While searching for a good new home for Brother and Nugget my family has been undermining my determination. The children all boo-hooed at the thought of rehoming Nugget because she's their favorite. It seems a little strange to me since she's the one that we can't even get on so far but I guess you'd have to meet Nugget to see just how darn sweet she is. She really is just so darn SWEET (repetitive, I know, but it's really the only word to describe her) that you just fall in love with her even if you can't ride her. Just hanging out with her is relaxing.
And for all his talk about rehoming Brother being the smart thing to do and how financially we'd be better off Brother has always been dear hubby's baby. The reason we got Brother in the first place was he and Eric seemed to have an instant connection of some sort. He's not as blatant about it as the children, of course, but he has been dragging his feet around when it comes to this whole rehoming thing. I found one place that has a special place in their hearts for OTTBs that would retrain them and keep them for their clients that come there for treatment which sounds like it could be a very nice place for Brother and Nugget but hubby's answer was "nah, they'll probably want us to deliver them which means we'd have to borrow a trailer or something." Sounds like a silly excuse to say no to me!
I'm actually surprised that someone hasn't grabbed them up! These are quality horses with some very rich blood running in their veins free for the taking but once I tell them that Nugget roars or that they'll need a very experienced rider to get them used to being ridden again the people that were so eager to hear about them just dry right up. I'm not really complaining since I'd rather keep them but it does make me wonder just what the heck people are expecting??? Do they honestly think that someone is going to hand them two blue bloods with perfect conformation, fully trained and bomb proof, no quirks or flaws whatsoever on a silver platter for free???
But the big news is...I rode Brother (sorta, a little)!! Eric was hemming and hawing about things and decided that he'd like to put Tina or Traveller's saddle on Brother just to see what he'd do. His idea was that maybe Brother just needed to "buck it out" so Tina's saddle which has a back cinch would be best since Brother's almost sure to buck not being used to that second cinch. This kind of talk was making me really nervous really quick so I decided that I'd best do something with Brother to thwart my sweet hubby's plans. I don't actually object to letting a horse "buck it out" to some extent as long as he's been prepared and the saddle fits well but neither Tina nor Traveller's saddles fit Brother properly!
So instead I asked Eric to hold Brother's lead rope while I got on and off him bareback. Every time I got on Brother got a cookie. That went so well that after several mounts and dismounts I had Eric lead us around the round pen while being generous with the cookies. It all went very nicely and Eric was satisfied so I was happy but I knew I still needed to find some way to put a complete end to this talk of using Tina's saddle on him. Yesterday I got my chance while Eric was at the band parent's meeting. I put both saddles on Brother in the round pen but took the back cinch off Tina's and only cinched them up enough to keep them from falling off. Brother was good walking the round pen carrying the saddles but now that I've actually seen them on him no, I do think that they sit too low over his withers. Plus although Brother was good about it he did seem a little tense and twitchy. Eric came home just as I was finishing with the 2nd saddle and disagrees with me. He says he thinks he could make it work with the right saddle pad. At the very least I know that I don't have to make any kind of solid stand unless he gets another saddle pad so for now we're safe on this point! And it's looking more and more like maaaaayyyybeeee we won't end up rehoming them after all! We'll just have to keep seeing what happens one day at a time I guess.
Showing posts with label TB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TB. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
The blues
Yes, we did get a chance to ride since my last post but it wasn't until yesterday. It seems like the more I say I'm going to ride the more all sorts of different things try to get in the way. Maybe I should start saying that I'm absolutely NOT going to ride? Who knows, life might start throwing things at me to get me to ride then! We even rode off our property a little ways! It was a lot of fun but a little scary too. The last time I tried riding Traveller off property he bolted out from under me and I was hurting bad for awhile. This time I think it helped that he had Tina with him, he cozied up to her as if for comfort a few times, and I put a slightly tougher bit on him (an eggbutt snaffle) just in case I needed some emergency control. I really did my best to stay very relaxed and he actually did very well! He did swing his head around a lot looking at everything and felt tense under me like he could spook though he never did. Hopefully with some more practice and life experience he'll mellow out better. He's such a good horse I have to keep reminding myself that he's rather young and green!
But today I've got the blues. We have officially decided that it would be better for us and them to find Brother and Nugget more suitable homes. It just kills me because I've grown to love them so my heart doesn't want to but my head says it's the smart thing. They need someone who can tune up their training and get them under saddle, someone very experienced, and while at one time I was a very experienced rider it's just been too many years. They're both just loving being pasture pets for the most part, of course, but I also have to admit that if we're going to put out this much time and money on a couple of horses I'd like to be able to ride them.
I started today with five emails from people all asking about them which bummed me out. Two of those are automatically out of the running just because I don't think Brother and Nugget are suitable for what they want. One wants to know if they're small enough to be used as polo ponies. I don't know just how small they'd have to be but I kinda doubt that at 15.3 and 16.2 they'll make the cut. The other really likes the looks of Nugget's bloodlines and would like to use her as a brood mare. On the one hand I think Nugget's personality would make an awesome brood mare! She's so sweet and quiet I can just see her loving having foals to nurture. Unfortunately, though I don't have an eye for judging horse conformation yet, I really don't think she's got the best conformation and she has the defect of roaring. I've shown and bred Great Danes and I would never, ever have bred one that was less than as close to perfect as possible, completely forget one that had any kind of major defect, and I would like to think that it's the same with horses!
