My first horse

I worked with the lady's horses for about a year before I finally found my mare Dandy. She was my first horse, my very own. I still work with the horses, but much less often.

Dandy was owned by a co worker of my mom's. They bought Dandy's dam when she was in foal and then Dandy came along. They could no longer keep Dandy, they needed space to keep heifers for the summer and Dandy was occupying that field. They are very successful cattle farmers and horses weren't really in their blood.

Dandy was 2 years old and was untrained. You could easily plop a halter on her, but otherwise, she couldn't lead without running on your heels, could not pick up her feet and had absolutely NO respect for humans. When I heard about her, she was headed to a cattle sale... obviously, she would've been the only horse there, not trained, she was headed for the dog food plant. My mom advised me that one of her co workers had a filly fo sale. My mom does not know anything about horses, she knew I loved them and that I was interested in buying one soon. I saw Dandy and I immediatly fell in love with her! She was pure black, dead quiet, they had put a saddle on her a few times, no more. I was a bit rushed into a visit since she was heading to auction on saturday and it was Tuesday! So I headed to see her on Wednesday.

When I got there, Dandy was nothing like the pictures... her hair was matted, she was thin-ish, shivering in the cold spring rain. I felt horrible! I asked to go in the pasture with her and the first thing she did was show me her back feet... up close... yep, she kicked at me!!! I thought I would not buy her, she was too crazy... but she was well put together (enough) and had straight legs. I would have a lot of work to do... she was already two... her feet had never been done, never been handled... I am a barefoot trimmer, so I had to think of all that!

I made an offer, rather on the low side for that time and it was accepted. I gave a deposit and I would pick up my horse in the weekend. What had I done?