You should look a gift horse in the mouth though. Just because it was free doesn’t mean it isn’t your responsibility to make sure it’s healthy.
Not to mention all horse medicine is expensive, including dentistry, so for all you know they could just be passing off vet costs to you
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Don’t look at a gift horse. Don’t accept a horse as a gift. Be extremely skeptical of anyone trying to bind you to the ownership of a horse.
Climb upon the back of your gift horse and allow it to walk you to the river
somehow, I only just put together that a “gift horse” means a horse that is gifted to you, and not some kind of strange horse themed deity of generosity that is dropping goodies into your gullible hands from their giant horse maw.
I feel rather stupid at the moment
Nah your version is way better
#wait that’s what it means#i also always thought it was a horse god
The sheer number of people in the notes who thought this is amazing. There is love and light and beauty in the world.
For those confused, this saying is about being given a horse for free. You check a horse’s teeth to estimate its age and check for certain health conditions; when buying a random horse from a random guy in Old Timey Times (horses tend to have pretty thorough paperwork these days), it was expected that you’d check the horse’s teeth to make sure the seller wasn’t lying to you about the horse’s age and quality. The idea is that if someone is giving the horse to you for free, it’d be rude and entitled to check its age.
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” essentially means “don’t criticise or second-guess your blessings”. Similar (but not identical) to “beggars can’t be choosers”. A modern version of the same saying could be “don’t check the mileage on a free car”.
#what the fuck#are you sure? lol#i just imagined a horse that had gifts in it’s mouth and you take the gift but dont look behind it#because it could come with strings attached#and if you dont look you wont know
You guys have some very complicated horse mythology
As someone who grew up around horses I got a couple things to add,
One
even with the paperwork I have never ever seen someone buy a horse without driving out and looking every inch of the horse over then setting a time to come back with the trailer and a brand inspector
B
If you are being gifted a horse?
It’s a murder horse it has tasted blood and longs to taste it again
Do not except gifted horse, who knows how hands have touched them, and whose blood that lays upon the hoof,
One last thing have we as a society learned nothing from Troy
Tags by @theforceisstronginthegirl:
#ok 1 people DO buy horses without paperwork or having them vetted all the time
#these people are the biggest idiots on the planet
#unless you are paying $500 for a horse in that case u look at it and go
#it’s got 4 legs and is still breathing
#and 2 free horses come in 3 distinct models
#A) someone needs to get rid of it fast and that horse has gotta disappear
#B) horse is so fucking evil and hates humans so much they literally can’t sell it and don’t want any questions
#C) horse is being re-homed to a beloved trainer or horse retirement situation where it’s going to be a lesson pony forever or
#a pasture ornament for the rest of its life