So this horse was about 9-10yrs old, a paint gelding, about the size of Oakley. The reason for selling the horse, raised a little flag for me but I trusted and we hauled Edgar down south to Orting, to go try out this horse and take him out on a trail ride. The guy said he bought the horse 5 months ago for friends to ride, to have an extra horse, but then realized his friends were not really too interested and decided to sell. Sounds a tiny bit fishy, but I trusted.
So we get to his home, watch him do a lot of ground work, I did some ground work, very responsive, very nice manners, laid back easy going horse... and cute! :) So he then got on and did a lot of trotting and some loping around.. didnt seem like the horse was willing to walk much, but it also seemed like the guy didnt want the horse to walk and kept him moving. He then stopped him and said "if the horse is going to buck, this is when they will do it" and then from the stand still, he basically stuck his legs out as far as he could, leaned forward and kicked as hard as he could, pushing the horse into a lope.. Well sure as shit that horse bolted forward a few strides at the lope then proceeded to buck the guy off!! Well I didnt blame the horse too much, wasnt impressed that he bucked, but the guy about scared the shit out of that horse. He didnt just come off either, he did a complete summersault in the air, landed flat on his back! But he got back on and asked the horse to lope off a number of times and there was no other buck, and the horse didnt appear to want to buck either.
I was not 100% sold on this horse, and that was before the bucking even happened.. I felt he was not as quiet and laid back as we would want, but its hard to know in a round-pen environment and Rachel wanted to get out for the trailride still, so we loaded him up and headed out to Mud Mountain Dam in Enumclaw to ride. He was pretty good! Had some issues with being left behind when we tried that scenario with him, but nothing too major. He was definately a leader, he wanted to move out and be in front, was willing to cross anything and go anywhere directed. At this point again, i'm still feeling like he's not quite what we want. Although a very good trail horse, he just didnt do it for me. Well the seller likes to run/lope on the trails, so he kept encouraging Rachel to get Chico(horse) into a lope and they did so a few times.
We get out to an opening, they decide to lope again and out of the blue, Chico lets out a big 'ole buck and off comes Rachel, landing on her back with a VERY badly rope-burned left hand! She is laughing, so I am laughing.. Chico runs off and catches up to Ryan (owner) and she gets back on. Persistant my damn friend is, so shortly after that, she and Ryan take off loping again, this time up a big gravel hill. In my head I'm thinking.. this chick is nuts! After that round of loping, they decide to lope again, going uphill on that same gravel road and this time Chico decided to let loose once again, this time I knew Rachel hit the ground much harder. The burns she had just incured 15 minutes earlier, well they now were torn open!
She got back on and we told the guy, you need to lope lope lope this horse and then re-list him in a month or so when he is over that crap and list him for more than he was previously asking. Chico is a GREAT trail horse, if he can get over bucking.
Today I went online and randomly decided to google search the guys phone #. I wanted to see if I could find his full name so I could see if he was on FB so I could see if he had a FB picture of this horse, so I could post it on my blog.. Whew.. that's a lot of "so I could..." Well in searching for his name, what I really discovered is 3 other ads for horses for sale by this guy... The ads were expired, so the links did not take me anywhere that provided a date, but regardless I now realized this guy was a liar! I had been defending him online and to friends and I was immediately PISSED OFF and ANGRY that this MF*er duped me.
I sent Rachel a text to tell her about this asshole and she proceeds to tell me just how bad off she really is.. she was going to hide it from me, but came clean.. So here it is 11:45pm on Sunday night, I'm a lot angry and I decided this seller needed to hear from me; here's my email to him (which was cc'd to Rachel as well)
Hi Ryan..
I wasn't going to send an email, but really feel that maybe I should. Even after the bad ride we had yesterday on Chico, I was giving you the benefit of the doubt about what happened.. I believed what you were telling me about Chico.
Although a few things did raise little flags for me about the information you provided; however, I trusted. When you said you bought Chico for friends to ride, but then 5 months later decided to sell because they no longer were interested, that raised flags for me.. That didn't seem logical to me, but again, I trusted.
There are 2 things I want to say about this whole thing.
1) I went online today and decided to put your phone # into google search, I was curious if you were listing this horse anywhere else online. And I found 4 horses you've listed for sale in the online history (although there are no dates since the ads have expired) ! Chico, a 13yr Arab, a QH Mare and a 16h Appy Gelding. What a shock that was to find.. to discover the person I thought was being up front with me, is actually a horse-trader.. most likely buying them cheap and selling them for a profit.
2) I called my friend to check on her today and I want you to know she spent 3 hours in the ER today. She started slurring her words and was seeing spots in her vision, so her children took her to the hospital.. She has a severe head injury/concussion, her ankle that she broke 2 months ago is now bigger than it was when she originally broke it, her left hand is useless (she uses her hands daily to make a living) and is covered in bruises all over.
We know the risks involved with riding horses, we get that. BUT you encouraged her to lope Chico on numerous occassions, 2 of which resulted in her getting bucked off. We TRUSTED that you knew this horse WELL ENOUGH to know that he would NOT do that! You didn't seem to show much concern when she was bucked off or emotion about it.
We then find out as we are riding back up the rest of the road to the trailers, that you've only ridden that horse 10 times in the 5 months you've had him and that he sat for 2 years.. You did tell me about the 2 years of him not being ridden, but you did NOT tell me you only put 10 rides on him.
So now I'm pissed. My friend was BADLY injured/hurt by your horse, BECAUSE YOU MISLED ME! I feel Duped and now know I was lied to and I think you need to understand the DANGER you put people in when you indicate what a great trail horse this is, then highly encourage loping and running on the trail. I am so angry you put myself and my friend in such a bad position, for a few bucks!!!!
We felt we were trying to help you out, give some advice about what that horse needs and what we get in return is an ER Bill, a hand so injured she's not sure she can go to work for the next day or two and an ankle she is unable to walk on, again preventing her from working for possibly the next few days. I'm angry that I was lied to and it cost my friend quit badly, physically & financially.
If you are going to buy horses cheap and sell them for profit, I have no problem with that, but you need to find a way to be a lot more educated about the horse you are selling and that horse's limitations because this time it cost someone dearly and it could have been prevented.. That horse was NOT ready to be loped freely and you SHOULD have known that! I'm not sure how to end this email, I'm just so disgusted after finding your selling history online and then minutes later find out how bad off Rachel is. I really feel you should take some of the financial responsibility here..
Piper
Well I think that about sums it up!! I think I'll end this blog post with this letter as well...
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