Just Call Me a Horse Trader

“Horse trader” tends to be a bit of a nasty phrase in the horse world. Some people say, “I can’t stand horse traders… They rip people off and are never honest.” or..They’re only in it for the money. While I do believe there is some truth to that with some people…It’s the same as any thing. There are honest traders, and shady traders, and some in-between. You would see the same in any form of sales..Cars, real estate, products, vacuums. Anything that involves the buying and selling of things in general, there is the potential for someone to be dishonest or greedy.

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Let me start by saying, we are ‘horse traders.’ If you look up the definition of horse trading, it is literally, the buying and selling of horses. We do this every. single. month. We are not a 501.c3 NFP, although we are considering looking into it for the rescue side of things, and we have never claimed to be a licensed or registered rescue. We do, however, rescue 4-5 horses per month from a kill pen auction…Work with them while we quarantine them, and feed them and vet them, and have the farrier out to see them….We DO give them medications when needed and check on them multiple times a day. We do treat them with love and compassion like we would our own.

We know when we bring these horses home that they will not be with us permanently. In turn, that does make us horse traders. I have met a lot of horse traders over this past year. I’ve met some really good honest people. Are we all the same? Or have the same views on how to run business? No. But in general, most that I have met have agreed on a love for horses and an appreciation for all that they do.

I see some horse traders, like my friend Aaliyah Sytsma who I have ran into at the sale barn a time or two, who do trading…Ride those horses, and sell them but also take in the skinniest, most bad off neglected horses that a lot of people DON’T want to take on and try and nurse them back to health. She has put down two horses in the past couple of months that were just too far gone. And, at first glance…yes that’s what responsible horse owners would do…But how about the ones who don’t raise any funds, and put all of their own personal finances on the line, and have immense expenses when it comes to the vet bills and care of those bad off horses? She takes in these guys knowing there’s going to be immense expenses, and will possibly lose them anyway.

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One time we took in a sweet, appaloosa mare named Precious. My husband drove four hours to get her, and upon getting there we found out she had a very bad injury to her back leg. It was a gaping wound, and very swollen and tender. She could hardly put weight on it. He called me and we decided to bring her home. Precious went down in her stall the next day and I coaxed her back up. She had no fight. My little boy, who you can see above hugging her, went into her stall and nudged her head with his foot and asked me if the horse was dead. She certainly looked it. It took a few months to get Precious completely on the mend. Several times she was down and just trying to get relief from that back leg. We washed it, soaked it, wrapped it, applied antibiotic creams. She had anti inflammatories…This horse was smothered in love. Every day she was the first one to whinny to me. And when she was finally able to move well enough to be turned out, when my own horse snubbed me…Precious would limp her way straight to me. When she started feeling better and the vet approved her for light riding, my boys started going for the occasional short ride on her. She would ride bareback or saddled. They could ride her without a bridle or a lead rope and she would just walk along happy as she could be to return the favor we had given her. A lady reached out about Precious who had a horse that had suffered a similar injury, and it worked out they would be able to take her home with them for the amount of $ we had into her. She is now healthy and thriving. I get updates here and there about her and they named her Diva. I cried the day she left us. Sometimes you just pour your heart into a horse. And even though you know they won’t be with you forever…It doesn’t matter…You made the difference in that one horse.

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So…There’s the topic of the dreaded subject “Profit”. Sometimes we make a profit, and sometimes we do not. When we do…it is not a huge sizable profit. We are not in the business to make thousands of dollars a month on horses, although it sounds appealing some days. (just to be honest! haha) I wish I could just do it all the time, because it’s what I love!

First off, let me explain the expense side of things…When we go to the sale we raise some money. That money goes toward the pull price of the horses we bring home. Most times it does not even touch their feed, transportation, vet bills, farrier bill, medications, emergency visits, or training time. And yes, we count our time when we determine a price set for a horse. My daughter, my husband, sometimes our kids, and I spend an immense amount of time working with our rescue horses we bring home…Let me put it this way…Every horse that ever goes through auction has a reason for being there. Week one, we figure out their kinks and figure out what we need to work on with them to get them into shape to be a good horse for a family home so they don’t end up being bounced around in sale barns, or leave on a kill truck in the future. We have a standing appointment with our vet, Mark Hall, our of Kirkwood Stronghurst Veterinary Clinic for the first Wednesday after the sale every month for a new horse check and looking for any major soundness issues, or major health concerns that need addressed. Sometimes we have one or two who get sick following the sale barn, or have an abscess show up that needs treated. One time, on one of our rescues, after she went home, delivered a very premature surprise foal, and had some other health issues going on with her and we ended up helping try and offset the expenses of the emergency vet visit. These guys are not cheap. There is a lot more that goes into them than just buying them and bringing them home from auction. We want to ensure that they end up with the best life they can when they leave us and do our best to maintain a good relationship with every one who has bought a horse from us.

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Sometimes, we buy a horse because we have someone looking for something specific. So we watch for a good deal, and will find horse for them…Or maybe we see an outstanding deal, and buy a horse just because we know we constantly have people looking and we would be able to sell it. This is a non rescue purchase. This is a purchase that we spend money out of pocket on, hoping it will work out to be a good deal so if it doesn’t we can at least get our expenses back out of it. We have bought a couple of ponies before and found them an awesome home…We have bought several horses to keep them out of a sale barn, and a donkey. Some of them we didn’t make a profit on, and some we did.

There are some months, where things just don’t work out as well with the sale we rescue from and we end up with horses that may not end up being good riding horses. One example is Precious…and in the case of Lucky Lola. And Dolly, we ended up rehoming for less than the expenses than we had in here. Lucky Lola, we transported down to Florida and she is really living a horse’s dream life. Her vision is improving and she has had an 8 year old boy riding her. So it worked out well. But we had her for two months, paid a large amount for her not realizing she was blind at the sale, and had feed, farrier, vet expenses, etc for her. We also had Precious, a buckskin mare, who’s long ago former owner recognized her. Precious would have never been able to be more than a light riding horse, and was not kid broke…So we were able to give her to her old owner because we had raised funds to help offset our costs.

So, just call me a horse trader…If that offends you, that’s ok. We try our best to find good horses for good people, and it is an adventure that we have loved all the way along. When we started our page, I didn’t imagine the following we have now. And I appreciate the fact that people support us, and follow us. I appreciate the people who have bought horses and ponies from us, and keep in contact with us. I appreciate the time and effort my husband and daughter put into our rescue horses. You know a man loves you, when he spends time putting hours of work into something you love. Or drives four hours to pick up an injured, malnourished horse for you.

I just want to give a shout out to all you horse traders out there with a good, kind, honest heart! We appreciate you. We appreciate our rescues who put countless hours into rehabbing horses, and put up with the long process of court surrendering issues when the state has to get involved, such as Carrie Aldrich with Lucky Star in Alden, IA. We appreciate rescue people like Savannah Simo, and Eowyn Brewer, who help us out as needed at the sale, or when we need some encouragement or advice, and compare notes with us so we don’t bid against each other and in turn save more horses because it’s not a competition. We appreciate the people who donate to our fundraiser to help save the lives of horses in the slaughter pipeline. It takes people like you to make a difference. We appreciate you who have adopted horses from us! You have made the difference in that horse and gave them a future of hope.

Thank you for following us, and supporting us in what we do. I hope you continue to follow us at Aldrich Equine Adventures!