Horses!

[Peaches Lee]

@paintedChix Love Rythem (her story is incredible--but I must admit, new fear unlocked--lightning striking barn!) and Cricket. Looks like you have produced some gorgeous horses!

I do want some more deets though on this stallion that dismembered a human!!

Like what happened? Was he always aggressive, did he become neurologic due to illness, bad training (abuse)?

I'm a temperament first person, so I can't imagine breeding a horse like that.

 

[Ponypoor]

Truly

 

[ShrekDawg]

Truly

View attachment 4135126

View attachment 4135127

Gorgeous

 

[Erinnlyn]

I’m sure there’s probably other threads on this but I absolutely love horses so I would love to see yours!

As a kid, I read every horse book possible, watched every horse movie, etc. and was generally completely obsessed lol I’m sure I’m not the only one

I also used to ride off and on as well but the last time I rode was probably almost 10 years ago. I miss it for sure but can’t start again atm. Maybe eventually.

ANYWAY…

We can talk about anything horse related here and hopefully some pictures and yeah.

@Overo Mare I know I’ve seen yours already but…

@EmmaRainboe and @TheOddOneOut you guys have pictures of the ones you ride, right?

And yes, @EmmaRainboe you can ask people about The Silver Stallion or Brumby or whatever it was

This is Mel. There was a rainbow over the horses one evening and I snapped this photo. She is a retired police horse living out her retirement years with us! She's around 26 years old.

 

[ShrekDawg]

This is Mel. There was a rainbow over the horses one evening and I snapped this photo. She is a retired police horse living out her retirement years with us! She's around 26 years old.

Wow that is beautiful!!!!!!!!

 

[Erinnlyn]

Wow that is beautiful!!!!!!!!

Thank you

 

[Skye'sDucks]

I haven't been here in a while! What beautiful horses and stories.

Personally, I think every horse & rider should learn the beginner basics of beginner dressage

I LOVE seeing western dressage now.

Oh I agree! My boss (/trainer I guess) would have us practice dressage tests from time to time when I was learning to ride, even though my sister really wanted to do jumping and I wanted to do barrels.

The basics of dressage are mostly basics in general riding, it's interesting to see that the more I teach it (to both people and horses) and learn it myself. I always said I liked dressage, but never really wanted to go into it, but the longer I do it, the more I am falling in love with it, honestly. I actually do western dressage, so I do hope that it will continue to be a more prominent discipline of riding!

I am still riding and retraining a few OTTB too ... Ernie, a 10yo gelding, and now a horse named Harley, a big 17hh 6yo gelding that's been off the track for a year. Ernie is doing wonderful and is such a pleasure to ride. The close-up photo is of him before our ride on Friday.

Harley still blows my mind a little bit. As a 6yo Thoroughbred only trained for the track, you'd think he's full of spunk. NOPE! He's the most relaxed, gentle, sweet horse you could ever meet. Slow, easy going, and could care less about practically anything. I quite literally climbed onto him from the fence the other day (he's so freakin tall lol), and I have yet to see him do anything bad, other than not knowing he's gigantic and stepping on himself and others sometimes, goofy guy.

I think this is one of my favorite pictures I've gotten with the horses yet, I don't know... This was like his third time out in the large arena riding since being retrained. Harley sure is special.

Oh and Ginger enjoys Italian ice. Yes, she eats it off a spoon like a human, too.

 

[paintedChix]

This is Mel. There was a rainbow over the horses one evening and I snapped this photo. She is a retired police horse living out her retirement years with us! She's around 26 years old.

Awww!! Look what's at the end of your rainbow!

 

[paintedChix]

@paintedChix Love Rythem (her story is incredible--but I must admit, new fear unlocked--lightning striking barn!) and Cricket. Looks like you have produced some gorgeous horses!

I do want some more deets though on this stallion that dismembered a human!!

Like what happened? Was he always aggressive, did he become neurologic due to illness, bad training (abuse)?

I'm a temperament first person, so I can't imagine breeding a horse like that.

Rythem was the first lightning story I had & she wasn't ours when it happened...

We had a lightning strike ourselves. We've had lightning strike 2 different trees around our house in different years. But then we had one hit one of our round bales in the youngsters paddock... I didn't check on ponies in the middle of the night. We didn't hear that lightning strike, nor did our neighbors on the other side of that paddock. The next morning, I shook my arms at the sky, screaming hurt & anger at the gods that be, as we viewed 3 dead ponies. 2 yearling fillies & a 2 yr old. It looked like they'd sheltered from rain & wind on one side of the bale & all 3 appeared as running away from it (where they lay). My "bellowing" brought a couple of different neighbors over. They'd been out checking damage from the storm... There were other ponies in this paddock - they stayed spooky for WEEKS & thunder caused a lot of stress - no matter if out in the open or in a barn. Not happy memories, actually.

**********
As to the stallion that was aggressive, as soon as you asked, my mind "put up a wall". Not sure if it's because of a public forum or age, but for the first time I can not remember his name. It's driving me 1/2 mad. He was a chestnut overo APHA stallion, solid producer of MANY halter world champions. Can't remember if they were also western & hunter pleasure winners as well. Lots of $$ in those horses then, probably still is. I came across a lot of his offspring that fell into the "difficult" & "aggressive" category - between my ages of 12 - 21 & again when I returned from GE in my 30s .

I don't believe it was abuse/training. I don't believe it was neurologic. Many of his offspring were "ugly" in a stall or pen (most of the barns i was around as a youngster had a door & an attached out door run - especially stud pens). I'd been in this barn a couple times before the happening & several times later over a several year time frame.

In those years, it was called the Rocky Mountain Stallion Station ( Castle Rock, CO) & stood many QH, TB, APHA & ApHC stallions - AI, shipped semen & live cover (mostly TB). I do not think it's still there though it was for many years - looks to have become a development in the last 10 - 20 yrs or so...

I don't know about other breeds shows, but the Rocky Mountain Paint Horse club held many shows there every year - halter, pleasure, horsemanship. Also the already separated working horse events - cutting, team penning, reining & roping. The facility was "good sized" w/ many barns & paddocks/pastures. Several large round pens & i think 2 outdoor arenas - one of which had cattle working equipment.

The stallion barn was where the stallions lived. It had facilities that included a working room w/ coolers & tanks for semen storage, microscope (s) for testing. An area w/ stocks for breeding mares & a "dummy" for collection. The mares barn had larger stalls for foaling, stocks for US & an apartment for "foal watch" - often w/ more than one cot set up.

Students of a variety of horse programs often interned there - not just for breeding, but working w/ trainers there as well.

**********
As to aggression in horses, I've experienced it in many breeds over the years. As a kid, teen & young adult, while looking for working type horses, we heard of several bloodlines that could be difficult to work with. Some were just called "hard to handle". We learned to stay clear of them as we were not professional trainers/handlers. We enjoyed just riding & occasionally got to ride w/ some of the "big guns" - on several ranches & at clinics. I've seen aggression in horses & ponies that I've bred (several were deemed "too dangerous" & ultimately euthanized). Like you, our family had no liking of or solid ability to deal w/ aggressive behavior.

 

[Peaches Lee]

@paintedChix So sorry about the loss of your youngsters! How terrible!

It surprises me that the stallion was APHA, they seem like such all-round and family-oriented horses.

Seemed like a really nice facility you were at!