We purchased Maverick aka “Docs Classy Bumpkin” AQHA registered Quarter Horse, just over 9 months ago for Amy’s tenth birthday. Isn’t it always a little girls dream to own a horse? Of course, rainbows, unicorns, flying over jumps, going around the barrel really fast, ha ha ha!!! It’s so easy looking for the horse (one would think…) and purchasing it. That’s the easy part.
We were looking for a nice calm horse that was the right age for Amy, I have heard them say, “that if you take the horses age and the age of the child and it adds up to 20” that’s a good age horse to purchase for your child. Needless to say Maverick was 8, (we fall short by 2 years…ha ha ha). We also wanted a horse that could look pretty enough for trying show jumping, dressage, run some barrels and so forth, basically a nice all rounder. Well, we found Maverick and he was previously used for competitive cow sorting.
You now have this horse that seems like the dream horse, so calm, so chilled out all by itself in a large indoor arena while you have a trial ride, as you do, and always make sure the owner rides the horse for you first. Now the work begins! You have to figure out what makes this fella tick. All the true colors start rearing their ugly head. What was his past like? What accidents may he have had, if any? How is he used to being tied up? How was he fed? Was he on free feed on a round bale? Was he fed on a schedule? Did he get Alfalfa? Gosh the guessing begins unless you have a nice person who is honest that you purchased your new horse from. So here goes the experiment…..read my next blog post to come soon.
all about horses 