When we went to pick up the new horses last week, we took my mare Daisy along. Not as a travelling buddy, but because there was a horse sale going on in a town along the same route, and we decided to consign Daisy in it and just see what might happen. We have talked about selling her several times, and buying two more seemed a tad bit excessive, and the trailer was going that way anyhow, so we took her to the sale with a reserve price firmly established in our minds.
We have been weighing the pros and cons of owning Daisy ever since she tossed me over her head when I was training her as a four year old. That was a result of an argument between her and myself over leaving the barn and her buddies and riding away. She said, “No!” I said, “Yes!” and we each insisted on our two separate directions until she did a 180 degree turn back towards the barn, kicked it into high gear, and bucked me off over her head. Right in front of my mother in law.
So I began to tread lightly around Daisy. I rode her with a firm hand on my saddle horn, and still insisted that she leave the barn and her buddies, but usually at a slower pace. Once after we had walked awhile, I moved her up into a trot and we were going along at a good clip and all of a sudden she reared straight up into the air, pivoted mid-air, and came down facing the barn. I jerked her reins and kept her at a stop for a few minutes, then turned her around and proceeded on at a walk. That was six years ago, but those conversations between her and me are always vivid in my memory whenever I ride her. And I just don’t let her go on a loose rein, or go full-tilt, ever. Because I just don’t know what kind of stunt she might decide to do next. So she and I have been walking around in this gloomy sort of agreement: “Okay, I won’t ask too much of you if you promise you won’t dump me on my head again.”
A few other problems with her include her being very heavy on her hind feet to trim (she won’t hold them up, and puts a lot of weight on me when I’m trying to trim her, and then just decides to take a step with her other hind foot, and I am left holding half a horse and end up dropping the hoof I was working on). She has also nearly pushed over me twice, leaving me shaking in fear as my life flashed before my eyes, but she didn’t trample me. But it leaves me with the understanding that though she was gentle and easy to handle when I bought her, she was a four year old mare that had become very set in her own ways of handling herself. She missed out on some important groundwork lessons, and as I am not strong in the area of groundwork, she and I just aren’t the best fit.
But I have a problem getting anyone else in the world to fit with Daisy. I took her to a training clinic when my oldest daughter was a baby. I had not been riding Daisy since I was pregnant, and I warned the trainer that she hadn’t been ridden in about six months. He proceeded to climb on, and she bucked with him all over an arena full of horseback clinic participants. That’s another vision I often recall when I am riding her…I had no idea she could unleash that kind of fury. She looked like a saddlebronc professional. The trainer was not shook loose, but he promptly dismounted and handed the reins to me, and we decided she is a “one-woman horse”.
Since then, I have ridden her off and on, in between two pregnancies and raising my kids, which left me with not as much time for my horses as I would have hoped. When I ride her these days, she is usually obligatory, and she hasn’t bucked at all since those two times, but I don’t ask a whole lot of her other than a quiet walk down the dirt road for a half mile and then back home to the farm. She will go without other horses, but tends to be more balky and needs more encouragement if they are not along. With the other horses present, she acts like a lazy old veteran, requiring little direction or control. We started letting our five year old daughter ride her while being led—with a helmet firmly buckled around her sweet little chin—on these quiet group trail rides. Daisy leads quite well from horseback, and when she’s following another horse, she doesn’t miss a step or offer any resistance whatsoever. So she has become our daughter’s favorite riding horse, but I fear the day that we hand the reins up to her….I just don’t know if she will submit to the control of a five year old, and I don’t want to see that little girl dumped over Daisy’s head.
So we took her to the auction. My husband dropped us off, and proceeded with the trailer farther away to pick up the new buckskin mare and her baby. I got Daisy’s paperwork done, a vet inspected her, and she stood tied happily as I worked to shine her up. Other horses around us were whinnying and stomping at being tied up in a strange place, but Daisy stood calmly on a loose lead and let me brush her mane and put her saddle on. I taped a copy of her pedigree to the fence nearby, and left her to go in and watch the sale.
They ran the first forty horses through, and the bidding was starting at around $100 for each horse. Some of the fancier ridden ones would start out at $400. Most of the plain sorrel well-broke horses were selling for about $200. If a paint or palomino came in the ring, the price doubled. The top selling horse that I saw that day was a sweet little 13 hand buckskin mare with glitter in her mane and tail, circling the ring on a loose draped rein, wearing a snaffle bit and a “I really am this sweet” attitude. Her rider did all the stunts he could think of: sliding off backwards, standing on her back and jumping off, crawling under her belly, picking up her hooves, and even pulling on her tail to show her docile nature. Several people really wanted her, and she finally sold for $1100, the crowd literally buzzing as she shuffled out of the ring.
After watching several more horses sell in the $100 ballpark, I went back out to check on Daisy. Walking through the alleys between rows of pens out to where she stood tied among a dozen other horses, I could see her standing there half asleep in a relaxed pose. As I rounded a corner, her head came up in recognition as she spotted me, and my heart just warmed towards her. She knows me and likes me! I put on her bridle and took her for a slow spin around the fairgrounds and among the other horses. She walked with a level head and a loose rein, completely happy to be weaving through parked trailers and tied horses with nary a snort or even a funny look. Sometimes she can just be a gem.
My husband and our two sleepy kids returned, and the auction was not even half way through. Daisy’s consignment number was 96, and we knew it would be another two hours wait before her turn to go into the ring came, so we decided to “no sale” her and just take her and go home. It did cost us a small fee to just skip going through the ring, but we didn’t want to waste our time waiting for a bid that would never amount to much anyway. The new horses were in the trailer, so we just loaded up Daisy in the back and lit out for home.
Our little girl was so happy when we told her we had decided to not sell Daisy. She says Daisy is her favorite horse (why, I don’t know—Cricket is much safer!) and she wasn’t ready to let her go. I was only ready to let her go if we got a decent price for her, and I knew coming in towards the end of sale wasn’t going to bode well as far as money was concerned. So I think it was all for the best that Daisy is still with us. We had a good little ride away from home, which is always a good experience for a buddy-sour horse. And best of all, we had two brand new horses in the trailer!
Anyone looking for a trail mare that accepts women riders only, let me know. And if there are no takers, we will just be happy with things the way they are. Here are some photos from our most recent ride. This is my little guy and I riding Daisy:
And one of us all, my husband behind the camera, leading Cricket with our daughter and her cousin on board, my husband’s brother on Milo on the right, and me and the little guy bringing up the rear on Daisy.
And here is our daughter riding Cricket bridleless:
Here is Milo with the two little ones in the saddle. Please overlook the muddy legs and long pasterns on this gelding. He is completely sound as a six year old, but we think his build leans towards being a lightly-ridden kids horse for the rest of his life:
Here are our original three, looking over the gate at the new mare and foal when we first introduced them. I love Daisy and Cricket’s expressions of interest, while Milo is saying, “I don’t care, just bring me some grain!”
And this is our Tahoe filled full of tack for a day of riding. To me, this is the sign of a good day had by all:
