Buying Horses

My search is still on for new horses. Today Leigh and I traveled to somewhere outside of crickhowell to see a 7yr old TB x Shire gelding 16.1hh called Magic. I spoke to the lady the night before and got directions and also an e mail with a couple of photos. Looked promising. We set out at about 10.30 and got there just after noon. Directions are always amusing although these were pretty good, except for the turn right before cattle grid. How do you know where the turning is if you don’t know where the cattle grid is? Needless to say we missed it and as the lane was very narrow had to continue up mountain till I found a large area to swing round. The view was magnificent all mountains sticking out of a blanket of fog unfortunately I’m not very good at driving where there are drops on the side of the road so was quite worried. Eventually we found the farm and the horse was tied to the side of the house with a haynet of straw. No rug and the weather was freezing cold. We had a coffee and a chat about how to kill a duck via the internet (buts thats another story) and then looked at the horse. First impressions are always good and I liked the look of him. Nice size not too heavily built. I then felt his legs which had a few splints but no swellings and looked ok. Then I looked at his teeth I’m not the best with teeth but I would have said older than seven although he has a passport and is aged as seven. He lacks muscle but she admitted he had not been ridden for sometime and I felt he could do with feeding up but. Leigh trotted him up the road and then the owner did, so we could look at his action and for any lameness. Things are looking up, appears to be sound. He stood very still and calm whilst being tacked up. Leigh did his usual jump from the ground and straight on but he was not fazed. Leigh trotted him on road, slightly close behind and a very slight dish in front but nothing serious. Leigh then took him in a boggy field and had a trot and a canter on a circle. Its very hard to make a decision when there isn’t facilities to try a horse out which is why I prefer to have them on trial but its not always possible. Anyway we both decided we liked him so decided to buy him. which means another trip to pick him up. We also purchased a 16.1hh Grade B show jumper this week which amelia will jump BSJA and will be used in some lessons. Honey a Large Irish Draught type has been here on a weeks trial but is not suitable due to lameness so she is going back and I could do with finding another horse as Lincoln will be going soon.

Posted on Friday, November 16th, 2007 at 2:50 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.