What to ask before purchase?

[AClark]

We just looked at and bought an 8 year old gelding, 13 hands, (small) for our grand kids. He is a little skinny, but that's no problem. He is barn sour too, but I can deal with that. What he is--is a dead head that the lady's 2 kids could do anything to him and he didn't care, nor did he move. We watched the kids, age 4 and 9, slide off his butt, crawl under him, pick up feet from all angles, slide down his neck, stand up on his back and do things that I would never allow my grands to do--safety wise. He is also a follower-he happily follows any other horse. He just doesn't want to be out there all by himself. So that is also a good thing--for MY purposes, because he will follow a horse that I am riding. We will take possession of him in another week or two, she promised to work on his barn sour attitude. But seriously, that is not such a big issue. He is slow, gentle and perfectly ok with whatever 2 little girls could do to him. He will live an easy life here, but he is big enough for me to ride, should I have to bring him back to reality from time to time. We paid $800 for him. I have been looking for some time for a small horse that is dead gentle. No horse will be perfect, so you have to really look one over, consider the faults and whether or not they are something you can live with or will it be a deal breaker.

This is one of my big requirements - and why I didn't bother looking at small ponies for my kids. Sometimes, ponies get this idea that they can (and they do) boss little kids around, and if they're too small for an adult to get on and do a "reality check" with, then you have a bad mannered little pony. Reality check sounds bad, I guess a "refresher course" is better, just a reminder that they can't pull a bunch of crap and get away with it. The other horse we're picking up is only in the 13HH range, but he's plenty big for me or my husband to get on (I'm 5 ft 3, hubby is 5 ft 6) too.

I had another thought, something my grandmother was telling me about. When she was working at an arena they had a "trainer" there, who also sold the trained horses. She said it's good to show up a bit early sometimes because back in that time frame, it wasn't uncommon to sedate horses for sale, at auction or otherwise, to make them appear to be better broken or more mellow than they are. Surprising someone might be rude, but it doesn't give them time to dope a nutjob horse. I imagine that may not apply as much in this day in age with most sedatives being harder to obtain than they were in the 1970's - but then again I have a whole bottle of Acepromazine in my fridge I got from the vet, so it's still a slight possibility.

 

[CntryBoy777]

I was thinking of adding one to my Herd, thus the name of our little place here. But, have since decided to just stay with what we already have, so may be adding a couple of goats and a dog instead.

 

[AClark]

^ That's great! I sent one of my friends a picture of DH and the molly mule that was pestering us - her reply "Oh look, an ass and a mule".

 

[Latestarter]

 

[Bunnylady]

The jokes are inevitable, I guess . . . though the hybrids give you twice as much material to choose from. When I got Betsy, I told my mother that I had been the recipient of the proverbial gift horse . . . or, maybe half a horse. Or maybe half-of-a-half-a-horse (Betsy is a mini mule). Mules' antipathy for predators is legendary (I've seen an antique cast iron mechanical toy that had a tiny mule jumping at a dog that disappeared behind a hay bale). We knew Betsy couldn't be trusted around dogs, but we didn't realize how much "guarding" she was doing until last year, when my daughter saw her attacking a raccoon late one afternoon. I had no idea she could be that nasty - not a half-assed job by anyone's standards. A few weeks ago, I saw a gray fox outside the fence to the horses' paddocks. They saw it too, and everybody stood and looked . . . except for Betsy, who slowly and deliberately walked in that direction until she was as close to it as she could get. There was something very cool and calculating about her stare; good thing for the fox that he kept his distance. She wouldn't stand a chance against a pack of coyotes, of course, but for the smaller predators that come singly, I'd say she more than a match.

I agree the animal you are looking at looks like a mule or hinny. Hinnies are said to look more horse-like, and mules more donkey-like, though whether that is always true is debatable. For a long time, hinnies had a reputation for being less sturdy than mules, and there is a good chance that a lot of hinnies were getting passed off as mules because of that bias.

Donkeys and mules are definitely not just funny looking horses; mentally, they are very different. Donkeys are very, very smart, and mules? Mules are freakin' brilliant. Once one has learned to trust you, they can be very loyal and willing workers. They will insist on thinking for themselves, though, and the best way to get on their bad side is to try to force them into anything. If this little guy already knows his job, you are halfway home. I'm following this thread with interest.

 

[Bruce]

And Vladimir Lost his manhood today, been dealing with a whiny furbaby

BF will get over it and stop whining eventually

 

[AClark]

The jokes are inevitable, I guess . . . though the hybrids give you twice as much material to choose from. When I got Betsy, I told my mother that I had been the recipient of the proverbial gift horse . . . or, maybe half a horse. Or maybe half-of-a-half-a-horse (Betsy is a mini mule). Mules' antipathy for predators is legendary (I've seen an antique cast iron mechanical toy that had a tiny mule jumping at a dog that disappeared behind a hay bale). We knew Betsy couldn't be trusted around dogs, but we didn't realize how much "guarding" she was doing until last year, when my daughter saw her attacking a raccoon late one afternoon. I had no idea she could be that nasty - not a half-assed job by anyone's standards. A few weeks ago, I saw a gray fox outside the fence to the horses' paddocks. They saw it too, and everybody stood and looked . . . except for Betsy, who slowly and deliberately walked in that direction until she was as close to it as she could get. There was something very cool and calculating about her stare; good thing for the fox that he kept his distance. She wouldn't stand a chance against a pack of coyotes, of course, but for the smaller predators that come singly, I'd say she more than a match.

