Horse Talk

[chicken19]

For names I like:
Earl
Ricochet
Ragnar
Floki
Deeter
Chico
Shylo
Sherlock
Ebony
Diesel

 

[abigalerose]

I just tend think out loud whenever I get new ideas, a lot of times I don't go through with them. And it is fun to learn about colors but I'd never pick out a horse based on that. Palominos are my favorite and I hate sorrels, but I've seen mean, ugly palominos and sweet, beautiful sorrels. So I don't discriminate (although I'd rather not own a bay lol). But my biggest regret is selling the mustang I use to have so now if I click with a horse it doesn't go anywhere, so it looks like these geldings are staying a while. And if I can't click with one, I know I'll never work with it so I feel it's better off to find it an owner who will.
So I've done a little buying and selling, but I'm pretty much done now. Unless I win the lotto and buy a thousand acres to put rescues and mustangs on! Lol.
It does stress me out to buy and sell animals though, because I tend to get attached even if I don't like them that much.
Except for Jade, I think I may have genuinely despised her. She was a mean old mare.

 

[abigalerose]

And thanks for explaining the paint thing. That's alsways confused me. I think my pinto was out of registered paints at one time but someone probably lost the papers or didn't mess with sending them in after a while.
And good name suggestions. I'm so picky. I still haven't found any I like

 

[Bunnylady]

Sounds like you're getting a good handle on the saying, "a good horse is never a bad color."

Love bays, myself, don't really care for Appy's; though one of the best ponies I have ever known was an Appy.

I think I've told you - I spent a few years working for a woman who considered herself a horse trader. I can't even remember how many horses went through her hands - some I barely got to know before they were sold on. There were times when I felt like an enabler, but I figured she would do what she did with or without me; I decided my job was to give the horses the best treatment I could while they were in my care. I managed to find something to like in almost every one of them - even the cranky ones. There were some that I simply didn't trust, but I'm not sure there were any that I truly disliked . . . though there was one that came close.

Shay was a 6-year-old blue eyed frame palomino Paint. She wasn't a sales horse, she was a boarder; bought by parents that didn't know any better for a rather timid teen-aged daughter. Shay pretty quickly demonstrated a tendency to be food aggressive. You couldn't even take hay into her stall without her swapping ends and at least threatening to kick. I got in the habit of carrying a lead rope any time I had to go in her stall when she was in there; after she got spanked with it a few times, she learned to move to the back of the stall and stay there when I told her to.

After she had been at the barn for a few weeks, she decided she wanted to be the top horse in the pasture. The savagery with which she went about asserting herself with the others was frightening - I really thought she'd lamed one pony in one fight. She started attacking horses at the gate to the barn, too; the girls started keeping a lunging whip near the gate to drive her off so they could come and go when they needed to.

One evening when I was feeding, Shay went for the horse I was trying to lead through the gate. I tried to run her off, and she went after me - spun around, and backed toward me. She was an arm's length away from me when I saw the soles of both of her back feet as they left the ground, and I thought, "that's it; she's gonna launch me into the next county." But she didn't kick out (I'm sure if I had touched her, she would have), she just sort of bucked at me, and I dodged, losing control of both the gate and the other horse in the process. Shay went blasting up the barn aisle, and I grabbed the lead of the horse that was with me and quickly put her in her stall.

There were several teenagers standing around talking at the far end of the barn (including Shay's owner) and I hoped maybe they'd try to catch her. No luck; when Shay got to that end of the barn, they all ducked over or through the gate to the parking lot. I quickly put the remaining horse from that pasture in her stall, then turned my attention to Shay.

And there was the problem. I had put the feed into the stalls before I had started bringing horses in, and right in the middle of the barn was a stall that had no bars on it, so the feeder was accessible from the aisle. The horse that was to go into that stall got a lot more feed than Shay did, and it was partly sweet feed. Of course, Shay found it, and was greedily gulping it down. So here I was - did I let Shay "win" and wait until she had stuffed herself (with the risk of her possibly colicing or even foundering as a result) or did I tackle a well-known food aggressive horse that was already in a highly excited state?

I decided I really had no choice - I wasn't responsible for that animal's mindset, but taking care of her was my responsibility.

