Monday, April 12, 2010

Monday Morning Madness Double Header: The Blind One and The Untouchable One

I have a double ad post for you all today, so without further ado, lets just jump right into it. 


Ad #1


Ad Text: 11 Year old Gelding! MUST SELL! MAKE OFFER! - $1200 (torrington, wy) For Sale: 
11 year old Grade QH gelding. This is a retired Barrel and Breakaway Horse. He is a great gelding, only reason for selling is he was diagnosed with Lepto(moon blindness) and is loosing his sight. My boyfriend has been on his back and riding him in the pasture and he has been fine for him. He can get a little on the hot side, but for him he was fine. I think he just needed time off from running and time to gain someones trust. We have been working with him as much as possible and he is doing really well. With college i just dont have the time for him and i hate to see him stand around. With work he could again become a barrel horse, but he would have to gain the trust. I was running 1D barrel patterns before he started loosing his sight. He would be a good horse for someone looking to have something to work the ranch with. This horse is very cowy even with limited vision. Like i said with the time he may become a barrel horse again just would need the time for someone to work with him. Also would make a good companion horse. Right now paying board on 3 horses is alot for me and with college its hard to keep up. I am asking $1000 obo which is WAYYY less then what i paid for him, but i know i will never get that out of him. I am willing to negotiate with the price. Make me an offer. The pictures i have on here are of him running barrels. I also included the link to the video of him but the price on their is before we found out he was loosing his sight, it is lowered alot since that. 


Videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8ip-SSiExM 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3tYDc5Gy-0 
Feel Free to email or call me at 307.534.xxxx SERIOUS INQUIRES ONLY!!! 


(Left the links live for viewing.)
$1200 for a nearly Blind Gelding? Or is it $1000? This chick can't make up her mind. I don't care how good of a Gymkhana / Gaming horse he is, or was. He's going blind. Todays market will not support a blind horse for $1000. Note to seller: YOU are obviously getting rid of him because of it. I don't care how much you talk about your 3 horses and college and money. You aren't selling your other two horses on Cl - cause I checked. Why dump this guy who has been a great horse? You mention that he could be a great companion horse... well, to be honest, thats about all this poor guy is going to be able to do. I've seen horses do wonders with one eye gone. But Not Both. Give this poor guy away to someone that can take care of him properly, or charge a re-homing/adoption fee to weed out the crazies, but $1000? AND THEN say that he can continue competing once he gets his trust back in his rider? OK - if the current owner can't get his trust back after owning him for years, how is a NEW person going to do it? 


 I'm only posting one of the pictures the ad showed this time, but they were of the gelding roping, running barrels, and 2 running poles.






Readers, if you have any stories of horses that have gone fully blind in BOTH eyes and have continued doing things like barrels, or roping cows, or poles... events that pretty much require the horse to SEE where he is going... i'm not talking leisurely trail rides here...I mean hard hitting, fast paced competition...Please post them in the comments. I'd love to be proved wrong here. 


This gelding deserves a great retirement out somewhere where he can be completely safe, and learn how to navigate sightless. Almost every fully blind horse I've known had another horse that took over the alpha role, and became the blind horse's 'eyes'. Some incredible equine friendships have been created with this type of partnership, and this gelding needs to find one of those homes. 


At the very least - if there IS no other option for this horse - nobody wants to think that Euthanasia is an option, but - this horse will no longer be able to be ridden by anyone other than a very, very experienced horseperson. No beginner will be able to ride this horse safely. There just aren't enough homes out there for horses like this! A rescue might take him in, if he's lucky, and just let him be a pasture puff with a few other older geldings that will take care of him. 


But will the owner do that? Its sure obvious that this chick isn't. Nope, she's looking for the quick dump, pass the problem on to someone else solution.


Thanks to Sue for sending that one in!


Ad #2. 


This ad was sent to me just this morning by anemonie. This one made my jaw drop. 


Ad Text: 18 month old qh - $100 18 month old quarterhorse stud. We purchased it from a rescue about 3 weeks ago. They dropped it off in the field and we haven't been able to catch it since. His feet were just done right before we bought him but he does have a few sun blisters on it's nose that needs to be treated. We have put about twenty pounds on him since we got him. He really needs a home where someone has the experience to work with him. We think he will make a great horse someday. When we got him we also got another stud, who is doing great and has made a lot of progress. This one just is not opening up to us, we can barely pet it. We have tried to put a halter on him and have been unsuccessful everytime. We are only asking what we paid for him which is $100. You will need to bring a halter, lead rope and be able to catch him. If you have any questions or would like to see him call (phone).



Anemonie... If you go get him, update us asap please! I want to know who this 'rescue' is  that allowed him to be 'adopted' out. There are so many things wrong with this I don't even know where to start! 


1st - NO REPUTABLE RESCUE will let a horse go to a new home in the condition this yearling left in. He was still underweight, still a stallion, and NOT HALTER BROKE?????? 


OH - and there were 2 HORSES allowed to leave in this same condition??????????