I agree the animal you are looking at looks like a mule or hinny. Hinnies are said to look more horse-like, and mules more donkey-like, though whether that is always true is debatable. For a long time, hinnies had a reputation for being less sturdy than mules, and there is a good chance that a lot of hinnies were getting passed off as mules because of that bias.

Donkeys and mules are definitely not just funny looking horses; mentally, they are very different. Donkeys are very, very smart, and mules? Mules are freakin' brilliant. Once one has learned to trust you, they can be very loyal and willing workers. They will insist on thinking for themselves, though, and the best way to get on their bad side is to try to force them into anything. If this little guy already knows his job, you are halfway home. I'm following this thread with interest.

The guy we bought the horse from said that the molly mule was really nasty toward predators, she would chase coyotes and dogs and stomp them. She was a good sized mule though, probably close to 15 HH, definitely taller than the horse I brought home. My grandmother had a stud horse that absolutely hated dogs too, she rode him up until he died and if dogs got in front of him while you were riding, he would snake his head and literally pick them up with his teeth and throw them. The dogs learned fast that they had to stay behind him.

 

[Kusanar]

This is one of my big requirements - and why I didn't bother looking at small ponies for my kids. Sometimes, ponies get this idea that they can (and they do) boss little kids around, and if they're too small for an adult to get on and do a "reality check" with, then you have a bad mannered little pony. Reality check sounds bad, I guess a "refresher course" is better, just a reminder that they can't pull a bunch of crap and get away with it. The other horse we're picking up is only in the 13HH range, but he's plenty big for me or my husband to get on (I'm 5 ft 3, hubby is 5 ft 6) too.

Lol, I have a 32" mini that I have hopped on a time or 2 to knock him back to reality... I don't do more than walk and a few walk/trot transistions unless he decides to take off and try to dump me, then any running he does is his fault.... He's a sturdy little thing though, like a tiny draft

 

[Bunnylady]

You don't have to get on a horse's back to establish your position in the pecking order. This is something I had to teach my daughter at a pretty young age; we have an oversized miniature horse that thought she could push people around (particularly children), and at the time she was much too young to be ridden even by a small child. I told DD, "look, I can tell Syd how to behave with me, and how to behave with you when I'm around, but you have to be able to tell her how to behave when I'm not around." I remember cleaning my minis' stall out at the Fair one time, and the livestock superintendent walked by and remarked, "gee, look at Syd, being all good." I sighed and asked, "what has she been doing?" "Oh, nothing really," she replied. "Just turning her backside to the kids when they are cleaning the stalls and threatening stuff. Most of them aren't really used to large animals, you know, and don't know how to deal with them." "Well, you tell them for me, that if they are in here with an apple picker (plastic manure fork) and she does that, they have my permission - no, encouragement - to smack her on the butt with the fork! She has got to learn not to do that to anybody."

DD has learned her lessons well; she even applies them to my QH, Latte. A few days ago, Latte hadn't been worked in a while, and we knew she was going to be full of beans. When DD started lunging her, Latte started to give her some brattitude, and DD got on her case for it. Funny thing - they really do accept and respect an effective leader. A while later, DD wound up doing some liberty work with Latte (something she had never done before) and even though Latte was free and able to leave at any time, she was quite content to follow DD all over the paddock doing circles, backing, etc. Considering what I have seen that horse do, it was quite impressive.

 

[Kusanar]

You don't have to get on a horse's back to establish your position in the pecking order. This is something I had to teach my daughter at a pretty young age; we have an oversized miniature horse that thought she could push people around (particularly children), and at the time she was much too young to be ridden even by a small child. I told DD, "look, I can tell Syd how to behave with me, and how to behave with you when I'm around, but you have to be able to tell her how to behave when I'm not around." I remember cleaning my minis' stall out at the Fair one time, and the livestock superintendent walked by and remarked, "gee, look at Syd, being all good." I sighed and asked, "what has she been doing?" "Oh, nothing really," she replied. "Just turning her backside to the kids when they are cleaning the stalls and threatening stuff. Most of them aren't really used to large animals, you know, and don't know how to deal with them." "Well, you tell them for me, that if they are in here with an apple picker (plastic manure fork) and she does that, they have my permission - no, encouragement - to smack her on the butt with the fork! She has got to learn not to do that to anybody."

DD has learned her lessons well; she even applies them to my QH, Latte. A few days ago, Latte hadn't been worked in a while, and we knew she was going to be full of beans. When DD started lunging her, Latte started to give her some brattitude, and DD got on her case for it. Funny thing - they really do accept and respect an effective leader. A while later, DD wound up doing some liberty work with Latte (something she had never done before) and even though Latte was free and able to leave at any time, she was quite content to follow DD all over the paddock doing circles, backing, etc. Considering what I have seen that horse do, it was quite impressive.

Yep, there are some things (riding related) that it's hard to get through their brain unless you get on them though. For example, mine likes to buck small children off when they kick him in the flanks, and yes, I know, they shouldn't be kicking him in the flanks in the first place, but when my idiot brother tells the kid to "wrap your arms around his neck and hold on with your legs" guess where their feet end up... right in his flanks... then the kid hits the ground...