What to ask before purchase?

Baymule said:

We just looked at and bought an 8 year old gelding, 13 hands, (small) for our grand kids. He is a little skinny, but that's no problem. He is barn sour too, but I can deal with that. What he is--is a dead head that the lady's 2 kids could do anything to him and he didn't care, nor did he move. We watched the kids, age 4 and 9, slide off his butt, crawl under him, pick up feet from all angles, slide down his neck, stand up on his back and do things that I would never allow my grands to do--safety wise. He is also a follower-he happily follows any other horse. He just doesn't want to be out there all by himself. So that is also a good thing--for MY purposes, because he will follow a horse that I am riding. We will take possession of him in another week or two, she promised to work on his barn sour attitude. But seriously, that is not such a big issue. He is slow, gentle and perfectly ok with whatever 2 little girls could do to him. He will live an easy life here, but he is big enough for me to ride, should I have to bring him back to reality from time to time. We paid $800 for him. I have been looking for some time for a small horse that is dead gentle. No horse will be perfect, so you have to really look one over, consider the faults and whether or not they are something you can live with or will it be a deal breaker.

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Alexz7272 said:

And Vladimir Lost his manhood today, been dealing with a whiny furbaby

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Bunnylady said:

The jokes are inevitable, I guess . . . though the hybrids give you twice as much material to choose from. When I got Betsy, I told my mother that I had been the recipient of the proverbial gift horse . . . or, maybe half a horse. Or maybe half-of-a-half-a-horse (Betsy is a mini mule). Mules' antipathy for predators is legendary (I've seen an antique cast iron mechanical toy that had a tiny mule jumping at a dog that disappeared behind a hay bale). We knew Betsy couldn't be trusted around dogs, but we didn't realize how much "guarding" she was doing until last year, when my daughter saw her attacking a raccoon late one afternoon. I had no idea she could be that nasty - not a half-assed job by anyone's standards. A few weeks ago, I saw a gray fox outside the fence to the horses' paddocks. They saw it too, and everybody stood and looked . . . except for Betsy, who slowly and deliberately walked in that direction until she was as close to it as she could get. There was something very cool and calculating about her stare; good thing for the fox that he kept his distance. She wouldn't stand a chance against a pack of coyotes, of course, but for the smaller predators that come singly, I'd say she more than a match.

I agree the animal you are looking at looks like a mule or hinny. Hinnies are said to look more horse-like, and mules more donkey-like, though whether that is always true is debatable. For a long time, hinnies had a reputation for being less sturdy than mules, and there is a good chance that a lot of hinnies were getting passed off as mules because of that bias.

Donkeys and mules are definitely not just funny looking horses; mentally, they are very different. Donkeys are very, very smart, and mules? Mules are freakin' brilliant. Once one has learned to trust you, they can be very loyal and willing workers. They will insist on thinking for themselves, though, and the best way to get on their bad side is to try to force them into anything. If this little guy already knows his job, you are halfway home. I'm following this thread with interest.

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AClark said:

This is one of my big requirements - and why I didn't bother looking at small ponies for my kids. Sometimes, ponies get this idea that they can (and they do) boss little kids around, and if they're too small for an adult to get on and do a "reality check" with, then you have a bad mannered little pony. Reality check sounds bad, I guess a "refresher course" is better, just a reminder that they can't pull a bunch of crap and get away with it. The other horse we're picking up is only in the 13HH range, but he's plenty big for me or my husband to get on (I'm 5 ft 3, hubby is 5 ft 6) too.

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Bunnylady said:

You don't have to get on a horse's back to establish your position in the pecking order. This is something I had to teach my daughter at a pretty young age; we have an oversized miniature horse that thought she could push people around (particularly children), and at the time she was much too young to be ridden even by a small child. I told DD, "look, I can tell Syd how to behave with me, and how to behave with you when I'm around, but you have to be able to tell her how to behave when I'm not around." I remember cleaning my minis' stall out at the Fair one time, and the livestock superintendent walked by and remarked, "gee, look at Syd, being all good." I sighed and asked, "what has she been doing?" "Oh, nothing really," she replied. "Just turning her backside to the kids when they are cleaning the stalls and threatening stuff. Most of them aren't really used to large animals, you know, and don't know how to deal with them." "Well, you tell them for me, that if they are in here with an apple picker (plastic manure fork) and she does that, they have my permission - no, encouragement - to smack her on the butt with the fork! She has got to learn not to do that to anybody."

DD has learned her lessons well; she even applies them to my QH, Latte. A few days ago, Latte hadn't been worked in a while, and we knew she was going to be full of beans. When DD started lunging her, Latte started to give her some brattitude, and DD got on her case for it. Funny thing - they really do accept and respect an effective leader. A while later, DD wound up doing some liberty work with Latte (something she had never done before) and even though Latte was free and able to leave at any time, she was quite content to follow DD all over the paddock doing circles, backing, etc. Considering what I have seen that horse do, it was quite impressive.

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