2nd - "they just dropped him off in a field and left him there" O. M. G. This is unreal! Again, NO RESCUE WORTH THEIR Exempt status would EVER EVER EVER do this. 


3rd - If the people that are selling him now can't handle him - they why did they take him in? Was the situation at the 'rescue' that bad that they felt they had no choice but to get him out of there?  


This just screams scam rescue to me, and it should to all of you reading too! 


Again, anemonie... please please keep us updated. At the very least, let us know if you went and got him.

7 comments:

  1. We have a 21 year old mare out here who, from what I know, is completely blind but she is completely patterned to the barrels and still can run a 16 second pattern, she just needs a rider who knows what they are doing because she's so hot. I have no idea how a horse can still be 'cowey' if it's blind, that makes no sense to me, a cowey horse judges where the cow is gunna go by understanding its body language, if it can't SEE the cow, all It's doing is lunging around trying to find the cow, that's not cowey, that's dangerous. I dunno. He could see how he could do barrels since the rider can take almost all the responsibility of telling the horse when to go into his turns and when the go home but events like roping? I dunno about that, maybe? He certainly wouldn't be the best at anything with his eye sight gone, but I could see someone still being about to do some stuff with him, however he is not worth the 1k, he should be given away with a small adoption fee to a good home with very experienced riders.

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  2. I've heard of barrel horses running blind in ONE eye but not 2.. there's just too much of a risk and any sensible ride wouldn't put the horse (or themselves) in that danger

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  3. I've got a mare with moon blindness. She is not blind yet. She goes through flare ups several times a year. I have to give her pills, daily shots and put ointment in her eyes. It costs $80.00+ for all of that (Normally flare ups end just before I have to go buy more-Thank god). I use it through out the flare up and until her eyes clear up (her rt. eye gives me more trouble than the left)and usually for a few days after to make sure the flare up is truly over. Sounds like to me, this girl doesn't want/or can't afford to pay and pay and pay (neither can I but my family is a gift from god and helps me when I'm short). Could my mare run barrels (she is a TOTAL klutz - so normally I wouldn't even try it) BUT theoretically yes. As long as she was in between flare ups. My mare is totally beginner safe so even if (she is rather old so may not live long enough for it to happen)she does go blind I still plan to ride her- at a WALK. Anything faster would be too dangerous for her. I would never condone running a totally blind UNLESS it was in an enclosed arena that was an entirely contained environment in the way of footing and the horse had been in it multiple times (for familiarity)before running it.

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  4. Simon is a 1d Barrel Horse and a 22 - 23 second pole horse. He needs an experienced rider because he gets claustrophobic and can be a handful if he feels confined around an arena. I have tried to include pictures of him running barrels and showing all his flaws. Please feel free to call or email. $2500 OBO ----------------------------Did you guy see that under the video- Oh my- Thats what someone needs a BLIND Horse who gets CLAUSTROPHOBIC! Ok, too scary- lets let someone who knows nothing about horses buy him to ride for barrel racing so that this train wreck can be complete.

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  5. I of know a POA gelding who's around 30, and was diagnosed with moon blindness a few years back. Last time I saw him and worked with him (just leading around in the arena to stretch his legs) he seemed a little claustrophobic in the arena too, since there were spots with shadow and spots with the arena lights, and spots with sunlight. I think the change in lighting and shadows depending on where he was didn't help at all for his poor eyes.

    He's retired now by the way, though he truly seems to love kids and giving pony rides, he 100% deserves his retirement. =)

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  6. Thats just it. She's trying to pawn this poor horse off onto someone else to deal with his disease. Being PREY animals, horses depend on their sight for their lives... take that away, even partially on BOTH sides, and you have a freaky, spooky, ready to run at ANYTHING animal.

    I've ridden horses with mild moon blindness, and they can be ridden, but the rider has to have that extra awareness that the horses is slightly handicapped. YOU have to be the extra eyes for the horse, and thats just not something a beginner needs to worry about.

    He needs to become someones spoiled pasture ornament! NOT entering into a second career as a barrel horse!

    I also have been looking into the colt's story a bit as well, and while I don't have any background on the horse per se... I have some very interesting information regarding the 'rescue'!

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  7. I recently aquired a 1d pole/barrel college rodeo horse that was blown up on barrel four years ago, sent to a 'trainer' ,because the girl wouldn't take the time to turn him out and let his mind settle, who crushed in the top of his skull...Needless to say, he's blind in both eyes... The father of the girl I got him from spent a crapton of money to get his sight back.. He's the calmest horse I've ever been around... Nothing spooks him and he goes anywheree you point his nose... I take him anywhere my seeing horses go... He's very verbal and willing... I took him to a play day over the weekend and you would be suprised how he picked up on the barrel pattern even though he can't see. He is very very responsive to body cues, you sit down in the saddle the wrong way after he knows your on barrels and he will turn out from under you. He's a pretty neat horse. I do agree that she is asking way to much money for him. I got a fantastic gelding who started out under a well known barrel racer, with great papers for free just because he was blind... You can't knock 'em just cause of on disabliity

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