There must be a better way

The barn I take lessons at is an hour away, so it's not an easy trip. It involves a lot of gas, usually a meal out, a cranky husband and at least one cranky kid. My husband was convinced there must be a better, cheaper, easier way for me to ride than to trek out there every week.

Of course, there would be. If we owned a horse and had it closer. We could lease a horse, and go whenever we wanted or whenever was convient. That would be more gas, though. Probably more meals out. I called and asked the barn owner if he knew of any horses for sale or lease cheap. That morning one of his boarders told him she had to sell her horse. I went out to see him. He was cheap. She agreed to come down a lot because I had cash. We could buy him and then move him someplace closer to us. I set up a time to go out with the instructor and ride him. He was a very, very big horse. He was very cranky. He did okay at first, and then took off like a bat out of hell and would not stop. He could only go so far and had to stop before he ran into something. Being the tenacious person I am, we tried this three or four times before I realized he wasn't going to stop. Three other girls rode him, one of them who rode him bareback on a pretty regular basis. He did the same thing to all of them.

So he's having a bad day. They all swore it was completely unlike him. But I was pretty sure he was a no. I didn't feel that I had the experience needed to ride him, and I certainly didn't want my daughter on him. His owner insisted she would come out on Saturday and we'd do it again, this time with her there. So out she comes, with a bag of treats. She tells me all the things you have to say to him first, and do first, and then she says she's been in an accident and can't ride and that's why she's selling him. So, we tack him up, I lead him out. He's already snorting. I get on, and we have a repeat of the previous time. His owner is sure I'm doing something wrong. (I'd already thought that the first day, until he did the exact same thing to three other girls who RODE him often.)

She says, "Do you want me to ride him?"

I told her "You're hurt and I'm not going to ask you to. But he's your horse, so if you wanna ride him, go ahead."

She marches over, I get down. She gets on him. They do a walk around the arena and he does the same thing to her. Over, and over, and over. She did her best to convince me that he just "needed this that and the other" and he'd be fine, and I most certainly could ride him. I told her that I didn't feel that I was a good enough rider for him, she insisted I was, I told her sorry, but no. I didn't feel comfortable putting my child on him if he was going to repeatedly do that.

She gave me some snarky comment like "I'm sorry you don't like my horse, he really is a good boy," while she was trying to make him stop running.

I told her, "It's not that I don't like your horse. I think he's a fine horse. He's just not the one for us."

I began looking for a place to board a horse closer to home, and started watching horse ads in our area. Surely something would come along.