This little mare is about 14.1 –14.2 hands, and around 1100 pounds. She would be great for a youth or lady’s horse, but I am 6’ tall and was 200 lbs. when I was riding her. She is extremely fast….one of the fastest I have ever owned. The way she is put together, you would think she isn’t much of an athlete, but she is the best teampenner I have ever ridden. She has impeccable ground manners… quiet and calm for shoeing, clipping bathing, the farrier and vet. This could also be considered a "bad", but this horse is not for someone who doesn’t know how to ride very well. You barely touch her neck with the reins, and she will spin 360’s. Raise the reins a hair with your fingers, and she will slide to a stop. Barely touch your leg to her side and she is off like a shot. You just look at a cow and she goes where your body language sub-conscientiously directs her. A joy to ride for the experienced horseman, but frustrating to a rank beginner.

If you pull her extended pedigree, she is all foundation Quarter horse on top, and all racing TB and racing QH on bottom. She is short-necked and wide chested, and shouldn’t be very quick or agile at all, but she is a winning penner and could easily be a timed event horse. I am just too old and too fat to run barrels!

We got this little mare about 4 years ago, and when she got here, she was a nervous wreck. I reached into my shirt pocket to get a cigarette, and she nearly flipped over backwards. She was scared to death of people, especially men. Researching her history, she was "broke to ride" as 2 yr. old, and some "cowboy" knocked some of her baby teeth out, jerking on the bit. At 3 years old, a rather "green" lady "rescued" her, and had owned her for 2 years, when she asked me to buy her. She had sent the mare off to a "Big Lick"Gaited Horse Trainer, for crying out loud, to be trained some more for "just riding." When they got the horse back, every time she tried to get on, Pudden would run off with her, slamming the lady to the ground, and a time or two, dragging her around the arena. Well, after I got Pudden home, it took us a week or two to figure out the key to getting on her: Don’t touch the reins! Leave them lying on her neck! These idiot gaited horse trainers, intentionally train horses to take off at a run when you lift the reins and your foot touches the stirrup! They think the horse can’t buck with them if they do this. So, you can be in a 1,000-acre open field, and you get on her with the reins lying on her neck. Get your seat and your feet right, THEN pick up the reins and whisper "whoa’. I have not re-trained her to get her out of this. I just got used to leaving the reins on her neck. I should re-train her, but this is quirk of hers is kind of an " anti-theft device", ya know? J

This mare trusts me now, unequivocally, and she would follow me through fire without even a halter or leadrope on her. I have never raised my voice in anger to her, nor ever struck, whipped or spurred her. We have bonded, and if you will treat her right and bond with her, she will give you all she as, each and every time you ask. She will make the right person an awesome companion.

So, here’s the deal..

She is  being offered  for sale, "to a good home only" , for real!   The price I get for her is not as important as the home.  How you care for your horses (vaccination and worming schedules and protocals, the type pasture, shelter, feed, etc) will be a factor. How you handle a horse (the ability of the rider, the knowledge of basic horsemanship, training philosophies, etc.) will be a factor.  The final price I give you will include APHA transfer fees and your APHA membership, if you don't already have an APHA number.  The bill of sale will include a provision for me to get first right of refusal should you ever decide to sell her. So,  if Pudden sounds like the horse for you, and you think you are the person for Pudden, submit an offer on her. We will take it from there. Remember, though, the highest offer may not necessarily get the horse.

John Warren