by Laura Crum
So
not too long ago I posted about my friend Wally selling a black horse named
Coal. I had mixed feelings about this—
here is the link to that blog post. Last
week I heard that Coal has sold—to a good home. And yet, I still have mixed
feelings. Maybe this is just my problem—I’d like to put my thoughts out there
and see if anyone else has some insights.
Coal
was/is a pretty horse, with lovely smooth gaits and overall good manners. Wally
bought the horse as a backup rope horse, but Coal wasn’t a very good rope
horse, and he wasn’t very enthusiastic about it. I thought of using Coal as a
backup trail horse, but the horse absolutely hated walking downhill (to the
degree I wondered if he was truly sound, though he appeared 100 percent sound
on level ground), and all our trails are hilly, not to mention I didn’t have an
extra corral to put him in. So we all agreed that our friend Mark, a young
trainer/horse trader, who had been keeping Coal, could sell the 11 year old
gelding, with the stipulation that it must be to a good, appropriate, home. Not
as a rope horse. Not as a trail horse in hilly country. Hopefully to a forever
home.
I
don’t have many photos of Coal, and, as a black horse, he was/is hard to
photograph. But here is a shot of Coal and Mark bringing the roping cattle up
the alley along with my son and Henry.

So
Mark sold Coal to a woman in her sixties who has six retired horses—due to age
or injury-- and wanted one she could ride. Just a sound, gentle horse. She
lives in California’s central valley, where everything is flat, so no hills.
She just wanted a walk/trot lope arena horse. She has a beautiful horse
facility; all her horses are given the best of care. She fell in love with
Coal, who is certainly as nice a walk/trot/lope horse as anybody could ask for.
And Coal passed the vet check—which inclines me to think that he just doesn’t
LIKE walking downhill, and doesn’t have soundness issues. The X-rays showed no
incipient problems. Before this gal even hauled the horse home, she insured him
for medical. She readily agreed that we had the right to buy him back if she
sold him. But she has never sold a horse. Coal has a stall with an attached 100
foot run. There is pasture turnout. Does this sound like a good home or what?
But…despite
the fact that this is obviously a good, loving owner, she is not a particularly
knowledgeable horse person. And Coal, though well broke, has his “stuff” as all
horses do. He is a bit cinchy and inclined to make faces when cinched, and to
crowhopping when kicked up to the lope after time off. He couldn’t/wouldn’t
buck anyone off, but he will hump his back and do those little dolphin bucks.
He will spook occasionally. Mark says he gets grouchy if he isn’t ridden
regularly. And Coal, by my own observation, though a polite horse, is not a
particularly friendly horse. This all fits easily within my own definition of a
gentle, broke horse, but then I think of my horse, Sunny.
Mark
was the one who bought Sunny from a rope horse trader, maybe eight years ago
now. Sunny was cute and gentle and well-mannered. He was not, however, a very
good rope horse. Too slow, not handy enough. Mark tested the horse on the arena
and the trail, and thought he was absolutely a solid, bombproof trail
horse/riding horse, and that this would be a better life for him than being a
team roping horse. (I saw Sunny during the two week period Mark owned him, and
can attest to the truth of all this.)
So
Mark sold Sunny to what seemed like an ideal home. A fairly experienced
horsewoman, with several riding horses that she’d owned for years, who trail
rode a lot, and dabbled in dressage, bought Sunny as a riding horse for her
daughter and a backup trail horse in general. And to begin with, this woman
loved Sunny. She thought he was perfect. But over the three year period that
she owned him, the horse developed some bad habits. He kicked her daughter. He
kicked her farrier. He tried to kick a friend that was tacking him up for a
ride. He wasn’t always easy to load in the trailer any more. He didn’t behave very
well (gate sour) in the arena, though he was still reliable on the trails. Etc,
etc, etc.
Eventually
she decided to sell him. At the time, I was looking for a replacement/backup
for my son’s pony, Toby, because Toby’s cancer had reoccurred and I knew the
pony’s days might be numbered. (
See my post on Toby here.) I remembered Sunny
as a really nice little riding horse and went to try him. Well…
The
horse that I tried that day was a far cry from the well broke little gelding
I’d seen three years ago. The gal had been riding him English, and all you
English riders will probably yell at me, but from my point of view, the owner
had taught him to pull relentlessly on the bit (I’m sure you don’t all do
this). The horse had always been lazy, but now he felt reluctant, he bulled
into the bridle, and he pulled hard toward the gate. The woman assured me I’d
like Sunny a lot more on the trail, but I was looking for a riding horse for my
son, and Sunny was far too much of a bully in his present form to be any good for
a six year old kid. I turned him down.
But
I couldn’t forget the cute little palomino horse. I bought the MUCH better
behaved Henry for my son, and we started trail riding together. But my horse,
Plumber, let me know he didn’t care to walk down steep hills any more (just
like Coal). Plumber was 20, and had been my riding horse for many years—I
decided to honor his wishes, and not insist on using him as a trail horse. And
I remembered Sunny.
It
was now nine months since I had tried Sunny and rejected him. In the interim
the horse had been for sale. Many people had tried him. Nobody bought him. Mark
had actually tried him for a client. When Sunny tried to kick Mark as he loaded
the horse in the trailer, Mark rejected him, too. “That gal has him completely
spoiled,” he said.
But
I wanted a steady trail horse and I believed Sunny was that. I took him on
trial. And yes, he had some bad habits. I had to be pretty firm with him.
Here is my post about how I retrained Sunny.
You
can see that I had to use some pretty “tough love.” But today Sunny is back to
being a reliable riding horse, and is, as everybody agrees, once again a
pleasure to be around. I really do love him and I think he is fond of me (see
my post,
“Love…and an Ordinary Horse”). But if I (or someone equally competent)
hadn’t bought him, I have no doubt he would still be “Small Nasty,” as my
friend Wally called him. A once nice horse that had been spoiled such that he
was a bully. A horse nobody wanted. And I have to admit that I am worried about
this happening to Coal.
Coal
and Sunny are, of course, very different personalities. Even so, I can imagine
that if Coal’s slight cinchiness intimidated his rider, that behavior might
escalate. And it is SO much harder to retrain a horse out of “bullying” behavior
than just to not allow it in the first place. And this is the pitfall in
selling a horse, even a well trained horse, to anything less than a competent
horseman.
I
know, I know, I need to hope/trust it will all go well. And I do. I hope it
works out wonderfully. I remember the horses I have sold or placed in good
homes, and some of these were not competent horse people, but they are still
giving the horses a good life (some of these horses don’t get ridden very
often—but I think the horses are happy). I know I am not always the best home
for a horse—some horses that I have placed have a much better life than they
would have had with me—I really only have time to exercise one horse, and right
now Sunny is that horse. But still…I can’t help the nagging worry. I want Coal
to have every bit as happy a life as Sunny has today.
So,
anybody have any thoughts on how horses do with less than experienced horse
people for owners? I am hoping that we did Coal a favor…what do you think?
Also,
in book news—this is the last week to get my most recent mystery, Barnstorming,
as a Kindle edition for $2.99. After Nov 15
th, the publisher will
raise the price back to $9.99 or something like that—much higher than it is
now. I don’t know if the price will get reduced again, so now is the time to
buy this one if you want to read the whole twelve book series on Kindle.
Here is the link.
And
on a related note, the first two books in the series,
Cutter and
Hoofprints,
are currently on special for a mere 99 cents each. Click on the titles if
you’re interested.