This is lengthy. You’ve been warned.
Those of you that keep up with me know that I eat, sleep, breathe, dream and am otherwise obsessed with horses. Last March I got a call from some folks in Utah, who had sent their trainer to Texas to look for horses. This call came out of the blue, so I priced my open horse, Black (with a very hefty price-tag mind you- and yes he was black and yes his name was Black. I’m not original, ok!). She told her client to purchase my horse. He sold. Out of 40 horses she rode, she picked him. That makes me feel great, but…
I got and email two weeks ago (the same day I found out about Matt’s death) that the person who bought him was selling him. A few weeks prior I found out the horse was crippled- and if they didn’t do something soon he could crack his coffin bone (that is the bone inside the horse hoof that basically holds the horse). Then he’d be ruined. Anyway the gist of the email was that they wanted to sell him and that he’s not really sound but that they wanted a butt load of money for him still- (less than they paid but an awful lot nonetheless). They told me to contact their vet about his problems if I had questions.
Ok. So I broke down yesterday, after having called Black’s attending veterinarian 6 times, and having him 1. not return my calls, and then 2. when I finally did get a hold of him tell me that he can’t talk to me w/out permission from the owner. I faxed him the email that I had from the owner, with his number, that clearly came from his current owner. He still hasn’t called me back. I mean, WTF does he think I’m gonna hunt him down out of all the vets in Utah?
So in complete frustration I finally dialed the number of the trainer who had come down and bought him. Keep in mind, she rode over 40 horses when she was here last spring, and only took 4 back with her. She told me yesterday that my horse was the best, most honest choice she made (Yay Black!). She told me that his current dumb a$$ owner called her two weeks ago and asked her to sell the horse for her.
So she’ll be getting him back in her barn in 2 weeks or so. She said that she felt bad that things hadn’t worked out like she’d promised for me, and that the horse was awesome and nice and that they had made him sore, by running him 3-4 times on a Saturday and then going to a rodeo the next day. She said they basically ran him into the ground. They never used her shoer- in fact she said they refused- and her shoer and he knew exactly how to shoe him to keep him sound. She said the girl came for lessons for about 2 months after she got the horse and was informed that she shouldn’t be running him 5 times a weekend. They ignored her. She felt like they are ignorant by choice, which she didn’t know they wanted to be until after they got their daughter a step up horse, Black.
I asked her how far away she was from Ogden Utah, which is where my horse chiropractor/acupuncturist was just at. She said 30 mintues. So I asked her if she’d have him work on the horse when he gets back up to that area. She said she would. I emailed her his info. She is also going to have the horse taken to her vet, b/c she said the vet that has been treating him is an *idiotic lunatic*. She’s going to get new xrays and let me know what is going on. I feel so much better.
Funny thing yesterday too- evidentally the girl is driving from Texas back to Utah. She called about 3 hours later (after we spoke in the morning) and said that she was stopped at a Loves (truck stop) in Amarillo, TX and she met my Chiropractor! He is on his way back from Utah, Colorado and Vegas. Hilarious! Small world. She said he noticed her b/c she had a trailer full of horses. He said he was a chiro and that he was from Fort Worth and she asked him if he was my chiro. I was cracking up!
Now for my injured horse update: Paris’ bandage on her foot got to come off yesterday. She looks great.
Sonora is really getting better. And starting to really come on.
Shuttle feels like a bigger horse than she is, when I’m on her.
I’m about to go hit a happy hour. I’m excited!
What's on your mind?