Learning some basics

Well its been 2 weeks since I last posted. Between being sick and having to make an emergency run to Austin to get my grandson on the second of this month it has been hectic. I should just name my home Diana's home for wayward kids and horses. Anyway you don't come here to read about my house problems.

Chance has gained about 148 pounds in 5 weeks. Now we are not gorging him on it but hes gaining fast. He is also learning to back from the ground and is doing pretty good on that. He fights you till he knows what you want then its smooth sailing from there. He has been working on the lunge line, and round pen for about a week or so now. And hes gaining muscle mass fast. Which concerned me when I taped him. Apparently when you take a starving horse let him gain 140 or so pounds put him to light work they gain muscle faster than belly and any belly they start to lose. Which throws off your tape. Vet assures me this is fine. His hair coat is still nasty but that will come with weight. If he so much as bumps himself he loses HUGE patched of hair. But again that will fix itself as he puts on weight. Anyway I know you have all been waiting on some pictures. Now keep in mind the only way to get pictures of him free is to feed him.

Lesson in manners

This poor horse has had it hard in his young life but it amazes me, he got this far in life with no ground manners. This horse will plow over you like a steam roller on over drive.
So today we went out to braid and wrap tails for the winter. This went over very well with my appy gelding going to sleep during the whole thing. While Chance walked back and forth with his rear end with me hanging onto the tail like a human pit bull refusing to let go of a new toy. Now you may think a horse tied to a fence can't go far and your right. But they have a good 20 foot range of motion with their hind ends. But we got the tail washed and dried. From start to finish on both boys 30 minutes.
THEN came the feeding. Now I expect my horses to back away and let me get out before rushing to the feeders. My appy has this down pat he knows to wait the food will be there when I walk off and he will get a butt scritchy on the way out. Chance on the other hand thinks this is the time to bull doze you over and eat as fast as he can. Now I understand hes had some not getting to eat issues but he must learn not to use me as a mat to wipe his feet on as he rushes for the food. We have been working on this slowly as to not make him think I was going to refuse him food. And he has been doing very well until today. Today we had put the food out before we let them loose from the tail wrapping. He when let loose rushed for the feed nearly knocking me down. My stepson went for the dressage whip so I could discourage him from this. Long story short he learned with out being beaten that he could eat when I said he could. I used my body and my arms as a "fence" to block him from the food. This took 20 minutes total from start to finish before he finally lowered his head licked and chewed and gave in that I was not going to allow the behavior he was showing me. After this I offered him a mouth full of food and walked on. Giving him a butt scritchy as I passed him by.
No pictures this week as my camera needs a new battery.

Friday 2 weeks into having him

Well he taped out at 78 pounds of weight gain. Not much to tell as I am sick and not able to do much.

Friday a week into having him

Not much to tell on him other than hes pushy, hungry and needs major lessons in ground manners. So here are some pics of him. Now you can see I started this blog 2 weeks into owning him but he is coming around fine. Just a run down of what hes eating. He has gained around 50 pounds in a week.

Grass hay all he can eat given in several times a day intervals.

1 flake alfalfa give once a day at night

10 MG of calcium powder split into twice a day

2 pounds of 10% sweet given twice a day

1 cup of hi pro gold powder split in 2 feedings

He comes home.

We get home and I start making arrangements to get him back here. I board so ask my barn owner first. She says sure she can go with me the next day to get him. Just call her in the morning. So I wait all night barely sleeping. My daughter has no clue about her new horse at this time.
The next morning gets here and I get out of bed at the butt crack of dawn wide awake for no reason. I should have gone back to bed. I wait till 9AM to call the BO and find out her truck is in need of repair. OH NO! But we can barrow the trailer if we want. Now all we have is a 1993 Chevy astro van with a hitch . So we go into over drive. We think it can pull it. So we go off and hitch the van up and head off. Drive the hour to get there and load him up. All is going according to plan now.
Not 10 miles from the barn I hear thundering and feel a shaking. I think my poor starved critter has fallen in the trailer. No such luck. I look out my mirror and the tire on the passenger side has blown. OK now I have a horse that's probably gone into orbit in the trailer and a blown tire AND we are running late to pick up kid from school. I get back there check on him and get him out of the trailer just in case some dumb ass doesn't see a huge stock trailer sitting on side of road. So we call the house and get adult kids to bring small preschool age kids to us so I can take one adult kid to work and pick up 9 year old daughter. While husband calls the service truck. Oh yeah did I mention we had no spare.
I get 9 year old kid out of school and we head off to go meet her new horse. We get there and she is all confused since she wanted a bike for her good grades. Well this bike has 4 "tires" and will need some work before you can ride him.

As we are sitting on the side of the road with 3 kids, and a starved horse. And mind you people staring and flipping us off as they drive by some nice people that own the house we are stopped in front of come out and give the new horse some much needed hay. We talk to them and then go decide that where we are is a dangerous spot to put the tire on when the truck gets there. So we reload the boy and the kids and head for a bar parking lot down the road. We then sit for another 2 hours and wait.

Finally the service truck get there and we unload the horse again. Now I do not know if any of you have ever had to deal with a service tire truck but they have some loud nasty equipment on there. These are horse eating machines I tell you. Or so I thought. Apparently my new found little horse is not scared of much. The loud air poofing thing they use to set the tire on the rim scared me but he was fine as frog hair and fell asleep. At one point he tried to check it out. Yes my stepson is texting while a service truck is blowing and hissing around the horse.

After this we loaded up and went to the barn.

This is probably his first good meal in weeks. Poor guy. Vet says hes about 300-400 pounds under weight. Total cost for new cheap horse is $500.

We meet

I get up on Oct 9, 2009 and stumble to the computer with a cup of coffee to scour the horse classifieds. I am searching for a well broke older horse for my learning to ride daughter. I always check Craig's list first one to see if anything is in my budget and two to laugh at the morons putting ads on there. You wouldn't believe the stuff I find on there. I digress. I pop up farm and garden and find an ad. Says 3-4 year old sorrel gelding for $100 bucks. What the hell I will call and see about it. Chances are hes gone. I call and get some guy who says yes he is still available. He tells me hes thin they had rescued him at auction a few weeks ago. Not a problem since I have never brought home anything that wasn't in need of some sort of rehabbing. I give my stepson the phone as I suck at directions. I rush to get dressed and head out.
We drive an hour to get there. What we find when we get there is a horse that is not only thin hes starved down so bad you can count ever vertebrae in his back. But he is a high socked, full blaze, copper chestnut gelding. I buy him on the spot. Realising I have forgot my camera we go home to make arrangements on a trailer. Ride to go see him cost me 20 bucks. Total so far is 120 for my cheap rehab.