Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

At 01:05 PM 9/5/2004, Jena Williams wrote:
> The tone of this one riled me a bit.  Just because I buy on a budget does 
> not mean I buy "junk" all the way around.  Wow, that is arrogant!

Before we get into some fuss about arrogant posts, let me say that I'm 
pretty sure Kim's post was somewhat tongue in cheek.  Or maybe not!  Either 
way, what happened to allowing people to express their opinions, arrogant, 
intelligent, stupid or humble, anything in between?

> Yes, EVERYTHING I buy is with the same small budget and very careful 
> thought as the horses.

And also, people shouldn't take things personally (although of course, if 
the shoe fits....).  Kim's post was directed at Truman, if you recall.

> People just don't go out and buy a horse a random because it is cheap and 
> think they are going to make a winner out of it.

Well.... yes, some do.  I know at least one person who has done exactly 
that and others who have gone to auctions "just to look" and have come home 
with horses that after a while turned out not to be such great 
bargains.  Yes, yes, I know that other people get winners.  My pal went to 
a livestock auction that has known killer buyers just to see what was going 
through the sales.  He picked up a horse he just couldn't resist for next 
to nothing because he thought it looked really great.  He even got on and 
rode the horse around the pens first.  Looks can be deceiving of course, 
and so can the behavior of a horse that's been standing around in a pen at 
a livestock auction after having traveled who knows how long in a big 
trailer with other horses it's never met before.  So my pal - who just 
"happened" to have brought his livestock trailer along (and I shudder to 
this day thinking of that death trap with a horse in it) - bought the horse 
and brought him home, with dreams of knocking the socks off of everyone 
else.  That horse was agile and fast.  My friend really thought he had 
scored the bargain of the century.  My pal is very stubborn.  It took many, 
many flights through the air and several broken ribs and a punctured lung 
later, before he took the horse back to auction.  I presume that horse has 
long been recycled through several dogs' guts.

________________________________
   Lif Strand      fasterhorses.com
           Quemado NM USA
High Country Rider:  An endurance rider's journal
   www.fasterhorses.com/highcountryrider/