whos sirname was Humphreys..... I used to loan a horse called Humphrey at the local riding school when i was 14..... and his vaccination certificate was named Blackie...... the name of the other pony i looked after in the riding school.

We travelled all the way from surrey to rugby to see him on our 11th wedding aniversary (11years = steel) so I have always said i got a set of shoes for my aniversary pressie with a horse on top!!!
 
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