We'll see what happens but I already know without a single doubt that I'll miss these guys so much. They're not even gone and my heart is breaking.
But today I've got the blues. We have officially decided that it would be better for us and them to find Brother and Nugget more suitable homes. It just kills me because I've grown to love them so my heart doesn't want to but my head says it's the smart thing. They need someone who can tune up their training and get them under saddle, someone very experienced, and while at one time I was a very experienced rider it's just been too many years. They're both just loving being pasture pets for the most part, of course, but I also have to admit that if we're going to put out this much time and money on a couple of horses I'd like to be able to ride them.
I started today with five emails from people all asking about them which bummed me out. Two of those are automatically out of the running just because I don't think Brother and Nugget are suitable for what they want. One wants to know if they're small enough to be used as polo ponies. I don't know just how small they'd have to be but I kinda doubt that at 15.3 and 16.2 they'll make the cut. The other really likes the looks of Nugget's bloodlines and would like to use her as a brood mare. On the one hand I think Nugget's personality would make an awesome brood mare! She's so sweet and quiet I can just see her loving having foals to nurture. Unfortunately, though I don't have an eye for judging horse conformation yet, I really don't think she's got the best conformation and she has the defect of roaring. I've shown and bred Great Danes and I would never, ever have bred one that was less than as close to perfect as possible, completely forget one that had any kind of major defect, and I would like to think that it's the same with horses!
We'll see what happens but I already know without a single doubt that I'll miss these guys so much. They're not even gone and my heart is breaking.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
More training
Brother STILL has his shoes on!! I had to get that off my chest because this is the longest he's ever kept shoes on for us! lol And it's because of those shoes that I'm able to get Brother back into training. So far it's just been the leading exercises that we started last week but today I got him back into the round pen. I only had him go for maybe 15 minutes, most of that just walking in both directions, and only a few turns around each direction at a trot then ended it with a little more leading practice. He didn't even breathe harder but I want to take it slow and build him back up. I've finally got him at the weight I want him to be so I hope he doesn't start losing it again!
Traveller I walked and trotted in both directions to start. His trot is really coming along very nicely! He's beginning to relax and give me more of a very soft, smooth, floaty trot that's so wonderful to ride. His canter, on the other hand, needs some serious work. His last owner really loved for him to go super fast while I'm not as concerned for speed as much as quality of movement. While I was riding him once I cued him to canter and he very smoothly bounced his back end in the air throwing me right off. Now I know that if I'd only asked him to canter in the round pen I could've seen straight off that I wasn't ready to ride him at a canter. He seems to get very irritated when asked to canter, tossing his head around, often breaking down into a crazy fast trot. A work in progress like everything else!
Traveller I walked and trotted in both directions to start. His trot is really coming along very nicely! He's beginning to relax and give me more of a very soft, smooth, floaty trot that's so wonderful to ride. His canter, on the other hand, needs some serious work. His last owner really loved for him to go super fast while I'm not as concerned for speed as much as quality of movement. While I was riding him once I cued him to canter and he very smoothly bounced his back end in the air throwing me right off. Now I know that if I'd only asked him to canter in the round pen I could've seen straight off that I wasn't ready to ride him at a canter. He seems to get very irritated when asked to canter, tossing his head around, often breaking down into a crazy fast trot. A work in progress like everything else!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Happy feet!
Now that the farrier's been here I'm so relieved! I was so worried that Brother's lameness was going to be because of something awful but our farrier, Chalk, says it's not laminitis or anything like that, just pretty typical TB hooves, thin with low soles that have gotten bruised up. I haven't taken after shots yet but here's what Brother's two front feet looked like before Chalk worked on them this morning. He was just trimmed 3-4 weeks ago, I swear! He's more sore on his right front and it's pretty easy to see some extra issues with it even with my inexperienced, ignorant eyes. The funny thing is the big curve in the front of that hoof has been improving over time so you can imagine how bad it was at one time!
If you're one of the folks that like to try to diagnose and discuss how you would fix hooves you might want to stop reading because I'm going to describe what our farrier did for Brother.
Have you stopped?
If you answered yes then you did NOT stop when I said to or you wouldn't have even answered the question!
Last chance...
Chalk says he just wants to get the pressure off Brother's soles so they can heal up and protect them from further bruising then once that's done we can go back to trying to condition his feet to barefoot if we still want. For now he put shoes on Brother's front hooves with a thick piece of leather covering the whole bottom of the hoof between the shoes and hoof then pumped a bunch of silicone into the pocket between the sole and leather. He says that will cushion the sole plus keep dirt and gunk from packing inside creating conditions that would be perfect for thrush or whatever. Since Brother was shoed for awhile when he first came here we know just how hard it is to KEEP shoes on him so Chalk also had us go get something called Tough Stuff. He says it's the only product he's found that he feels is worth anything to seal the hooves and it helps keep their shoes on.
I'm just delighted that it seemed to help quite a bit immediately! Brother's already moving much better! Hopefully he's back on the road to being sound!
