The dream turns into a nightmare

When we started actively looking for a horse I was rather dismayed at our prospects at first.  We ended up looking at so many half starved, sour, barely trained, no-manners-havin, sullen, dead eyed rejects I couldn't believe it!  Heck, even the "rescue" we went to was so awful I left in tears wishing I had the resources to take every single horse out of there just to save them!  It was heartbreak after heartbreak.  Then one day out of the blue the trainer I was working with mentioned that she knew a guy that was looking for a good home for a few of his horses.  Since we were first time horse owners the trainer agreed to go with us to advise us so armed with a professional we figured it couldn't hurt to just go look.

The owner was an older gentleman who raised Thoroughbreds for racing but was ready to retire.  The first horse he pointed out was a mare that was munching hay among several others and a cute little donkey.  When we approached her she flattened her ears back and moved away from us quickly.  The trainer muttered to us under her breath that the mare had a bad attitude so we should pass on her.  The second was a gelding, Brother Anthony.  He seemed to be a nice enough horse and there was a fast connection between him and my husband. The owner said that Brother was doing well at the racetrack when he somehow got a leg hung up in his halter leaving him with a slightly bowed tendon which should heal just fine with about six more months of pasture rest for the kind of casual riding we wanted to do.

When we consulted with our trainer she felt he'd be great if we wanted to take him.  The owner said Brother was "dead broke" and the trainer backed him up saying that she knew he didn't just ride his horses at the track, he rode them all over his ranch too.  She also assured us that his injury should heal leaving him perfectly sound and added that she always had good luck with these off-the-track horses.  We asked how much.  When the owner replied "free to a good home" we couldn't believe it!  Really we felt we didn't have anything to lose!  But just to be safe we took him straight to the vet who did a checkup and coggins test for us.  The vet also agreed that the tendon injury was very minor and he should be fine for the kind of simple riding we wanted to do with nothing more than a little rest.

We got him home and proudly turned him out into our newly fenced pasture and he went plumb berserk!  He was racing up and down the fence calling for herdmates so frantically we were terrified he would kill himself!  After calling we went right back to the owner who said that the sour mare was also free to a good home.  Easter Nugget "roared" and when surgery didn't correct it they simply kept her for their own riding and never raced her.  We figured even if she never sweetened up and hated us with a passion at least she could provide Brother with company. 

Nugget was also "dead broke".  The owner told us that very recently someone wanted to ride (a child or grandchild or something I can't exactly remember) so he pointed out a few horses that they could use.  When he next looked out he realized that they were saddling Nugget by mistake but before he could say anything they jumped on up and rode off so he figured they'd be ok.  We were hopeful that this meant many happy trail rides in our future, my husband on Brother, me on Nugget, but we weren't worried about riding her since she was just meant to calm Brother.  Once again we took her to the vet who cleared her health-wise and we took her home.  We were very pleased and relieved when Brother settled right down when we turned her out with him.

The vet said six months pasture rest but just to be safe we didn't try any kind of work with Brother for about eight months.  I must admit, though, that we couldn't resist the children's excitement and several times let them get on Brother bareback holding him by a lead rope just to sit there which he took completely in stride.  We doted on them finding out what treats they liked, spending time with them, long grooming sessions, and generally trying very hard to impress them.  And we were pleased that it seemed to be working!  Far from sour, Nugget was turning out to be a very quiet, gentle, sweet soul once convinced that we weren't going to interfere with her food and Brother's true silly personality started to shine.  So we were confident when the day came that we decided to try riding.

We thought we were being very careful checking and adjusting the tack just so, slapping at the saddle, putting a little weight in just one stirrup, and on and on taking little baby steps watching the reaction the whole way.  When we put any weight at all in the stirrup Nugget would immediately start bucking wildly so we knew right off that if she was going to be rideable we had a lot of work to do first.  When we did the same with Brother I was able to get on him and walk in a small circle but he seemed VERY hesitant and shaky.  We thought that he'd be fine as long as we were careful riding him to help him learn that we would be gentle, trustworthy riders.  After all this was very different from what he was likely used to and I was giving feather light cues testing his sensitivity but surely with kind treatment he'd get used to it. 

Then my husband wanted to try.  Brother gave a few more of those unsure steps then did a strange wiggle-hop and exploded!  Horrified I ran to catch him but before we knew it my husband came up out of the saddle and back down on Brother's rump just as Brother's rump was coming back up.  Husband met horse rump and he was literally catapulted probably close to 20' in the air before landing on the tough Texas ground with a sickening whump.  At first I thought he just had the air knocked out of him but when he finally did manage to drag in a breath and let it out in a roar I knew it was bad!  When all was said and done he had most of the ribs on his left side each broken in more than one place and needed a chest tube to drain the blood from his damaged lung.

When my husband was healed enough to move around the house on his own I went back to work at the stable.  Neither one of us blamed anyone really, least of all Brother.  So when the trainer angrily dressed me down and told me to get rid of Brother and Nugget right away before my husband or I got killed I was shocked!  I calmly told her that we didn't believe in "getting rid" of an animal just because there was an issue to work through.  When she continued to argue and yell at me over it I honestly didn't know what to do because I didn't understand.  So they needed some work!  Why on earth would she be angry at us???  If anything it should be the other way around!  My husband was seriously hurt and could've been killed due to her mistakes!  All in all it took over a YEAR for him to fully heal and recover!  She especially yelled that she never said the horses were broke, never said we should ride them.  Maybe she was afraid we'd sue her???

Wow. 

That is what passes for a professional horse trainer?  It wasn't very long before I decided that maybe I didn't really want to learn from her example and left.  I'd rather stumble along trying to learn on my own than perpetuate that pitiful excuse for a "professional" anything!