Our new horse, Rusty.

  I'm always looking at Craig's list and noticed this horse about 10 days or so ago. Knowing full well an other horse wasn't something we needed. How ever...The other day, my Husband mentioned something about a buckskin he saw on the list and was going to call on him. But, for the last couple of years, he has wanted a motorcycle and was saving some extra money until the right bike came along. When I returned home from work, I mentioned this little horse, showed him what he looked like and it must have been just what he was looking for. The ad read...Gentle, cuddly and kid broke. There was a video link with-in the body of the ad, and Ron took-a-peek at it. Although he thought the horse was nice, he said I've always wanted a buckskin.

 Today, out of the blue, he called the people running the ad. They told us there were some people visiting the place, who had previously inquired about the horse. We thanked them for their time and asked them to call us if the folks backed out. About an hour later, they called. In the middle of fixing an early dinner and feeding the other mouths on the place, we opted to finish what we were doing and run out to Kaufman when it cooled off a bit. Around 6pm, Ron and Makayla hooked up the trailer, we run by the bank and off we went. When we got there, the horse was tied to the walker. He was a tad smaller than he appeared in the photos and thinner. How ever, he looked great. You could tell he had been rode long enough in the couple of weeks the guy had him, and was in athletic condition.

  My inquiries were normal questions. How old he was, health issues that he knew of and how well he handled. He's not current on his coggins, though they had only expired with-in the last few days. Rusty, "he called him" didn't have much of a handle on him, he only direct reins. "No problem, for me!" He is only 9 years old and still trainable. I went over him with a fine tooth comb. Checked his teeth, legs, back, watched him walk, trot and lope off. Bent him around, flexed him, and checked the clarity of his eyes. His eyes were running a little, but with the drought and the dust flying around, it was no big surprise. The wolf teeth were a little sharp. I found his teeth may or may not need to be floated.

  My next big question was, does he load in a two-horse straight load? The man said he didn't know. Since we had it with us. We haltered him and pointed him in the right direction. Rusty was hesitant at first, but  feed, and with a small amount of coaxing and he went right in. Yay! We had our 12 year old Granddaughter ride him, since he was advertised as a kid friendly horse. She rode him around, while I watched his every move. He was pleasantly quiet and laid-back, never raising his head above the saddle horn. He was alert and responsive to her lack of knowledge. on and I talking for a few minutes and agreed he was what we were looking for in a horse. Ron, then asked the man what his bottom dollar was. He asked us how much are we willing to spend. His original price was 1000.00's and we offered him 800.00...Sold! at 800.00

  The seller then, wrote us a bill of sale, gave us a copy of the expired coggins and we paid him for Rusty. He was pointed in the direction of the trailer and he loaded right up with no problems. The man thanked us for doing business with him and off we went. The ride home was chatty and feeling good about the buy, we had noticed that Rusty was as quiet as a mouse during the ride. As we pulled up to the gate, we drove through and let him out of the trailer. He was still quiet and gentle to handle, even though our horses were wondering about the new pasture friend. We tied him up, put a saddle on him and he rode off as quiet as he did for us during the buying process.


 Still feeling good about everything...I decided he needed to be bathed because of the dust on him. He took that like a champ. I sprayed him all over with the water. Rinsed his head off and shampooed him without any issues what-so-ever! He stood quietly through-out the whole thing. When he was dry, I fly sprayed him, got his feed ready and threw him some hay. We were so pleased at how he responded to us. We then left him to bed down for the night.

Ron and Rusty

Profile of Rusty's petite little head.

Another rural ride...

  It was 95 degrees at 9:30pm last evening, so we decided not to subject the horses to the usual local playday. Rising about 6am this morning. I didn't get much sleep last night, but we decided to go for a long ride while the temps were in the lower 80's. The horses were fed early, then brushed and fly sprayed, then tacked up, and stood waiting for our party to join us for the ride.

  Kela and Lorgia were going to accompany us on our leisurely adventure. We filled our cantle bags with water frozen over night and extra bottles of water to refill the containers as it melted. Added a couple of Clif Bars to the bag, my iphone and off we went. It was already hot by the time we left, but a cool breeze was blowing, so it was bearable for most of the ride.

All the horses were light on their feet and feeling good themselves. I know they appreciate getting out of the pasture for a change of scenery. Happy dog tailing us down the road again. He's such a hoot. He picks and chooses a path that's just right for him. lol Always following the shaded areas and the shadows of the horses. At times he jogs up just ahead of us and sits patiently as we ride by, picking up our trail. It's a little nerve racking when we get to a intersection. Not because of the horses, but watching the dog navigate just the right time to cross.

Happy is learning really fast and he's smart enough to watch how the horse respond to our cues. I would normally be afraid of a dog and traffic, but this dog was living on the streets before he followed us home. Seemingly picking up enough street smarts to notice cars whizzing by and staying back out of the way.