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| left front hoof |
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| front view of left front hoof |
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| side view of front left hoof |
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| right front hoof |
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| front view of right front hoof |
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| side view of right front hoof |
Have you stopped?
If you answered yes then you did NOT stop when I said to or you wouldn't have even answered the question!
Last chance...
Chalk says he just wants to get the pressure off Brother's soles so they can heal up and protect them from further bruising then once that's done we can go back to trying to condition his feet to barefoot if we still want. For now he put shoes on Brother's front hooves with a thick piece of leather covering the whole bottom of the hoof between the shoes and hoof then pumped a bunch of silicone into the pocket between the sole and leather. He says that will cushion the sole plus keep dirt and gunk from packing inside creating conditions that would be perfect for thrush or whatever. Since Brother was shoed for awhile when he first came here we know just how hard it is to KEEP shoes on him so Chalk also had us go get something called Tough Stuff. He says it's the only product he's found that he feels is worth anything to seal the hooves and it helps keep their shoes on.
I'm just delighted that it seemed to help quite a bit immediately! Brother's already moving much better! Hopefully he's back on the road to being sound!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Feet
Tomorrow the farrier comes out to trim up Tina and Traveller's feet. Having all four horses done at once is a bit of a strain on our budget so we just do two at a time every 6-8 weeks or so. Thank goodness Tina and Traveller don't have any problems with having their feet worked on! It's easy to get them to pick one up and after that they automatically pick up the next one in line for you. As a matter of fact Traveller once picked up his next foot for me before I was ready, was pawing it around a little expecting me to grab it, and almost set it down on my foot! And they both do so great barefoot! I'd swear that they don't really need to be trimmed yet but by the calendar it's time. I'd rather stay on a schedule to keep them well maintained then to start a problem that can go downhill in a hurry.
Brother and Nugget still need work on having their feet handled though they're much better than when we first got them. At first they were obviously very nervous about the whole thing, refusing to pick up their feet, trying to jerk them away, breaking out in a sweat, and such. Poor babies haven't had good foot handling experiences in their past. I hear that's not really uncommon with racing horses, that too often the track farriers are too rough with them. Even though Brother was just trimmed a few weeks ago he's getting more and more limpy looking on his fronts and his hooves are so chewed up looking already! We've ordered some supplements for him and we're going to have our farrier look at his feet again tomorrow. I'll get some before and after pictures and let you know how it goes.
Brother and Nugget still need work on having their feet handled though they're much better than when we first got them. At first they were obviously very nervous about the whole thing, refusing to pick up their feet, trying to jerk them away, breaking out in a sweat, and such. Poor babies haven't had good foot handling experiences in their past. I hear that's not really uncommon with racing horses, that too often the track farriers are too rough with them. Even though Brother was just trimmed a few weeks ago he's getting more and more limpy looking on his fronts and his hooves are so chewed up looking already! We've ordered some supplements for him and we're going to have our farrier look at his feet again tomorrow. I'll get some before and after pictures and let you know how it goes.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Oh Brother!
Even though my husband, Eric, was seriously injured when Brother threw him we never held it against Brother and the big, loveable ham has taken up a very special place in our hearts. I could be in the worst black mood ever then go outside, take one look at the big goof smiling his butt off begging for a cookie and not be able to hold back a giggle. He's simply too funny to resist!
And at mealtimes he just seems so downright overjoyed to see us! He makes all kinds of silly happy noises that just make me laugh and warm my heart all at once. While the horses are eating I always refill their water, they can suck up half the trough just between lunch and dinner in this heat easy. When he's done Brother ambles on up hoping for a cookie but the really wonderful thing is even if I don't offer up a cookie he's perfectly happy to just quietly stand around with me like he genuinely enjoys hanging out with me. I know he'll do great things with us one day if we can manage to get everything to fall into place because this boy has a few issues to address.
It's hard as anything to get weight on him and keep it on! The vet insists that his weight was ok when we first got him a little more than a year ago. You could see his ribs but he was otherwise well fleshed and muscled. In the above picture you can still see his ribs a smidge and that picture was taken after we'd put a little weight on him but not a whole lot. And since that picture he's put on even a tiny bit more so that at times I can still make out his ribs barely but only at the right angle. He's got free choice, good hay and we're putting a ton of Strategy into him but the weight comes on in teeeeeeny little bits S-L-O-W-L-Y then drops off of him all at once if something so much as startles him!
I think he also has some minor problems with his skin and coat. After last winter his winter coat just wouldn't shed out when it got warmer. Brother was sweating and miserable a long time after Nugget had dropped her extra hair! Finally we started adding a supplement of some kind to his feed, an oil of some sort that I can't remember the name of just now, and along with some diligent brushing he finally shed. Now with summer almost at it's end his coat looks fried! It kind of looks like the very tip of each hair has been somehow frizzed or something. It might seem like something minor but I'm not concerned with how it looks. I look at it as one symptom of a larger overall problem, a clue to what is going on inside of him.
Which leads us to his biggest obstacle to training, his feet. When he first came to us he had four, lightweight racing shoes on but lost two of them very quickly. Since our place is mostly very hard dirt with loads of rocks and his feet had been babied for racing we kept shoes on him at first to help him transition to this rougher ground. After a few visits the farrier thought it'd be ok to try to get him used to going barefoot. He was understandably a little tender footed for awhile so we didn't ask anything out of him except that he get to his foot bucket under his own power. Since then it's been a very on and off again thing, he'll seem perfectly sound for a few days then start limping for a little bit in one leg or another then be ok then not really limp but walk a little "ouchy"... It's really starting to worry me. I thought in time with routine farrier visits he'd be ok but he really doesn't seem to be breaking out of this cycle.
Until we can figure out how to fix him up I just can't bring myself to work him. The answer to his weight and hair should be completely controllable with diet if I can hit upon the right mix for him. I believe his weight is simply because of his genes, he has a very high metabolism. His feet would probably improve at least some extent with diet too but I just know it's going to take a lot more than that to fix it. I'm trying to learn everything I can about their feet but it's such a huge, controversial subject! It's easily as bad, and probably worse, than learning about training! I'll keep pluggin away at it though in the hopes that one day we can amble on down the trail together, both grinnin our butts off.
It's hard as anything to get weight on him and keep it on! The vet insists that his weight was ok when we first got him a little more than a year ago. You could see his ribs but he was otherwise well fleshed and muscled. In the above picture you can still see his ribs a smidge and that picture was taken after we'd put a little weight on him but not a whole lot. And since that picture he's put on even a tiny bit more so that at times I can still make out his ribs barely but only at the right angle. He's got free choice, good hay and we're putting a ton of Strategy into him but the weight comes on in teeeeeeny little bits S-L-O-W-L-Y then drops off of him all at once if something so much as startles him!
I think he also has some minor problems with his skin and coat. After last winter his winter coat just wouldn't shed out when it got warmer. Brother was sweating and miserable a long time after Nugget had dropped her extra hair! Finally we started adding a supplement of some kind to his feed, an oil of some sort that I can't remember the name of just now, and along with some diligent brushing he finally shed. Now with summer almost at it's end his coat looks fried! It kind of looks like the very tip of each hair has been somehow frizzed or something. It might seem like something minor but I'm not concerned with how it looks. I look at it as one symptom of a larger overall problem, a clue to what is going on inside of him.
Which leads us to his biggest obstacle to training, his feet. When he first came to us he had four, lightweight racing shoes on but lost two of them very quickly. Since our place is mostly very hard dirt with loads of rocks and his feet had been babied for racing we kept shoes on him at first to help him transition to this rougher ground. After a few visits the farrier thought it'd be ok to try to get him used to going barefoot. He was understandably a little tender footed for awhile so we didn't ask anything out of him except that he get to his foot bucket under his own power. Since then it's been a very on and off again thing, he'll seem perfectly sound for a few days then start limping for a little bit in one leg or another then be ok then not really limp but walk a little "ouchy"... It's really starting to worry me. I thought in time with routine farrier visits he'd be ok but he really doesn't seem to be breaking out of this cycle.
Until we can figure out how to fix him up I just can't bring myself to work him. The answer to his weight and hair should be completely controllable with diet if I can hit upon the right mix for him. I believe his weight is simply because of his genes, he has a very high metabolism. His feet would probably improve at least some extent with diet too but I just know it's going to take a lot more than that to fix it. I'm trying to learn everything I can about their feet but it's such a huge, controversial subject! It's easily as bad, and probably worse, than learning about training! I'll keep pluggin away at it though in the hopes that one day we can amble on down the trail together, both grinnin our butts off.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Get it together
Now that school has started it's even harder to find a good time to work on the horses. Because my sweet hubby has such a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep we're the sort that don't usually wake up until the crack of noon which means that horsey time is in the cooler part of the evening. But that means that we're trying to pack feeding horses, kiddo homework, eating dinner, going to pick up our oldest son from band practice, and riding into just a few hours. I could get up early to work with them but that means that dear hubs gets left out. Ah well it's starting to cool off so I'm sure it'll get easier and easier to go out more in the afternoons. How do others deal with this, I wonder? I guess after work they just tough it out whatever the heat is and do it. I guess we gotta get our act together!
Sweet hubby definitely wants to regain his riding skill and confidence plus riding would be so good for him so I definitely want to include him in working with the horses as much as possible! Yesterday he graduated to riding on his own outside the round pen for about a half hour or so. Yay for my sweetie!! He thinks it's kinda funny because we actually got Tina for me and Traveller for him but where he's at right now Traveller intimidates him a bit so he's been riding Tina. I can't blame him, if I stop to think about it Traveller intimidates me a bit! Which is exactly why I don't allow myself to stop and think about that part of things while I'm riding him! lol He's just young and green still, I'm not so young but just as green which could be a bad combination. Thank goodness he's really a very gentle horse that just needs a little "continuing education."
I'm happy that one of our son's, Stephen, is developing an interest in riding too. Stephen always had severe asthma and some minor heart problems, SVT, and so was never a really athletic kid. Thankfully he seems to have outgrown the asthma pretty much and last year had heart surgery which seems to have cleared up his bouts of SVT! If only changing his couch potato ways was as easy! But the last two nights he's gone out with me to ride Tina some and says he really enjoys it. I'll be so relieved if he continues to come out and ride so that I know he's doing something nice and active finally! But that also means if the two of them keep riding more and more on Tina the more we'll probably need another horse. Tina is in her teens and I don't want to push her past what she can comfortably do. So I'll have to dive back into training Brother and Nugget which once again means I gotta get it together! Whew, I wish I had someone to worry about pushing me past what I can comfortably do! lol
Sweet hubby definitely wants to regain his riding skill and confidence plus riding would be so good for him so I definitely want to include him in working with the horses as much as possible! Yesterday he graduated to riding on his own outside the round pen for about a half hour or so. Yay for my sweetie!! He thinks it's kinda funny because we actually got Tina for me and Traveller for him but where he's at right now Traveller intimidates him a bit so he's been riding Tina. I can't blame him, if I stop to think about it Traveller intimidates me a bit! Which is exactly why I don't allow myself to stop and think about that part of things while I'm riding him! lol He's just young and green still, I'm not so young but just as green which could be a bad combination. Thank goodness he's really a very gentle horse that just needs a little "continuing education."
I'm happy that one of our son's, Stephen, is developing an interest in riding too. Stephen always had severe asthma and some minor heart problems, SVT, and so was never a really athletic kid. Thankfully he seems to have outgrown the asthma pretty much and last year had heart surgery which seems to have cleared up his bouts of SVT! If only changing his couch potato ways was as easy! But the last two nights he's gone out with me to ride Tina some and says he really enjoys it. I'll be so relieved if he continues to come out and ride so that I know he's doing something nice and active finally! But that also means if the two of them keep riding more and more on Tina the more we'll probably need another horse. Tina is in her teens and I don't want to push her past what she can comfortably do. So I'll have to dive back into training Brother and Nugget which once again means I gotta get it together! Whew, I wish I had someone to worry about pushing me past what I can comfortably do! lol
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Plus two makes a herd
While my husband was recovering from his broken ribs I met a lady on Facebook with horses and we hit it off. Not very long ago she decided that she needed to cut back on the number of horses she had for health reasons and asked if I knew anyone who might be interested. ME!! ME!! PICK ME!! Of course I told her I was interested!! She offered me several wonderful horses and I wished I could take all of them but hopefully I chose wisely.
One was an Egyptian Arab gelding that simply took my breath away with his beauty, I admit that I have a soft spot for the look of Arabs, but he was young, just green broke. With regret I passed on him thinking that at my utter newbie level of training and really rusty riding skills he and I would probably not be the best match.
Another was a lovely little Paso Fino mare. She was bred to a drop dead gorgeous Andalusian and who wouldn't want an adorable little foal too??? *sigh* I turned down this exciting two-for-one too. The mare was wonderful but I felt like a foal, while loads of adorable fun, wasn't the best choice for us. If something went wrong with the delivery the vet bill could get insanely expensive, I'd feel so awful if the mare or foal weren't ok, and again, at my rank beginner level of training I didn't want the added work of training a foal.
She really wanted me to consider Tina, a Paso Fino mare. Tina was taken out of an abusive situation with a lacerated tongue and deep dislike of people. Carol babied her and worked hard to bring Tina back around. She said she really hoped I'd take Tina because she knew I'd be good to her and she really needed to know that Tina was safe and loved. After running my rescue for so many years I knew exactly what she meant. We want that for all of our animals, we'd never purposely rehome them into an abusive situation, but when you take an animal out of an abusive situation, work that hard to heal their body and mind, and make that unspoken promise that they will never, ever be treated so badly again it somehow just raises your desire to protect them.
My husband was most interested in Traveller, a Mustang/Quarter Horse gelding. Carol warned us that he had an extremely dominant personality and would almost certainly insist on being boss of any other horses. I worried that he and Brother might clash. He was also fairly young so I was concerned about being able to continue his training. I have to admit, though, that I just loved his looks, very sturdy with nice legs and these wonderful, huge, tough hooves. Not only was he exactly the type of horse that my husband liked he was also the spitting image of the Mustang my husband rode as a child which brought back sweet memories for him.
In the end we agreed on taking both Tina and Traveller home for a trial period just to see how things would work out. We had a good laugh about just how much Carol babied her horses and that she didn't call her place "The No Rib Ranch" for nothin! Tina and Traveller were both rather roly-poly! We got home, got them unloaded into the pen we had prepared, and waited breathlessly for the first muzzle to muzzle meeting with Brother and Nugget over the fence. It was nothing unusual but still a thing of wonder to us with lots of sniffing, squealing, bitey-face play.
We had planned on leaving Tina and Traveller in the pen for at least a week before trying to introduce Brother and Nugget without the fence between all of them but within a few days they were all so calm and easy around each other. They all stood close together just relaxing as if they were already a group and the fence wasn't even there so we decided to see what would happen. We took Nugget into the pen first since she has a very passive personality and were delighted at how easily the three took to each other! Traveller insisted on pushing her around the pen a little but Nugget didn't seem to mind so they all calmed down very quickly.
Then we brought Brother in holding our breath along with various ropes and whips that we hoped we wouldn't need. Traveller started marching purposefully towards Brother. Brother turned his butt towards Traveller and I swear I could hear him thinking "yep, you come right over here and I'm gonna show you who's boss at this house!" When Traveller got close enough he turned his butt towards Brother backing up the last step. Brother got his kick off just a split second before Traveller but when Traveller's kick landed Brother jumped out of his skin in complete surprise and ran like he'd been scalded! We felt bad for Brother's injured pride but couldn't help rolling with laughter. When everyone settled down we seperated everyone back out and went inside.
A little later that day we heard a commotion and went to see what was going on. Traveller was out of the pen chasing Brother and poor Brother was running like the devil himself was on his tail! We put Traveller back up and watched. Traveller promptly went to the gate, did some amazing horsey-limbo thing that I'm still not sure should be physically possible to squeeze under the bottom rail, and was right back on Brother's tail. Well we had tools, opposible thumbs, and big brains so that would be no problem to fix! I guess no one told Traveller that he wasn't supposed to be able to outsmart us because our fix absolutely didn't hold him in! We fixed and fixed all that day until finally we had a pen that would hold Traveller in as long as we were watching him and discovered we didn't need the pen anymore since Traveller stopped chasing Brother. We turned them all out together, watched for any signs of trouble for awhile, then dragged ourselves inside to lick our wounds.
One was an Egyptian Arab gelding that simply took my breath away with his beauty, I admit that I have a soft spot for the look of Arabs, but he was young, just green broke. With regret I passed on him thinking that at my utter newbie level of training and really rusty riding skills he and I would probably not be the best match.
Another was a lovely little Paso Fino mare. She was bred to a drop dead gorgeous Andalusian and who wouldn't want an adorable little foal too??? *sigh* I turned down this exciting two-for-one too. The mare was wonderful but I felt like a foal, while loads of adorable fun, wasn't the best choice for us. If something went wrong with the delivery the vet bill could get insanely expensive, I'd feel so awful if the mare or foal weren't ok, and again, at my rank beginner level of training I didn't want the added work of training a foal.
She really wanted me to consider Tina, a Paso Fino mare. Tina was taken out of an abusive situation with a lacerated tongue and deep dislike of people. Carol babied her and worked hard to bring Tina back around. She said she really hoped I'd take Tina because she knew I'd be good to her and she really needed to know that Tina was safe and loved. After running my rescue for so many years I knew exactly what she meant. We want that for all of our animals, we'd never purposely rehome them into an abusive situation, but when you take an animal out of an abusive situation, work that hard to heal their body and mind, and make that unspoken promise that they will never, ever be treated so badly again it somehow just raises your desire to protect them.
My husband was most interested in Traveller, a Mustang/Quarter Horse gelding. Carol warned us that he had an extremely dominant personality and would almost certainly insist on being boss of any other horses. I worried that he and Brother might clash. He was also fairly young so I was concerned about being able to continue his training. I have to admit, though, that I just loved his looks, very sturdy with nice legs and these wonderful, huge, tough hooves. Not only was he exactly the type of horse that my husband liked he was also the spitting image of the Mustang my husband rode as a child which brought back sweet memories for him.
In the end we agreed on taking both Tina and Traveller home for a trial period just to see how things would work out. We had a good laugh about just how much Carol babied her horses and that she didn't call her place "The No Rib Ranch" for nothin! Tina and Traveller were both rather roly-poly! We got home, got them unloaded into the pen we had prepared, and waited breathlessly for the first muzzle to muzzle meeting with Brother and Nugget over the fence. It was nothing unusual but still a thing of wonder to us with lots of sniffing, squealing, bitey-face play.
We had planned on leaving Tina and Traveller in the pen for at least a week before trying to introduce Brother and Nugget without the fence between all of them but within a few days they were all so calm and easy around each other. They all stood close together just relaxing as if they were already a group and the fence wasn't even there so we decided to see what would happen. We took Nugget into the pen first since she has a very passive personality and were delighted at how easily the three took to each other! Traveller insisted on pushing her around the pen a little but Nugget didn't seem to mind so they all calmed down very quickly.
Then we brought Brother in holding our breath along with various ropes and whips that we hoped we wouldn't need. Traveller started marching purposefully towards Brother. Brother turned his butt towards Traveller and I swear I could hear him thinking "yep, you come right over here and I'm gonna show you who's boss at this house!" When Traveller got close enough he turned his butt towards Brother backing up the last step. Brother got his kick off just a split second before Traveller but when Traveller's kick landed Brother jumped out of his skin in complete surprise and ran like he'd been scalded! We felt bad for Brother's injured pride but couldn't help rolling with laughter. When everyone settled down we seperated everyone back out and went inside.
A little later that day we heard a commotion and went to see what was going on. Traveller was out of the pen chasing Brother and poor Brother was running like the devil himself was on his tail! We put Traveller back up and watched. Traveller promptly went to the gate, did some amazing horsey-limbo thing that I'm still not sure should be physically possible to squeeze under the bottom rail, and was right back on Brother's tail. Well we had tools, opposible thumbs, and big brains so that would be no problem to fix! I guess no one told Traveller that he wasn't supposed to be able to outsmart us because our fix absolutely didn't hold him in! We fixed and fixed all that day until finally we had a pen that would hold Traveller in as long as we were watching him and discovered we didn't need the pen anymore since Traveller stopped chasing Brother. We turned them all out together, watched for any signs of trouble for awhile, then dragged ourselves inside to lick our wounds.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
The dream turns into a nightmare
When we started actively looking for a horse I was rather dismayed at our prospects at first. We ended up looking at so many half starved, sour, barely trained, no-manners-havin, sullen, dead eyed rejects I couldn't believe it! Heck, even the "rescue" we went to was so awful I left in tears wishing I had the resources to take every single horse out of there just to save them! It was heartbreak after heartbreak. Then one day out of the blue the trainer I was working with mentioned that she knew a guy that was looking for a good home for a few of his horses. Since we were first time horse owners the trainer agreed to go with us to advise us so armed with a professional we figured it couldn't hurt to just go look.
The owner was an older gentleman who raised Thoroughbreds for racing but was ready to retire. The first horse he pointed out was a mare that was munching hay among several others and a cute little donkey. When we approached her she flattened her ears back and moved away from us quickly. The trainer muttered to us under her breath that the mare had a bad attitude so we should pass on her. The second was a gelding, Brother Anthony. He seemed to be a nice enough horse and there was a fast connection between him and my husband. The owner said that Brother was doing well at the racetrack when he somehow got a leg hung up in his halter leaving him with a slightly bowed tendon which should heal just fine with about six more months of pasture rest for the kind of casual riding we wanted to do.
When we consulted with our trainer she felt he'd be great if we wanted to take him. The owner said Brother was "dead broke" and the trainer backed him up saying that she knew he didn't just ride his horses at the track, he rode them all over his ranch too. She also assured us that his injury should heal leaving him perfectly sound and added that she always had good luck with these off-the-track horses. We asked how much. When the owner replied "free to a good home" we couldn't believe it! Really we felt we didn't have anything to lose! But just to be safe we took him straight to the vet who did a checkup and coggins test for us. The vet also agreed that the tendon injury was very minor and he should be fine for the kind of simple riding we wanted to do with nothing more than a little rest.
We got him home and proudly turned him out into our newly fenced pasture and he went plumb berserk! He was racing up and down the fence calling for herdmates so frantically we were terrified he would kill himself! After calling we went right back to the owner who said that the sour mare was also free to a good home. Easter Nugget "roared" and when surgery didn't correct it they simply kept her for their own riding and never raced her. We figured even if she never sweetened up and hated us with a passion at least she could provide Brother with company.
Nugget was also "dead broke". The owner told us that very recently someone wanted to ride (a child or grandchild or something I can't exactly remember) so he pointed out a few horses that they could use. When he next looked out he realized that they were saddling Nugget by mistake but before he could say anything they jumped on up and rode off so he figured they'd be ok. We were hopeful that this meant many happy trail rides in our future, my husband on Brother, me on Nugget, but we weren't worried about riding her since she was just meant to calm Brother. Once again we took her to the vet who cleared her health-wise and we took her home. We were very pleased and relieved when Brother settled right down when we turned her out with him.
The vet said six months pasture rest but just to be safe we didn't try any kind of work with Brother for about eight months. I must admit, though, that we couldn't resist the children's excitement and several times let them get on Brother bareback holding him by a lead rope just to sit there which he took completely in stride. We doted on them finding out what treats they liked, spending time with them, long grooming sessions, and generally trying very hard to impress them. And we were pleased that it seemed to be working! Far from sour, Nugget was turning out to be a very quiet, gentle, sweet soul once convinced that we weren't going to interfere with her food and Brother's true silly personality started to shine. So we were confident when the day came that we decided to try riding.
We thought we were being very careful checking and adjusting the tack just so, slapping at the saddle, putting a little weight in just one stirrup, and on and on taking little baby steps watching the reaction the whole way. When we put any weight at all in the stirrup Nugget would immediately start bucking wildly so we knew right off that if she was going to be rideable we had a lot of work to do first. When we did the same with Brother I was able to get on him and walk in a small circle but he seemed VERY hesitant and shaky. We thought that he'd be fine as long as we were careful riding him to help him learn that we would be gentle, trustworthy riders. After all this was very different from what he was likely used to and I was giving feather light cues testing his sensitivity but surely with kind treatment he'd get used to it.
Then my husband wanted to try. Brother gave a few more of those unsure steps then did a strange wiggle-hop and exploded! Horrified I ran to catch him but before we knew it my husband came up out of the saddle and back down on Brother's rump just as Brother's rump was coming back up. Husband met horse rump and he was literally catapulted probably close to 20' in the air before landing on the tough Texas ground with a sickening whump. At first I thought he just had the air knocked out of him but when he finally did manage to drag in a breath and let it out in a roar I knew it was bad! When all was said and done he had most of the ribs on his left side each broken in more than one place and needed a chest tube to drain the blood from his damaged lung.
When my husband was healed enough to move around the house on his own I went back to work at the stable. Neither one of us blamed anyone really, least of all Brother. So when the trainer angrily dressed me down and told me to get rid of Brother and Nugget right away before my husband or I got killed I was shocked! I calmly told her that we didn't believe in "getting rid" of an animal just because there was an issue to work through. When she continued to argue and yell at me over it I honestly didn't know what to do because I didn't understand. So they needed some work! Why on earth would she be angry at us??? If anything it should be the other way around! My husband was seriously hurt and could've been killed due to her mistakes! All in all it took over a YEAR for him to fully heal and recover! She especially yelled that she never said the horses were broke, never said we should ride them. Maybe she was afraid we'd sue her???
