Horse Story

In the year 1999 my husband (who is now my ex) and, I got the bright idea to move to the country to avoid the Y2K scare. We had our own water source, 29 acres and decided to buy horses. Our thoughts were that if the catastrophe of Y2K hit hard and our vehicles were no longer in operation at least we could get around with our horses. Right???

Y2K turned out to be just a lot of hype

Well, as we all know nothing happened on Y2K. It was just like any other day and here we were stuck with horses we knew nothing about. When we bought these very overly priced horses we were told by the owner that her daughter would come out to our farmette and teach us how to ride them.

Unfortunately that was just another fictitious horse story that she fed us! Shortly after they got our $7,000 the previous owner closed up shop and no one could find them. We were devastated and left with nothing but broken promises and lies.

We obtained books on horses to learn what to do.

Largely because of our being novices when it comes to horses we bought books on horses to learn how to care for them, etc. I was very much afraid of the horses because of the experience I had when we were picking them out. The owner said that we must at least ride them once before buying them. This sounded great to me. This was the first time I had ever gotten on a horse and all went well as long as I stayed with the group. However, being the overly confident, novice that I was, I turned the horse away from the group to see what it would be like to ride the Tennessee walker alone. That was not a good idea! As soon as we got away from the group, he made a quick bolt toward the barn. As he galloped straight towards the woods, I knew I had to do something.

My first “emergency dismount”

It was already too late to pull back on the reins because he was going too fast. However, it was only instinct that told me not to pull back. I learned later from those books that I did the right thing. Along with the thought that I was going to die was the thought that when he gets to the woods, he will have to make a sharp left turn in order to go back to the barn and I would fall off. Either that or he would gallop through the woods to brush me off. I only had seconds to make a decision so I tried what they call an emergency dismount! I threw my left leg over the horn and then threw myself off the horse and landed into some weeds.

I was in a terrific amount of pain and could hardly breathe. When my husband came to see what happened he didn’t even help me up. Instead the owner’s daughter helped me up. So I made it to the car and he still wanted to buy the horses. I insisted on going home and when I arrived home I threw myself into my son’s arms (thank God he was visiting) and, he insisted I get checked out at the hospital. After x-rays were taken, I was told that nothing was broken but that I would be in much pain for a few weeks.

I literally begged my husband not buy the horses.

I felt that this was a sign from God that we should learn more first. My husband did not listen to me but instead went out and bought those two horses. He also insisted that he needed a large truck to haul the horses. These are two of the things that we did not need and that only led to our down fall later. We had to borrow against my husband’s inheritance of stock to have these things because he was not working at the time.

Little by little we had to keep borrowing more money against the stock to feed the horses, for vet fees, saddles, riding vests, etc. Even though I truly fell in love with the horses largely due to the fact that I was the one who would feed them, clean the stalls, haul bank gravel, and, care for them regularly, I never got the courage to ride them. It was like a downhill slope in which everything was slipping away including our marriage.

September 11, 2011

Then when Sept 11th hit our stock plummeted and we had to cash out the remainder of the stock to pay off the loan. We are now divorced due to the depression my now ex went into in which he decided he wanted to sow his wild oats. He felt that he missed out on the dating experience when he was young due to having to take care of his alcoholic Dad. However, he still is unemployed looking for a sugar Mommy I presume!!

It seems as though he too fed me nothing but broken promises and lies!! However, I learned much from that experience! Most of all the art of self reliance!!


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