Grey Gelding 1896 – Part 1

Even though it was October and the innkeeper (my dad) was sure there was no room at the inn, I brought another horse home. I wasn’t planning on bringing another horse home, but the innkeeper’s wife (my mom) doesn’t really listen to the innkeeper, and it was her idea. It wasn’t like there was a really good deal on a super horse and we just had to do it regardless of the opinion of the innkeeper, it was nothing like that at all.

Where we live, there is a kill pen that offers up not-so-bad horses to be sold before they are shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. Before anyone goes off on horse slaughter, I cant say that I personally have anything against it, except that it should be done in the United States; regulated and humane. Also, I’m not entirely sure why this organization buys horses to ship for slaughter and then acts like the rest of us should rally and scramble to rescue these sad and broken creatures from the fate the pen-people intended for them all long.  We have heard many horror stories from people who have “rescued” horses from the kill-pen; stories about the blind, crippled, and crazy horses they now have living in their pastures. But sometimes they tell good stories….and this story…is a good story.

There he was on Facebook – Grey Gelding 1896 BTR/14.3 hands/11 years – When you buy one of these horses, you don’t get to try them out or spend much time thinking about your decision to buy. (they are for sale for 4 days before they ship) All you get, is a little 2 minute video of some guy riding the horse in a little stretch of cattle-shoot and that is it. Not the best way to go about making a huge commitment to a 1200 pound animal, but we did it anyway.  700$ cash and here we go! Are we really doing this? Can you believe it?

We walked into the pen where all the other horses were mingling and there was my boy, standing as far away from the rest, pretending he didn’t known them and this wasn’t happening to him. We petted and looked for signs of crazy, lameness or illness, but he looked like he could probably make the ride home without dying or destroying the trailer. Are we really doing this?

I gave the lady they cash and she handed me a receipt that said, “Grey Gelding 1896- Paid”