New Mare, Broken Horse
Well, She finally came.
The poor horse looked like Hell, when she got off the truck, Friday night around Midnight. The shippers were real nice, but the poor animal looked like hell.
By the way, did I mention that she looked like hell?
She was staggering around like she was drunk. She was not as skinny as I expected, but instead was just generally infirm looking. Coat was not heavy, but it was not slick, either, just dirty and unhealthy. She only had half an eyelid on her left eye. Something terrible happened to her upper teeth on the left hand side. It happened a long time ago, because there were some very old scars on her, from an accident that could only have occurred when she was very young, marring her neck, and the left side of her breast. Clearly this was no fault of her current caretakers, but it made a startling impression. I wondered what i had gotten myself into. No wonder J had been having trouble! This poor mare was an advanced level rescue, not a beginner's rescue. J clearly had needed this horse like a hole in the head.
E and I went to bed, after leaving Guerma in the bullpen, where she could not hurt herself, determining that she would probably look better in the morning.
In the morning, I got up at least an hour early, too excited to sleep, to go look at my new broodmare. It was like Christmas morning--untill I saw her. Then it was more like Holloween. She looked like the walking dead. It wasn't so much that she was dirty with sweat, or that her legs were swollen from the 48 hours in the truck-- it was the look in her eyes. The dead vacancy of a zombie, or the damned. She was in pain, and her feet looked like the source of the trouble. Laminitis probably. Complicating that, she needed water, and she needed attention. The kind that comes from a Vet. I called Val, and tho she was busy, had her promise to come in and oil the horse. Just call it ensurance. The horse I had been told to expect was supposed to be like fire and gunpowder. This was more like a wet dishrag. A very dirty and depresssed wet dishrag.
Go here for more info on Laminitis: http://www.naturalhorsetrim.com/
I'm reserving judgement untill the vet gets a good look at her later in the week. The farrier is coming tomorrow. He will know more. (Sidenote: Farrier also asked me for a Phone # of a good attorney. Due to motorcyclists on his property, there was a property issue that came up, and it ended with police getting called. Why is it that Horse people have to deal with arrogant asses on Motor-toys thinking they can tresspass on our property, get away with chasing our expensive horses, and not have to face SOMETHING? answer: our police care not a whit about these "kids" and their "harmless fun.")
Anyway, I am hoping to give the owner of this mare the info so kindly shared with me, when i first got into the horse business. I was a kid. This is an advantage, nobody worries about hurting the feelings of a kid by stating the obvious to them. They just tell the kid "You need help. I'm gonna tell you what to do, so listen up."
Grown up people seem to be ignored or simply shunned, when they try to get into horses, without any prior knowledge of them. They get taken advantage of, and used alot, but rarely educated for nothing. Nobody wants to spend the time trying to teach these people what to do, when they can charge them a bundle, and just do it themselves. If you dont Tell them, they will never learn. The unscrupulous dont care about that, because they want these folks dependant on them, as cash cows. I'd be okay with that if it didnt HURT the horses. But it does. Rescue work done properly is thankless, and expensive. nobody can pay another person to do it right. The only way is to get educated and do it yourself.
So after some long talks with E about how to go about doing this, I called this poor lady and told her some hard truths, because I respected her as a human being, at least enough to belive that she could take it. I hope I can turn her on to some info that will help take her forward into better training, and better husbandry practices, as well as make her a sceptical consumer. She needs to start asking questions, and verifying what info she is getting. She needs to understand that there are people in the horse business who would be willing to stand in line for the opportunity to screw her out of her hard earned money, without a care in the world for what ultimately happens to her horses.
She also needs to go to a show horse barn, and look at some horses who are healthy and well managed, and see what they do there, to keep those horses in such condition. Growing up in a show barn, and raised by my horse trainers, Judy, and later, Glenn I learned alot just by being around good practices. I also saw a lot of wreaks around the various stables, caused by bad practices. This is how I learned to manage my farm, and then I learned more once Glenn died and I started wanderiung around the horse world, looking for a place to belong. I saw alot in those days.... Both good and bad, and some in between lessons grew me up some more. I got taken advantage of a couple times, and learned from that too.
Glenn taught me not to be afraid of failure, but to learn from it. He told me to just welcome it as a lesson and get on with life. So I learned from the bad stuff, and was happy when my lessons didnt turn out bad, but ended good, like when I got my favorite horse, K.
Well, Guerma's gonna be a lot of lessons. I can feel it. Hopefully for her old owner, for Guerma's sake, and also for me, I pray we all make good grades, on this particular life test.
