anecdotes for book—help out novice horse lovers!

[dldugan]

Hello fellow horse enthusiasts!

My name is Dawn Dugan, and I'm looking for some real anecdotes to include in a book I'm writing about buying and selling horses. Do you have a story you would like to share?
If so, I would love to hear about any relevant experiences you have had buying and selling horses. Looking for stories with happy endings as well as not so happy! Try answering these questions: What was the buying process? Was it well thought out or did you go with your heart? Why was it a good experience? Why was it a bad experience? Did the horse end up being a good fit for you and why? How did you go about things in the right way? Now that you have some experience, how would you do things differently? What did you learn from the experience? What is the moral of your story? There are no wrong answers here . . . just ways to help out fellow horse lovers who need your help and experience! No rescue stories, please.
Please post your stories here or send them to bddugan@adelphia.net. It would be great if you could include your name and state. Photos are good too if you have them.
Thanks. Dawn

[ThreeHorseNight]

Hi there! Thought I'd post the sotry of when we bought my daughters and husbands horse. Our buying process consisted of finding both horses advertised in the paper. We called the seller and asked if we could look at the horses. We asked a ton of questions about care and the horses background. We came back the next day with my daughter who rode the five year old paint we were looking at for her. At one point the horse refused to move at all, but they seemed to do ok together. Then the owner said now I'm going to show you what Ginger can do. She saddled up my husbands quarter horse and took her into the round pen. They made about two circles and on the third rotation Ginger bucked a couple times. The owner was angry and reached up and smacked her between her ears. She proceeded to sling the woman in a circle untill she fell off. My husband went in and held the horse while she picked herself up off the ground and said you aren't buying THIS horse! She wanted to send her to the meat market lol! We ended up getting her really cheap. Meat market prices lol! The first time my husband rode her she bucked him three or four times, which he rode out, and then she spun around in a circle so fast there was no way anyone could have stayed on lol! We built a round pen and he worked with her, now they ride everywhere together, and I don't think is much she wouldn't do for him. I would say the moral here would be to buy horses that match your experience level. Even if it worked out for us in the end.