We all have to ask ourselves this at some point, that one day, you find you have over extended, is this all worth it? I was thinking, " I have the space, the time, the money and the know how to work with this horse and then possibly sell it for a profit." WELL not always the case & I was lucky enough to get through it unscaved. I have been in that situation before when 5 horses was too many... at that time I only had a 5 stall barn.... now I have 14 available stalls.... and behold I had 13 horses!
See a pattern emerging? My advice is: know your limits and dont build stalls "just in case" you may need them... or you may find yourself filling them like I did! Its all fun until the work kicks in and you are doing most of it yourself.
Our inventory was: 2 geriatric horses that moved over from out to pasture with a 3rd horse that used to barrel racer until her mind blew up. Now she really can only safely be used for trails and happily added them to my already at the barn two eventing appaloosas. THEN we had purchased 3 finished barrel horses, but before that got talked into a 15yr old double reg. AQHA with pedigree to die for BUT needed alot of work. Not long after that brought home a 2yo colt that needed to be gelded and broke to ride but was built like a tank. Yet that wasnt enough... a grey gelding with a CEO pedigree tickled our fancy and by the time the spring rolled around to finalize that deal he had been dumped out to pasture with an old injury and close to death, therefor we couldnt say no because well... he needed us to nurse him back to life. By then, we acquired another horse that someone thought they wanted but decided they didnt, oh BUT she had potential... but wasnt finished. Ahhh soooo wait... we still needed something else.... a 1D barrel horse ya know because we THOUGHT we could actually ride one.... but we couldnt and THAT my friends was the straw that broke the camels back.... thank GOD! .... were you counting???? no we werent either at the time.... but THIRTEEN horses later we were scratching our heads thinking.... ??? now what?
You see? Where does it end? You have to make a decision... keep a bunch of horses that serve no purpose or let them GO and be a blessing to someone else. We only have so much time in a day and I can tell you from experience that you either just let them live beyond thier expiration date of usefulness under your loving care or get them fit right and move them out... and your time could be better spent ENJOYING yourself having a wonderful partnership with a few talented hopefuls.
I chose the latter... and we made some changes! We are now PROUD to say we have many empty stalls and each horse has their own paddock. Which is a whole other worry trying to get personalities to mesh ... which was an expensive lesson to learn. We still have baggage regarding those experiences .... and will not have to learn that again. The fencing was another issue that caused an expensive lesson one hopes never to experience again either. So life is better SIMPLIFIED! Dont kid yourself.... every pretty color out there in those pastures is nice to see BUT they are a living breathing creature that has needs, many needs... and YOU are the one that responsibility lies upon.
Both geriatric geldings are in loving homes.
One actually is just up the road with the trail only x barrel racer mare.
The gorgeous double registered Smart Little Lena mare went to a great trail riding family.
The lovely roan mare we acquired was reworked as a cow horse
and will be shown by our friend this year with us in Southern Stockhorse Association.
My eventing appy mare found a forever home
back up north and will be competing this summer with her 13 yr old rider.
The colt was gelded and I broke to ride, put some miles on him and he will be hopefully barrel racing with new owners.
The buckskin that broke the camels back... he is on trial with a friend that is doing wonders with him we just couldnt.
The grey is still in recovery,
stall bound for 5 more months and then
will be an amazing barrel horse.
We still have to get one more eventer to his new new home and we will be down to the nitty gritty.
Of course.... I have neglected to say and save until last ... is that we got ONE more.... a finished cutting horse to complete our horse family.... but hey after making so much progress and a deal crosses your path ... you sometimes need to indulge on occassion!
Everything works out... eventually and we keep the creme d'le creme!
LOOKING FORWARD TO ENJOYING OURSELVES THIS YEAR!
