Might be parting ways with an old friend

[Cowcatcher]

Well I let him go today at the sale. He’s going to a family I know well and wanted him for their 6yo granddaughter. He brought $10k. I also ended up purchasing a 4yo at the sale. He won second in the cut and capture portion of the futurity. The futurity is only open to horses that are bred by the ranch hosting the sale. Anyhow, this 4yo is eligible next year to compete again as a 5yo and I will have the option to consign him to their sale for his lifetime. Super happy that Hamster went to someone I knew and know he will have a great life.
Below is the video of the horse I bought. That is the seller riding him not I. Super excited about his future!

 

[OkieJoe72]

Sounds like a great day for you. Congratulations on both the selling and buying.

 

[DRC458]

Sounds like it's worked out well for all involved!

 

[Mr.Glock]

Well I let him go today at the sale. He’s going to a family I know well and wanted him for their 6yo granddaughter. He brought $10k. I also ended up purchasing a 4yo at the sale. He won second in the cut and capture portion of the futurity. The futurity is only open to horses that are bred by the ranch hosting the sale. Anyhow, this 4yo is eligible next year to compete again as a 5yo and I will have the option to consign him to their sale for his lifetime. Super happy that Hamster went to someone I knew and know he will have a great life.
Below is the video of the horse I bought. That is the seller riding him not I. Super excited about his future!

Congrats on the sale and purchase! Best of luck with the new ride.

 

[GorillaG]

My friend sold her horse she had for 20 years. I don't get this AT ALL. An animal thats served me for years and years is just sold? Geez it's like selling a pet dog. I couldn't even CONSIDER it. I'm a city boy for sure so maybe this is proper ranch etiquette but damn it rings HARSH. I don't see any other comments stating what seems OBVIOUS to me, so I guess I just don't get it. No offense meant.

 

[Cowcatcher]

My friend sold her horse she had for 20 years. I don't get this AT ALL. An animal thats served me for years and years is just sold? Geez it's like selling a pet dog. I couldn't even CONSIDER it. I'm a city boy for sure so maybe this is proper ranch etiquette but damn it rings HARSH. I don't see any other comments stating what seems OBVIOUS to me, so I guess I just don't get it. No offense meant.

I hear you and understand your point of view. For me personally I don’t have many pets. They are tools or a means of food or income. I didn’t shoot him or haul him to a local sale barn to live on the horse trader circuit. I didn’t throw him out to pasture to wind up a foundered old crippled gelding. He’s going to a ranch family to live life and participate in raising a 6yo little girl. You didn’t offend me. Maybe what I said here will help you understand.

 

[Mr.Glock]

My friend sold her horse she had for 20 years. I don't get this AT ALL. An animal thats served me for years and years is just sold? Geez it's like selling a pet dog. I couldn't even CONSIDER it. I'm a city boy for sure so maybe this is proper ranch etiquette but damn it rings HARSH. I don't see any other comments stating what seems OBVIOUS to me, so I guess I just don't get it. No offense meant.

They are a tool as cowcatcher stated. It sucks ass some times to have to get a fresh one. But it is life.

 

[Snattlerake]

"Squirrel?"

 

[Cowcatcher]

"Squirrel?"

That’s what they called him. I’m gonna call him TreeRat or TR for short.

 

[red dirt shootist]

I've read through this thread a couple times, and I guess I have to comment. Reminds me of my young days when I lived in Montana, over on the western edge, not big ranches, just mountains and hunting country. I owned two horses, Ronney, 6 years, 16 1/2 hands half Appolousa 1/2 Thoroughbred, and Kitten, a grade mare in her late twenties. Neither were cow horses and I wasn't a cowboy. But when I got home from work I'd throw a saddle on Ronney and take him out for a couple of hours, I lived at the base of the Bitterroot Selway Wilderness, it was like taking a Ferrari out for a spin, nothing but pleasure. Then there was Kitten, work horse, hunted off of her, shot from the saddle, packed out bloody everything, skidded out logs, you name it. I worked for an outfitter for a couple years up there and the first fall we built the camp and a couple of corrals, just under the Divide a couple miles, in an area called Bloody Dick. So I took ole Kitten up there and my outfitter was walking around her, checking her out, and I said go ahead and sack her out, he looked at me and said she's solid, no need for that, I'll just say one thing, don't ask her to do anything she can't, but make her do everything you ask. I've tried that same approach with my wife, but it does work with horses. And then my Golden lab, constantly with me, I didn't even use hand signals, he knew what I was thinking before I did.
I guess I just had to say sorry about Hamster, but it worked out OK, really good actually, now he has a new assignment, he's going to raise a little girl. Unless you've worked with an animal really close, it's hard to understand it all.