Back in Black

This weekend I got an e-mail from the gal who purchased Black. She is going to be selling her and wanted to know if we were interested in having her back. It sounds like she’s fallen on some hard times and I don’t think she was prepared for the upkeep Black’s feet require.

I wasn’t quite sure how to approach DH about the offer to buy her back but I knew I had to at least ask. I was surprised at how open to the idea he was depending on how bad her feet have gotten.

According to the gal we sold her to she rode her last summer and some friends and their 5 & 7 yr. old kids rode her in an indoor in the fall. She said she is a bit sore on the hard ice but that she hasn’t abscessed since she had her. Needless to say we are going to go look at her on Sat.

My father will probably kill me if I bring home another horse but it won’t be the first time I’ve done it and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I’ll just have to pray we don’t have to move them anytime soon.

Our “hope” for Black is that she becomes DH’s roping horse (yeah I know). She is 24 but when she was here and her feet were on the mend she acted like she was 10 again. I’ve had horses live to be 34 so IMO 24 is far from dead. I know in her day they worked cattle off of her and ranch roped.

I told DH he’s going to have to take his roping dream down a notch. He wants a NFR roping horse but we can’t afford one (heck I’d like a trained reiner). He has been asked to do some ranch roping competitions with a few friends this year.

I’m not 100% on how the competitions work as I’ve seen a few different styles. Neither are very high impact on the horses like normal team roping is and I think it would be a good “starting point” for DH.

Here is one example of Ranch Roping. I think they are DQ’d if the horse gets out of a trot.



In the other example there are 12 or so cows that are grouped and numbered in groups of 3. As you cross the line your number is called and those are the cattle that have to be roped. A breakaway rope is used and your time ends after the last cow is roped and the rope breaks away.

We both figured if she doesn’t work then we can either try to rehome her or send her to live with MIL so I can have my horse back. LOL This would give MIL two riding horses so if we came over we could go for a ride without having to haul a horse over.

Here are some pictures of her from when we had her in case you don’t remember her.