Have you ever bought a horse that people have told you not to?

[Ravenwood]

Yes, everyone told me not to touch my horse with a bargepole. "You can't hunt that horse", "That horse is dangerous", "I wouldn't ride that horse" etc etc, she put her last owner in hospital

So Ok she came with a bad reputation and for the first few weeks I wondered what the hell I had let myself in for!! But I took the horse on unseen as a favour to someone who was very unhappy with the home they had loaned her to and the owner had given up riding years ago. Infact my horse has spent most of her life turned away!

But after a month or so she settled down and now she is the my horse of a life time. Yes, I hunt her regularly and not so long ago I was leading my daughter off her hunting - she will go first or last and we can do all the gates even if everyone else has galloped off!

She has even turned her hoof to a bit of low level RC dressage and showjumping.

The owners were so happy with her being with me that they sold her to me for £5 to make her officially mine.

Anyway, you will meet her at camp at SLM!!

 

[Tia]

No I can't really say I have, to be honest. I generally go and view horses alone; I've taken people with me a couple of times in the past and I find it distracts my viewing of the horse ... generally they love it because it is a nice colour or has nice markings; I'm looking at the physique so we are totally at odds to one another. I generally know straight away if the horse is of interest to me, if I have doubts I tend to walk away.

Occasionally though, I will go to look at a horse which is not really what I am looking for, however I may post about it on here and people who reply to my posts often come up with good cases for why I should consider buying said horse. I then go away and think about everything they have said and make my decision.

 

[fatpiggy]

Yep, and I've still got her. She ran off with a 6 foot guy and nearly hung him up in a tree. She wouldn't stand to be mounted, wanted to gallop everywhere, jogged incessantly, had zero brakes. Over the years she has driven me nuts at regular intervals and I would say she is consistently inconsistent, but she could never be described as boring, and has no vices such as rearing and bucking. Basically she is just a speed freak. Now she is retired and has earned it - she has given me so much fun and pleasure and she is a delightful, gentle and kind horse.

 

[xspiralx]

Yes - my horse Taz, though I'm sure everyone is bored of this story now! The first time I tried him he put my YO in hospital [he fell over a jump and then stood on her as he got up] - he had been badly abused and was scared of everything, mostly ridden - the slightest touch of the rein or the leg set him off, he couldn't canter at all as he would just tense through his back, throw his head in the air and leap all over the place with legs going everywhere- his jumping was just lunatic - everyone thought I was mad to buy him. But something clicked with me when I rode him, and he had such an anxious look in his eye that I had to have him.

This was the first day I had him:

It did turn out well IMO. I have never loved a horse like I loved Taz. He had the best personality ever, he was so funny and sweet natured, we had such a strong bond. It took a lot of time and he was never going to be entirely without quirks, but we got him cantering and jumping, and more importantly, happy.

A couple of "after" pictures [sorry for pic overload

]

I sold him afterwards, on the advice of many experienced people that he wasn't going to do what I wanted, and I sold him to a lovely man, but unfortunately he was diagnosed not long after with KS and ended up being pts.

I still wouldn't have changed anything about having him though, he taught me so much and was a true gift in my life.