Sale Barn Finds

I have only ever been to one Sale Barn before. When I was there I was certain I could have bought every horse there and taken it home. Well, not every horse, but most of them. I have not been back to the Sale Barn since. I have this theory about the Sale Barn. The horses that get run through go there for a reason. Most reasons are not good ones. I bought a pony from a "horse trader" who frequents the sale barn. He was a cute palomino pony that was very sweet. Until he came home and I cured him of his stomach ulcers. It's amazing the energy that a pony can have when he feels better. It took us about two years of riding and hauling that pony to playdays to get him to the point that a kid could ride him. Then we sold him to a little girl who now runs barrels on him. My father in law goes to three different sale barns about two to three times a month. Then he comes home with horses like these.

This is Magic. She is about six years old now. This is the special horse that trampled my darling Little Cowpoke when he was two years old and we spent the night in the hospital. That was back in March. They bought this horse because my mother in law thought she was "pretty". I think she just was looking at the color.

They had put Magic up for sale because the 11 year old boy for whom they bought the horse for was too scared to ride her. So, in preparation for selling the mare, my father in law did a lot of round pen work with Magic. Now, the 11 year old rides the horse and they have decided to keep her. She still has her "weird" moments, but she is still really green. So, is her rider. I have a saying, "Green and Green make Black and Blue". But that is just me. Then there are the most recent finds.

This is Shotgun. This little pony mare was bought from the horse trader. She is a good little pony, unless you want to bridle or saddle her. Once you do get a saddle on her she is very good to ride. I tried to bridle her and she acted like that had never happened before. So, I put a hackamore on her and the little 10 year old rode off into the sunset. Then there is this mare.

My father in law wanted to call her Blondie, but then she got the name Little Bit. This horse went through the sale barn with the story of how she was used for a police horse and for rescues.

She sure has the size for a police horse, but she doesn't stand still. I have seen mounted policemen with their horses and those horses don't move for anything. You can't get on this mare unless you can mount a horse at the speed of light. But my father in law needed this horse because of her size. He wanted a big horse to ride. Now all he has to do is get her to stand still while mounting. He only has one leg and so he needs a stool to stand on. He has tried to get her to stand still. My father in law has worked her in the round pen too, just to have her try to jump out and totally bend up an entire panel. Nice. You just never know what you are going to get at the sale barn.

Oh, and I received a phone call last night from a friend of mine saying that Chip, the horse that I have been riding, is for sale. Chip's owner wants me to buy him. The owner paid 8,000 for this horse two years ago and he wants to sell him to me for 2500 dollars. Too bad I don't have 2500 dollars to spend on a horse. Chip is a son of Zips Chocolate Chip. The stud fee for Zips Chocolate Chip is 4500 dollars. It is such a good deal, but it just is at a really bad time for our family right now. Oh how I would love to have a super nice western pleasure horse.