Some people should not own horses
When I got my first horse over 20 years ago, I was at a boarding stable. It was mostly adult women who were "getting into" horses for the first time in their lives. Most of them had no clue as to what to expect from horse ownership or horses in general. I was lucky enough to have a dad that was a former jockey, so I had some experience with horses prior to me getting involved with horses. I boarded my horse at the stable for 7 years and during that time I saw plenty of people that should have never gotten involved with horses.
Those that should have never owned a horse were people who were easily intimidated by their own horse. They were unaware that horses have a hierarchy system in their minds when it comes to other horses and people. Some of the other people, mostly women, would listen to everyone's advice about health or training problems and follow the wrong advice. They would also never take riding lessons or have a horse trainer. They learned from books or videos.
One woman, who I was quite fond of, was only a horse owner for less than a year. She bought a buckskin gelding named "Buck" and seemed to know what she was doing. I liked Buck, he was a short stout horse, with a mellow mind, great for a beginner. She had him for less than a month and changed his name to Sierra. Somehow the name Sierra did not fit him. To me Sierra was a female sounding name. As the months passed, she took Sierra on trail rides and rode around the boarding stable grounds. One day she asked me to take a look at Sierra. She thought his gait was "off." She was right, he was paddling. Since he had not done it before, I told her it was that he needed a good trim and to switch horse shoers (her farrier was terrible). She did not mind my advice but had one of the worse horse vets in the area look at her horse. The verdict was that the horse had navicular and the vet wanted the woman to have the horse put down. Thankfully she did not heed the vets advice either and looked for a pasture home for the horse, she found one. She said goodbye to Sierra and left horse ownership for good. I thought that was the end of the story, it wasn't. Several months later I was at a team penning. I was riding my horse and my hubby was riding his. I then spotted a horse that looked like Sierra. I rode over to the the horse and owner and asked the owner if the horse was the Sierra that was owned by the woman I knew. The answer was yes, it was Sierra but now they call him Buck…….and he was no longer lame. Sure enough, they saw the same thing I saw, a bad shoer had made poor Buck lame.They got Buck and used the same shoer I had for my horse. Buck was now back to being that great beginners horse, except this time he had a knowledgeable owner who had years of horse experience.
