Chavhorse
Well-Known Member
Oh God!
So the lady who is selling the little palomino Cob that we wanted to see rang me to say he was standing on 3 legs in the stable yesterday morning so we did obviously not go and see him, she will call once he is ok again.
As both Jan and Bri had cleared their diaries for the day and were free rather than waste the day we did some internet surfing and ringing round and decided to go down and visit to a yard that specializes in selling cobs, under the name of its very well known stallion over here, the impression given when we phoned was that all of the horses for sale were progeny of this stallion that were either home bred or bought back from previous owners. He had 12 cobs available and would pull out a selection for us to try between 146 and 160 cms and only the good confidence giving ones. None of us knew the yard personally but the website looked great!!!!!!!!!! Let that be a lesson ladies Websites lie!
So after a two hour drive!
We arrived and walked into a dark stinking barn to see 6 cobs in little stables standing on about an inch of soaking shavings, all were filthy dirty, covered in **** stains with mud encrusted feathers, and dull coats. They were all bar one, needing some meat and muscles on them and a bloody good worming programme.
When we asked how long he had had them in we were told they had all been sent over fro from Wales! one poor little mare who will haunt me was the only one who was shiney, bright eyed and looking good, she had come over on the boat two days ago.
We checked her out (as frankly both Bri and I just wanted her out of there before she turned into a wreck like the others) but she was only 144 and just too lightweight for me, it was heartbreaking to have to reject her.
Off the six;
The little 9 year old mare who had arrived 2 days ago was the healthiest looking and would have been fine for a lighter rider, I am 11 stone so it was a no go.
11 Year old gelding, Jan checked him over and he was full of what we call Mok, or mudfever, to the extent his legs were full of fluid, he had also recently been ridden in a saddle that did not fit as he was actually swollen where the panels had been squeezing him
5 year old gelding who was skinny, full of worms and with his wolf teeth still poking out at right angles, he was apparently working well under saddle!
A 2.5 year old who apparently had a bit of an attitude but was going well under saddle, he had a back that had obvious kissing spines yep he was so skinny you did not need the x rays to confirm it.
A 14 year old mare who was a walking skeleton, obviously popped out a foal a year then had a saddle slapped on her to make a riding horse, I graded her about 2 on the condition score, she was a complete sweetheart.
A 12 year old gelding who had also arrived 2 days ago that was the only one we asked to see lunged on a hard surface, this was ignored but a young teen did come in and slap the one saddle on him (obviously one size was fitting all) and fit him in a snaffle complete with crank noseband and flash, as he walked off in front of us obviously scared to death we could see he was uneven. He was taken to the school and the girl attempted to mount him as he swung in circles until the guy who owned the place grabbed his head and bodily held him still. On her first circle round the track the spooked and ran off. She then proceeded to trot him about with no hands on the reins clapping her hands near his ears and holding her arms out to the side, think this was supposed to prove how quiet he was! Shame we had already seen the major spook at the bushes at the side of the school. Poor little guy was obviously still in shock.
At this point Jan who by now had a visible muscle spasm in his cheek! said loudly "I think we can say that from what we have seen this is not your horse, thanks for your time".
As we said our polite good bye's (we were all in total shock at this point) Bri asked the guy so where is your famous stallion? to which he responded with " Dead been dead for 4 years I found him dead in the fence"
Kind of summed it all up really!
It was obvious that he buys a job lot of cobs from a low end dealer in Wales and has them shipped over then this 14 year old kid (actually not getting at her she seemed to be the only one who gave a crap about them!) is the official trainer...Joy!
We drove away in a kind of stunned silence, until Jan finallly broke it by saying "ladies when you get back give your horses a big hug and promise them that they will never ever end up in a **** hole like that with people who should actually be selling cars and not living creatures".
Amen to that!
So not the greatest of starts, Jan is going to make some calls personal recommendations from now on only nothing more of ads or the internet.
Poor little mare is still haunting me though poor little mite convinced if we went back in a month she would also be dull coated, dull eyed and lacking in weight.
So sad and anger making and this idiot was so proud of the fact he had sold over 2000 horses in the last 10 years, god only knows who is stupid enough to buy them.
So the lady who is selling the little palomino Cob that we wanted to see rang me to say he was standing on 3 legs in the stable yesterday morning so we did obviously not go and see him, she will call once he is ok again.
As both Jan and Bri had cleared their diaries for the day and were free rather than waste the day we did some internet surfing and ringing round and decided to go down and visit to a yard that specializes in selling cobs, under the name of its very well known stallion over here, the impression given when we phoned was that all of the horses for sale were progeny of this stallion that were either home bred or bought back from previous owners. He had 12 cobs available and would pull out a selection for us to try between 146 and 160 cms and only the good confidence giving ones. None of us knew the yard personally but the website looked great!!!!!!!!!! Let that be a lesson ladies Websites lie!
So after a two hour drive!
We arrived and walked into a dark stinking barn to see 6 cobs in little stables standing on about an inch of soaking shavings, all were filthy dirty, covered in **** stains with mud encrusted feathers, and dull coats. They were all bar one, needing some meat and muscles on them and a bloody good worming programme.
When we asked how long he had had them in we were told they had all been sent over fro from Wales! one poor little mare who will haunt me was the only one who was shiney, bright eyed and looking good, she had come over on the boat two days ago.
We checked her out (as frankly both Bri and I just wanted her out of there before she turned into a wreck like the others) but she was only 144 and just too lightweight for me, it was heartbreaking to have to reject her.
Off the six;
The little 9 year old mare who had arrived 2 days ago was the healthiest looking and would have been fine for a lighter rider, I am 11 stone so it was a no go.
11 Year old gelding, Jan checked him over and he was full of what we call Mok, or mudfever, to the extent his legs were full of fluid, he had also recently been ridden in a saddle that did not fit as he was actually swollen where the panels had been squeezing him
5 year old gelding who was skinny, full of worms and with his wolf teeth still poking out at right angles, he was apparently working well under saddle!
A 2.5 year old who apparently had a bit of an attitude but was going well under saddle, he had a back that had obvious kissing spines yep he was so skinny you did not need the x rays to confirm it.
A 14 year old mare who was a walking skeleton, obviously popped out a foal a year then had a saddle slapped on her to make a riding horse, I graded her about 2 on the condition score, she was a complete sweetheart.
A 12 year old gelding who had also arrived 2 days ago that was the only one we asked to see lunged on a hard surface, this was ignored but a young teen did come in and slap the one saddle on him (obviously one size was fitting all) and fit him in a snaffle complete with crank noseband and flash, as he walked off in front of us obviously scared to death we could see he was uneven. He was taken to the school and the girl attempted to mount him as he swung in circles until the guy who owned the place grabbed his head and bodily held him still. On her first circle round the track the spooked and ran off. She then proceeded to trot him about with no hands on the reins clapping her hands near his ears and holding her arms out to the side, think this was supposed to prove how quiet he was! Shame we had already seen the major spook at the bushes at the side of the school. Poor little guy was obviously still in shock.
At this point Jan who by now had a visible muscle spasm in his cheek! said loudly "I think we can say that from what we have seen this is not your horse, thanks for your time".
As we said our polite good bye's (we were all in total shock at this point) Bri asked the guy so where is your famous stallion? to which he responded with " Dead been dead for 4 years I found him dead in the fence"
Kind of summed it all up really!
It was obvious that he buys a job lot of cobs from a low end dealer in Wales and has them shipped over then this 14 year old kid (actually not getting at her she seemed to be the only one who gave a crap about them!) is the official trainer...Joy!
We drove away in a kind of stunned silence, until Jan finallly broke it by saying "ladies when you get back give your horses a big hug and promise them that they will never ever end up in a **** hole like that with people who should actually be selling cars and not living creatures".
Amen to that!
So not the greatest of starts, Jan is going to make some calls personal recommendations from now on only nothing more of ads or the internet.
Poor little mare is still haunting me though poor little mite convinced if we went back in a month she would also be dull coated, dull eyed and lacking in weight.
So sad and anger making and this idiot was so proud of the fact he had sold over 2000 horses in the last 10 years, god only knows who is stupid enough to buy them.
and frustrating when you can't do anything about it
