How about . . . Wilbur and my worst nightmare come true.
I always tell my cowboy, "Don't take him anywhere." "Don't brush him, leave that mud on" And I really thought his name should be GIFT but we called him Wilbur (not nearly so pretty). I'm always afraid someone will want to buy him. And it's happened.
I pick up the phone:
The lady on the other end says, "Hello. Um, what's the lease rider's name again?"
I politely tell the female voice.
"Oh ya, Is he there? May I speak to him"
I say, "Sure" and hand him the phone
I hear:
"Well I don't know . . . It would be alot, he's pretty near perfect . . . Well, I have to talk it over with my wife. Ya, good bye."
I ask:
"What was that all about?"
He tells me that the lady on the phone was the neighbor we don't know real well but when we heard they needed an extra roper at their branding my cowboy went to help out. He took Wilbur, when I told him not to, and now her daughter has fallen in love with the horse and they want to buy him. He's supposed to talk it over with me and phone her back
This is the horse that when I'm not there I can rest easy knowing that this is such a good horse that my cowboy can handle anything on him alone and he's not going to get hurt. That's what he meant by pretty near perfect.
We talk it over and I tell him to ask for a lot, hoping that they won't want to spend that much. Besides, it will cost quite a bit to replace him. How do you find a pretty, good footed, straight legged, sound, calm, realy smooth moving, big, smart, cowy, totally trustworthy gelding that you can work cattle on in a pencil bosal? ( I guess come to our house.)
You see, my cowboy can ride almost anything and get the job done (especialy if I am there to back him up) but me . . . not so much. I need a realy good broke horse, then I can do wonders but without . . . I'm kind of a wash out. And he's one of these really good broke horses that I can ride too. I confess I'm a little selfish because I thought he was moving into my string.
The next day he tells me he called this lady, told her the price, and the lady said it was too much (Whew). Then she called back and asked if he would take 1/2 now and 1/2 in calves in the fall. (whew-not). My cowboy said he'd have to talk that over with me.
One thing you have to understand is that almost everybody has more money than us. It's not easy for us to turn down big money for a horse, even Wilbur. What to do? What to do?
12 comments:
Oh no!! Its always easy to sell the good ones, but only you can decide if you can replace him with something else. He is awful pretty, but way too tall for my liking, but I did like him after I got on, lol.
Tough call, I guess. But a huge compliment ,you know you are doing good work when they are trying to buy the horse out form under you!
It's not always about the money. Sometimes safety and peace of mind outweigh any other factor. If you had more than one of this king of horse, it would be different. Go with your gut instinct on this one.
I wish I could tell you what to do, but I can't. :(
You will just have to talk it over and try to come to a decision. Good luck.
There's nothing wrong with being selfish, either.
*hugs*
If you sell him, you will spend the same amount to get the same quality of trustworthyness and experience in another gelding for your string.
These kind of horses do not grow on trees. Don't forget to include all the time, gas, frustration,etc, you will spend answering ads and driving to places to test drive potential replacements.
And... all the times you will be working cattle and not be able to be as effective because your BEST horse is gone.
Just my 4 cents of advice.
That would be an impossibly hard decision to make. We had a situation similar where some family had a piece of land we loved, and had the opportunity to sell for a lot of money. On the one hand very happy for them cause it definatly came in handy. But on the other hand, very dissappointing too. So hard to know what to do!
Aw, such a hard decision!
I hate decisions like that. I told my dad if we get to that point with my big show gelding that he needs to ask $15,000 for him. My dad said ok... I said no one will pay that, plus he can't pass a vet sound check (horse shoe'r screwed him up bad) but he's sound and that's all that matters :)
Boy that's a tough decision I wouldn't want to make!
Peace of mind is priceless. Unless it's in the horse's best interest/you need the money for necessities, I wouldn't sell him at any price. Just my two cents.
Thanks, everyone for your input on this one.
We USED to sell the good ones but now...............I want my best broke Snick and I don't care how much I'm offered.......he's priceless to me.
I was showing my husband pictures on your blog and he saw the picture of Wilbur and said that was such a nice looking horse. I chuckled and read him your whole post. He said no way, don't sell, you will never replace him, you will kick yourself for years to come, even if you do get good for him. Just our two cents, but he didn't even blink an eye before he said this.
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