No

by Laura Sullivanlyndall

Created on: May 18, 2009   Last Updated: August 09, 2009

Should you take a free horse? I say no, for several reasons! The biggest reason is experience. I have been around horses most of my life and riding since I was three. I remember when I was a child from time to time one of our horses would get sick. When we would have a sick horse, we would have to call the vet. Regardless of how big or little the illness or injury was, the bill for a vet who spent 10 years going to college was always a couple of hundred dollars and up. This would cover the cost of the house call, travel time, care time, and medication. Now if we were rich it wouldn't be a problem at all. However, whether you can afford the care or not is not the only reason I say no. Horses in general are expensive to care for and free horses are even more expensive as well harder to deal with.

Even horses that are rescued and placed in homes are done so with a fee and even special rules at times. For example, mustangs that are taken from state to state to be placed in homes are adopted out for as little as a $25 adoption fee. This really just covers paper work with these mustangs so really they are free. However, the adoption agencies over seeing these animals being placed in good homes reign for three years. They can and will check on the animals at least one and often more times during the three years. One rule is, because they were wild, you can not have a barb wire fence for their home. They can run through the fence and get hurt. Putting up a wood fence around a piece of property big enough to accomidate a mustange is expensive. In addition, these animals once loose may resort back to their wild roots, meaning they may be hard to catch to care for daily, such as brushing, bathing, worming, and hoof care.

For the most part, horses that are being given away often come with strings attached. By this, I mean there is almost always something wrong with the horse. I have taken in four horses in the past 10 years that were free. They were all from different owners, and every single one had it's own issues. The first horse I got was a nice little bay mare, Cheyenne. She was beautiful, in great condition, and broke to ride. After getting thrown, I later found out by a friend of the original owner that the owner got rid of the horse because she threw her husband and broke his ribs. No big deal, I've been thrown before and have experience in breaking horses. However, with this horse I soon found that the more I worked with her to break her, the more she threw me and broke me. She ended up going to a professional cowboy, who couldn't break her either and ended up as a rodeo horse.

The second horse was a also a mare, her name is Lightening and she is a white. Lightening also seemed to be in great condition and was also broke. As it turned out she was healthy and was broken to ride. However, Lightening also came with a problem that couldn't be seen at first. Lightening had apparently been beaten by a previous owner or trainer and is very afraid of men. This for me isn't an issue since I am a female and I will be the one riding her not my husband. So what is the problem? Well the problem is that the horse needs regular care just a any other horse. This means a dentist to float it's teeth, a farrier to care for it's feet and a vet for it's doctor. Now, while I have seen a few female vets in my lifetime and heard of a female dentist or farrier here and there, I haven't been able to find all three in my area. This proves to be quite the problem when ever my horse needs one of these professionals. She rears, throws her head, kicks, and runs from them. I have spent a lot of time with my husband and the horse and he has earned her trust with time, but she is still afraid of men in general, and it usually takes a couple of hours with the professionals to get the job done. Therefore, it is often hard to get a professional who knows to come care for her because they don't have the time to spend waiting hours for a horse to comply.

The third horse I got was a paint gelding. He is healthy, and broken. Anyone can ride him, man, woman or child. So what's the problem, you may wonder? The problem is that he is pasture spoiled he will run you over before you have a chance to get the feed bucket to his food bucket. When it comes to food, he will bite you and kick you. I figured I would out smart him and get him in the stall locked up before I walk through the gate with food. However, that doesn't work 'cause if you don't have food, he has no interest in coming to the stall and out of the pasture. He proves to be a pain in the butt at feeding time.

Finally, my fourth free horse. She is another mare, a Buskin named Sierra. Now this horse is a small horse of only 14 hands. She was owned by a teenage girl in 4-H who showed her. When I went to take a look and make my decision, I found a beautiful horse in good health. I thought, "Wow she will be a great horse for my daughter."

She is healthy and owned by a teenage girl my daughters age, who rides her all the time. So, I thought, should I take a free horse? This horse seemed perfect for our family's needs, something for my daughter to ride. Well, we got her home and released her to the pasture and she fought with all the other horses. They chased each other around and bit and kicked all night.

Now, I could have separated her, but knowing horses my whole life, I knew that they do this as first. This is how they let each other know who is the boss and rank their order of Alpha and Omega. If I put her in a stall they would just continue the behavior over the door of the stall until they settle the issue. So, I let nature take its course.

It has now been four months and this horse seems to be worse than the last. She is still fighting with the other horses and she runs you down with the feed bucket. In addition, she fights over the fence with the neighbors' horses. To put the icing on the cake, I now find out she was given away because, after owning the horse for three years, she threw her owner and the girl is afraid to ride her again. She bucks every time I get on her. Therefore, I will not let my daughter, an inexperienced rider, on her.

Good horses are like a good car. They have a certain amount of equity in them, meaning they are tame, trained, healthy, and gentle. Horses who meat all of these four criterias or even more are worth something and will therefore bring a cash sale. When a horse owner knows what their horse is made of and its disposition, they aren't going to turn away cash by giving their horse away for free.

So, should you take a free horse? I say no. There is always a catch, even if you don't see or hear about it at first. Sometimes the catch is the horse has bad habits that can and will get you hurt, or hurt the horse itself or other animals. Othertimes, it may be the horse has hidden problems which will cost a lot for medical attention down the road.

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