Wow.
That is what passes for a professional horse trainer? It wasn't very long before I decided that maybe I didn't really want to learn from her example and left. I'd rather stumble along trying to learn on my own than perpetuate that pitiful excuse for a "professional" anything!
The owner was an older gentleman who raised Thoroughbreds for racing but was ready to retire. The first horse he pointed out was a mare that was munching hay among several others and a cute little donkey. When we approached her she flattened her ears back and moved away from us quickly. The trainer muttered to us under her breath that the mare had a bad attitude so we should pass on her. The second was a gelding, Brother Anthony. He seemed to be a nice enough horse and there was a fast connection between him and my husband. The owner said that Brother was doing well at the racetrack when he somehow got a leg hung up in his halter leaving him with a slightly bowed tendon which should heal just fine with about six more months of pasture rest for the kind of casual riding we wanted to do.
When we consulted with our trainer she felt he'd be great if we wanted to take him. The owner said Brother was "dead broke" and the trainer backed him up saying that she knew he didn't just ride his horses at the track, he rode them all over his ranch too. She also assured us that his injury should heal leaving him perfectly sound and added that she always had good luck with these off-the-track horses. We asked how much. When the owner replied "free to a good home" we couldn't believe it! Really we felt we didn't have anything to lose! But just to be safe we took him straight to the vet who did a checkup and coggins test for us. The vet also agreed that the tendon injury was very minor and he should be fine for the kind of simple riding we wanted to do with nothing more than a little rest.
We got him home and proudly turned him out into our newly fenced pasture and he went plumb berserk! He was racing up and down the fence calling for herdmates so frantically we were terrified he would kill himself! After calling we went right back to the owner who said that the sour mare was also free to a good home. Easter Nugget "roared" and when surgery didn't correct it they simply kept her for their own riding and never raced her. We figured even if she never sweetened up and hated us with a passion at least she could provide Brother with company.
Nugget was also "dead broke". The owner told us that very recently someone wanted to ride (a child or grandchild or something I can't exactly remember) so he pointed out a few horses that they could use. When he next looked out he realized that they were saddling Nugget by mistake but before he could say anything they jumped on up and rode off so he figured they'd be ok. We were hopeful that this meant many happy trail rides in our future, my husband on Brother, me on Nugget, but we weren't worried about riding her since she was just meant to calm Brother. Once again we took her to the vet who cleared her health-wise and we took her home. We were very pleased and relieved when Brother settled right down when we turned her out with him.
The vet said six months pasture rest but just to be safe we didn't try any kind of work with Brother for about eight months. I must admit, though, that we couldn't resist the children's excitement and several times let them get on Brother bareback holding him by a lead rope just to sit there which he took completely in stride. We doted on them finding out what treats they liked, spending time with them, long grooming sessions, and generally trying very hard to impress them. And we were pleased that it seemed to be working! Far from sour, Nugget was turning out to be a very quiet, gentle, sweet soul once convinced that we weren't going to interfere with her food and Brother's true silly personality started to shine. So we were confident when the day came that we decided to try riding.
We thought we were being very careful checking and adjusting the tack just so, slapping at the saddle, putting a little weight in just one stirrup, and on and on taking little baby steps watching the reaction the whole way. When we put any weight at all in the stirrup Nugget would immediately start bucking wildly so we knew right off that if she was going to be rideable we had a lot of work to do first. When we did the same with Brother I was able to get on him and walk in a small circle but he seemed VERY hesitant and shaky. We thought that he'd be fine as long as we were careful riding him to help him learn that we would be gentle, trustworthy riders. After all this was very different from what he was likely used to and I was giving feather light cues testing his sensitivity but surely with kind treatment he'd get used to it.
Then my husband wanted to try. Brother gave a few more of those unsure steps then did a strange wiggle-hop and exploded! Horrified I ran to catch him but before we knew it my husband came up out of the saddle and back down on Brother's rump just as Brother's rump was coming back up. Husband met horse rump and he was literally catapulted probably close to 20' in the air before landing on the tough Texas ground with a sickening whump. At first I thought he just had the air knocked out of him but when he finally did manage to drag in a breath and let it out in a roar I knew it was bad! When all was said and done he had most of the ribs on his left side each broken in more than one place and needed a chest tube to drain the blood from his damaged lung.
When my husband was healed enough to move around the house on his own I went back to work at the stable. Neither one of us blamed anyone really, least of all Brother. So when the trainer angrily dressed me down and told me to get rid of Brother and Nugget right away before my husband or I got killed I was shocked! I calmly told her that we didn't believe in "getting rid" of an animal just because there was an issue to work through. When she continued to argue and yell at me over it I honestly didn't know what to do because I didn't understand. So they needed some work! Why on earth would she be angry at us??? If anything it should be the other way around! My husband was seriously hurt and could've been killed due to her mistakes! All in all it took over a YEAR for him to fully heal and recover! She especially yelled that she never said the horses were broke, never said we should ride them. Maybe she was afraid we'd sue her???
Wow.
That is what passes for a professional horse trainer? It wasn't very long before I decided that maybe I didn't really want to learn from her example and left. I'd rather stumble along trying to learn on my own than perpetuate that pitiful excuse for a "professional" anything!
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