The poor horse looked like Hell, when she got off the truck, Friday night around Midnight. The shippers were real nice, but the poor animal looked like hell.
By the way, did I mention that she looked like hell?
She was staggering around like she was drunk. She was not as skinny as I expected, but instead was just generally infirm looking. Coat was not heavy, but it was not slick, either, just dirty and unhealthy. She only had half an eyelid on her left eye. Something terrible happened to her upper teeth on the left hand side. It happened a long time ago, because there were some very old scars on her, from an accident that could only have occurred when she was very young, marring her neck, and the left side of her breast. Clearly this was no fault of her current caretakers, but it made a startling impression. I wondered what i had gotten myself into. No wonder J had been having trouble! This poor mare was an advanced level rescue, not a beginner's rescue. J clearly had needed this horse like a hole in the head.
E and I went to bed, after leaving Guerma in the bullpen, where she could not hurt herself, determining that she would probably look better in the morning.
In the morning, I got up at least an hour early, too excited to sleep, to go look at my new broodmare. It was like Christmas morning--untill I saw her. Then it was more like Holloween. She looked like the walking dead. It wasn't so much that she was dirty with sweat, or that her legs were swollen from the 48 hours in the truck-- it was the look in her eyes. The dead vacancy of a zombie, or the damned. She was in pain, and her feet looked like the source of the trouble. Laminitis probably. Complicating that, she needed water, and she needed attention. The kind that comes from a Vet. I called Val, and tho she was busy, had her promise to come in and oil the horse. Just call it ensurance. The horse I had been told to expect was supposed to be like fire and gunpowder. This was more like a wet dishrag. A very dirty and depresssed wet dishrag.
Go here for more info on Laminitis: http://www.naturalhorsetrim.com/
I'm reserving judgement untill the vet gets a good look at her later in the week. The farrier is coming tomorrow. He will know more. (Sidenote: Farrier also asked me for a Phone # of a good attorney. Due to motorcyclists on his property, there was a property issue that came up, and it ended with police getting called. Why is it that Horse people have to deal with arrogant asses on Motor-toys thinking they can tresspass on our property, get away with chasing our expensive horses, and not have to face SOMETHING? answer: our police care not a whit about these "kids" and their "harmless fun.")
Anyway, I am hoping to give the owner of this mare the info so kindly shared with me, when i first got into the horse business. I was a kid. This is an advantage, nobody worries about hurting the feelings of a kid by stating the obvious to them. They just tell the kid "You need help. I'm gonna tell you what to do, so listen up."
Grown up people seem to be ignored or simply shunned, when they try to get into horses, without any prior knowledge of them. They get taken advantage of, and used alot, but rarely educated for nothing. Nobody wants to spend the time trying to teach these people what to do, when they can charge them a bundle, and just do it themselves. If you dont Tell them, they will never learn. The unscrupulous dont care about that, because they want these folks dependant on them, as cash cows. I'd be okay with that if it didnt HURT the horses. But it does. Rescue work done properly is thankless, and expensive. nobody can pay another person to do it right. The only way is to get educated and do it yourself.
So after some long talks with E about how to go about doing this, I called this poor lady and told her some hard truths, because I respected her as a human being, at least enough to belive that she could take it. I hope I can turn her on to some info that will help take her forward into better training, and better husbandry practices, as well as make her a sceptical consumer. She needs to start asking questions, and verifying what info she is getting. She needs to understand that there are people in the horse business who would be willing to stand in line for the opportunity to screw her out of her hard earned money, without a care in the world for what ultimately happens to her horses.
She also needs to go to a show horse barn, and look at some horses who are healthy and well managed, and see what they do there, to keep those horses in such condition. Growing up in a show barn, and raised by my horse trainers, Judy, and later, Glenn I learned alot just by being around good practices. I also saw a lot of wreaks around the various stables, caused by bad practices. This is how I learned to manage my farm, and then I learned more once Glenn died and I started wanderiung around the horse world, looking for a place to belong. I saw alot in those days.... Both good and bad, and some in between lessons grew me up some more. I got taken advantage of a couple times, and learned from that too.
Glenn taught me not to be afraid of failure, but to learn from it. He told me to just welcome it as a lesson and get on with life. So I learned from the bad stuff, and was happy when my lessons didnt turn out bad, but ended good, like when I got my favorite horse, K.
Well, Guerma's gonna be a lot of lessons. I can feel it. Hopefully for her old owner, for Guerma's sake, and also for me, I pray we all make good grades, on this particular life test.
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