With only a lead rope, I advanced on Shay, yelling and waving my arms. I managed to push her off, but she wasn't about to give up, and I took up a position near the stall and waited. Sure enough, she attacked, repeatedly. When she reared and came at me, I snaked the lead rope at her like a whip.When she kicked at me, I dodged and whacked her backside with it if I could. Eventually she figured out I wasn't going to let her push me away, and went down to the lower end of the barn, near the stall where I had put one of her pasturemates. I walked up to her quietly, slipped the lead around her neck, and took her to the gate (where I fumbled the gate, she got back past me, and we had to do the whole thing all over again!) After I brought the horses from the other pasture in, I put Shay in her stall - the point being, she doesn't decide when she comes in, I do.

As I told one of the girls a couple of days later, "Shay isn't a bad horse, she just has a problem understanding who's in charge. She thinks she is. What she needs is someone who can firmly, fairly, and consistently tell her that she's not the boss, they are. But since she's apparently gotten used to getting away with this, it's going to take a while."

Within a few weeks, the owners had sold Shay, and everyone in the barn breathed a sigh of relief. I hope the new owners had the heads and the hearts to build on what we had started, though I had my doubts. In some ways, I felt sorry for the horse, but dealing with an animal that you have to be that much on your guard around is not fun.

(Incidentally, if you've seen the Clinton Anderson video "Once Bitten, Twice Shy," you've pretty much seen Shay)

 

[abigalerose]

Geez. I just don't understand how people can buy horses like that in the first place.
Jade wasn't that bad, but she just always wanted to challenge me on something because she knew I wasn't gonna work her like her old owner and am still a little timid sometimes.
Although I'm not nervous around June ever, when she's cranky we just fight like an old married couple.
But that horse you had to work with, that's a horse that my cousin would say needs to be "made into dog food".
I've worked with a horse like that before and it was not fun, although I still didn't think it deserved to die, just needed someone tougher than me. The lady having me work with her told me she was a really sweet gentle horse and would be super easy to work with, and I took her word because she's fairly well know and has been raising horses for years and years. WELL she was way off base, that horse was an absolute lunatic, I don't know how many times she flipped herself over backwards, for absolutely no reason, when I was leading her! She flipped herself over once because she broke free from me and started eating and just casually stepped on her lead rope and just lost her crap. If I had a stud and was getting colts like that outta him he'd be gettin the snip-snip. And when I finally gave up and had her pick her up, I gave her a run down of what went down and she said "she's just not a draft horse is all" as in, drafts are big and slow and since this horse is a quarter horse she's got a little spirit. Lol okay lady. I wonder how that horse has turned out now.
Anyways, I think you have to mesh with your horse. And idk what it is about big old horses that scares me but they just make me nervous, young and crazy, I'm fine, old and trained, all nerves.
And speaking of meshing with your horses, my JERK of a mare was a pain in the you know what today, I tried taking her for a ride in the bareback pad and she was naughty, throwing her head and turning circles and even trying to take off running! So we didn't have a very good last ride of the year.

 

[Bunnylady]

Why do horses like Shay get bought? "Because she's so preetttyyyy."

And I know it's all water under the bridge now, but I can't help but want to suss out what was going on with your cartwheeling filly. I know her behavior seemed to have no reason to you, but horses always have a reason for what they do, we just have to figure out what it is. Breaking her behavior down leads me to this: Horses don't generally like to fall down; flipping over is a pretty extreme thing for one to do deliberately. I'm thinking that winding up on her back wasn't her intent, she was reacting (or in this case, over reacting) to something by rearing, and a poor sense of balance or whatever took her all the way over. That she did it when she stepped on her lead rope when you weren't even there to me is in a way diagnostic - she wasn't interacting with you at the time, so it wasn't you she was reacting to, it was most likely the pressure. What pressure? The physical pressure of the halter behind her ears. Lots of horses get startled when they step on their leads; I have let ours wander around with a rope on a halter just to get them over that. Young horses often lean into pressure, remember, so I'm thinking this one just hadn't really gotten the "give to the pressure" thing firmly instilled in her head yet. She might have had some physical thing that made her particularly ouchy at the poll, or it may simply have been her seeking "release" on her own terms. I'm curious - could you tie her for any length of time?

But that's pretty typical of a horse owner - "there's nothing wrong with my horse, your problem is that you can't handle it." (Well, she couldn't handle it, either, could she? Theoretically, that's why she got you involved). Lots of horse trainers will tell you, dealing with the horses is pretty straightforward, it's dealing with the owners that drives you nuts!

 

[abigalerose]

I wish you could have met this horse, her behavior is so hard to explain online. I had my cousin out to look at her one day (yes the cranky one who thinks all bad horses deserve a bullet) because she's been working with horses (training mainly) for the past 10 years or so. She looked her over and looked for anything causing her pain, worked with her a little and she even agreed that she was just plain crazy. I can't repeat everything she said about that horse on here, but she said it was the craziest horse she's ever worked with and that we were lucky she wasn't any bigger than she was (she was a very dainty 14 hands) because we'd probably all be dead. And the thing is, the horse seemed smart, she picked up on everything faster than any horse I've worked with and seemed to understand pressure and release really well. When she wasn't freaking out, she lead great, picked up her feet, stood calmly while I did loud crazy things around her, flexed, yeilded. And she learned everything with a snap of the fingers. But then she'd freak out. No warning, no explanation. Mostly rearing. Sometimes going all the way over. She'd charge on occasion. But there was lots and lots of rearing. My cousin decided we should try roundpenning her, getting her calmed down and respecting us and then going back to the basics. Well roundpennng got her real fired up. We took turns sending her around and we went for a long time. She never tired out. And we didn't hardly put any pressure on her but she loped the whole time. But she wasn't fearful, it wasn't anything like the situation with June when that girl tried to "help" teach me how to round pen her. She was just filled with rage, we finally gave up because we were covered in sweat and about to pass out from the heat, but that horse never gave in and calmed down and she didn't join up and it didn't do any good in the end.
But she was smart and a hard worker, so if someone could work through her insane freak outs or was brave enough to ride through them, then she'd make one hard working ranch horse, she'd probably go until she dropped dead.
Neither me or my cousin ever swung a leg over her, we weren't going to risk it and we wouldn't have even if we finally broke through and had some successful ground work. She was very unpredictable.
It would have been interesting to see if you could have accomplished something with her.

 

[Bunnylady]

There's no shame in admitting that "I can't deal with that one." Heaven knows, I'm getting too old to find flakes in any way attractive.

Mentioning flakes, did I say anything about taking the minis to some of the area Christmas parades this year? BB2K and I made new lighted blankets for them, and though we passed up the one in Wilmington, we did two others. We put a lot of prep into them, taking them for walks after dark and exposing them to all sorts of noise and nonsense. At the Island of Lights Parade down on Pleasure Island, Syd was pretty wiggy when we first arrived (can't say I blame her; we unloaded near the head of the line-up, and there were like 3 marching bands all milling around and getting warmed up; absolute chaos!) The float we were associated with was in a quieter part of the line-up, and while we were waiting, we worked on yielding and backing and stuff, so by the time our part of the parade got moving, Syd was listening pretty well. There were some classic cars fairly close behind us, and of course they had to rev their engines and whatnot. There were a couple of times when Syd was tossing her head and licking and chewing so vigorously, it almost looked like the "I'm a baby, don't hurt me" mouthing of a foal, but there were lots of other times when things were quieter and she was leading on a slack rein and stopping when told and just really being about as good as you could ask, I was plum tickled, I can tell you! Ironically, BB2K told me Blondie pulled almost the entire time.

Actually, Syd did so well, BB2K asked to take her when we did the Burgaw parade a week later. She'd done something to her shoulder in dance class, and didn't want to further aggravate it with Blondie's pulling. I was fine with that. So was Blondie, it turned out; I wound up leading Blondie on my right and Betsy on my left, with BB2K and Syd in front of us. All of them were just as good as they could be - you'd have thought we did that sort of thing every weekend. I was so happy with them, my face hurt from smiling so much.

Considering the fiascos of the past, this was a major accomplishment.

 

[chicken19]

...

Sounds like you're getting a good handle on the saying, "a good horse is never a bad color."  

Love bays, myself, don't really care for Appy's; though one of the best ponies I have ever known was an Appy.

I think I've told you - I spent a few years working for a woman who considered herself a horse trader. I can't even remember how many horses went through her hands - some I barely got to know before they were sold on. There were times when I felt like an enabler, but I figured she would do what she did with or without me; I decided my job was to give the horses the best treatment I could while they were in my care. I managed to find something to like in almost every one of them - even the cranky ones. There were some that I simply didn't trust, but I'm not sure there were any that I truly disliked . . . though there was one that came close. 

Shay was a 6-year-old blue eyed frame palomino Paint. She wasn't a sales horse, she was a boarder; bought by parents that didn't know any better for a rather timid teen-aged daughter. Shay pretty quickly demonstrated a tendency to be food aggressive. You couldn't even take hay into her stall without her swapping ends and at least threatening to kick. I got in the habit of carrying a lead rope any time I had to go in her stall when she was in there; after she got spanked with it a few times, she learned to move to the back of the stall and stay there when I told her to.

After she had been at the barn for a few weeks, she decided she wanted to be the top horse in the pasture. The savagery with which she went about asserting herself with the others was frightening - I really thought she'd lamed one pony in one fight. She started attacking horses at the gate to the barn, too; the girls started keeping a lunging whip near the gate to drive her off so they could come and go when they needed to.

One evening when I was feeding, Shay went for the horse I was trying to lead through the gate. I tried to run her off, and she went after me - spun around, and backed toward me. She was an arm's length away from me when I saw the soles of both of her back feet as they left the ground, and I thought, "that's it; she's gonna launch me into the next county." But she didn't kick out (I'm sure if I had touched her, she would have), she just sort of bucked at me, and I dodged, losing control of both the gate and the other horse in the process. Shay went blasting up the barn aisle, and I grabbed the lead of the horse that was with me and quickly put her in her stall.

There were several teenagers standing around talking at the far end of the barn (including Shay's owner) and I hoped maybe they'd try to catch her. No luck; when Shay got to that end of the barn, they all ducked over or through the gate to the parking lot. I quickly put the remaining horse from that pasture in her stall, then turned my attention to Shay. 

And there was the problem. I had put the feed into the stalls before I had started bringing horses in, and right in the middle of the barn was a stall that had no bars on it, so the feeder was accessible from the aisle. The horse that was to go into that stall got a lot more feed than Shay did, and it was partly sweet feed. Of course, Shay found it, and was greedily gulping it down. So here I was - did I let Shay "win" and wait until she had stuffed herself (with the risk of her possibly colicing or even foundering as a result) or did I tackle a well-known food aggressive horse that was already in a highly excited state? 

I decided I really had no choice - I wasn't responsible for that animal's mindset, but taking care of her was my responsibility.

With only a lead rope, I advanced on Shay, yelling and waving my arms. I managed to push her off, but she wasn't about to give up, and I took up a position near the stall and waited. Sure enough, she attacked, repeatedly. When she reared and came at me, I snaked the lead rope at her like a whip.When she kicked at me, I dodged and whacked her backside with it if I could. Eventually she figured out I wasn't going to let her push me away, and went down to the lower end of the barn, near the stall where I had put one of her pasturemates. I walked up to her quietly, slipped the lead around her neck, and took her to the gate (where I fumbled the gate, she got back past me, and we had to do the whole thing all over again!) After I brought the horses from the other pasture in, I put Shay in her stall - the point being, she doesn't decide when she comes in, I do.]

My horse Chess is a cryptochid stallion. His umm, balls are still up in his loins since he never dropped them. He is extremely aggressive and has actually stricken down people before.
Mostly when he is well exercised he is a little sweety but when you let your guard down, he's dangerous.

He is an amazing jumping and is currently jumping 4"30.

Does anyone know much about handling cryptochids?

 

[GingersHuman]

My horse Chess is a cryptochid stallion. His umm, balls are still up in his loins since he never dropped them. He is extremely aggressive and has actually stricken down people before.
Mostly when he is well exercised he is a little sweety but when you let your guard down, he's dangerous.

He is an amazing jumping and is currently jumping 4"30.

Does anyone know much about handling cryptochids?[/quote]


YES! Surgery! It's the only thing that will remove that pesky testosterone. It will still take months for the testosterone to leave his body. With testicles, he has already proven he can't handle the hormones and will never be trustworthy at best, and will be extremely dangerous at worst.