Just a heads-up on this operation... I'll tell my story and you can be the judge.
At the end of September 07, I purchased a 16hh, eight-year-old quarter horse gelding from Jill at J & J Paints, for $3,000."Midnight" was described as a gentle giant, a horse for the whole family. I made it clear to Jill that I was an inexperienced rider and needed a nice, calm horse that I'd be able to handle. She told me that Midnight would be the perfect horse for me and my family. She also said that Midnight acted like the dominant horse, but he actually wasn't. I didn't know what that meant at the time, and I suppose I still don't.
I noticed when Midnight arrived at my stable, where there were approx. 20 other horses, he wasn't going to let any of them push him around. Right from the beginning he was bossy and pushy with the other horses, and they let him have his way.
I was soon intimidated by him also. He quickly learned that I was inexperienced and took full advantage of that. He became bossy and pushy with me in no time. He also had a LOT of energy. The second time I took him out to ride in an open field, I turned him to ride farther into the field when he suddenly did a 180 and headed back toward the stable... At full speed. How I stayed on him, God only knows, but by the time he stopped, I'd pulled back on the reins so hard that I broke my right ring finger. I was terrified! The adrenaline rush was so powerful, it took a couple of minutes before I even felt the pain. I never rode him outside the arena again, except when my husband was with me, and walking beside me.
Being the braver one, my husband would take him out into the field and just let him run. We later learned that he had some thoroughbred in him, which was why he enjoyed running so much. He was definitely NOT the gentle giant I was lead to believe he was. And I would NEVER let my kids ride him outside the arena, even though they are all teenagers.
I also noticed after about a month, when I'd lead him back into the pasture with the other horses, he would trot around the whole pasture with his head about a foot off the ground, moving the other horses around. I was told he was separating the herd. When he'd come upon certain horses, he'd squeal and try to bite them, then run them off completely. He would corner some of them and try to pick a fight. This lasted about a month, then it got worse... He began mounting the mares. He even climbed over a heavy metal gate, practically demolishing it, to get to the mares on the other side. I'm not sure how he did this without injuring himself, but somehow he managed. We then separated him from the mares completely, and he paced so much he began losing weight.
I called my vet who ran some tests on him and he determined Midnight had been properly gelded, but instead had a tumor that was full of testosterone. This wasn't life threatening, but he needed a home with other geldings, which I couldn't give him. My vet, along with several other horse people, said there was no way this tumor just "showed up"... Midnight had to have shown some of these symptoms long before I bought him.
In the meantime, I kept in touch with Jill, updating her on all these disturbing incidents. She claimed Midnight did none of this while she owned him, and she had him for eight months. This conflicted with the opinions of my vet, surgeon, and other horse people.
Jill offered to take him to the sale barn and also offered me a discount on another one of her horses. So at the beginning of February, after owning Midnight for a little over four months (and falling in love with him), I sold my $3,000 horse for $650.
Afterward, I looked at three other horses at Jill's, but none of them seemed right for me. My family couldn't believe I'd even consider giving this woman more of my money. I had to agree and have since bought another horse elsewhere.
So again... Judge for yourself. I think it's only fair to inform the buyer what they might run into when they do business with this operation. I wish I would have had this web site as a reference beforehand.
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