Update on horse situation

After much prayer and discussion, we decided to send Frosty back to the rescue. We just didn't feel comfortable keeping him as we weren't sure if he would be difficult to handle on the ground. I was originally going to just do ground work with him and do halter, showmanship and ground driving, but his neck is so stiff! He has either never been trained, or he's got some serious bad habits that he's learned over the years. We also decided that we really need something that's rideable. With our limited pasture, it's not feasible to keep a horse that pretty much unusable. I've talked with several people and the consensus seems to be that we won't be able to have more than 4-5 horses on our current property.

So, Frosty went back on Wednesday, but on Tuesday we looked at a wonderful horse right up the road from us. This one is a 12-year-old Appaloosa mare named Natalie. She stands between 15 and 16 hands and is very stocky. She's white like Frosty, but instead of black spots on her undercoat like him, she's got black freckles on her muzzle. She's a BTDT (been there, done that) horse with a quiet disposition. She's been jumped before and would also be good for a beginner. She's in our price range and the trainer said she's almost positive the owners wouldn't mind letting us have her on trial here on our property. She's currently fully pastured and that's the only problem I see with her, barring a vet-check. I plan to bring her in and stall her at night and she might be our only horse for a bit. I'm not sure how she'll respond to either the stall or being by herself. The trainer did mention (and I'm not sure if she was serious) that she has a lame horse that she'd lend us if we needed a pasture buddy.

So, we'll see. We're not rushing things this time. Hopefully this time we'll make a fully informed decision and will get a keeper horse.

Chicken Treats

I've recently started experimenting with "treats" for the girls. I've found that they love cracked corn and will eagerly crowd around me when I go into their yard and cluck at them. They also love watermelon, but are iffy on tomatoes and plums.

I gave them a treat today by spreading out some wheat straw that I bought in their yard for them to peck through. I was going to use it in my garden for mulch, but it was too full of seed heads. Hopefully they love it and will get all the seed heads out. If not, at least the seeds will have fallen to the ground and I'll be able to rake up the actual straw.

On another note, they have officially moved up to grower ration and love it. I have to fill their feeder roughly once a week now. It could just be because they are growing so quickly, though.

Horse Fall

We had quite the scare last weekend. We adopted an 18-year-old Tennessee Walker named Frosty and were planning to keep him as a companion/light rider. We were told he wasn't for a beginner, but would need an experienced rider. We figured Samantha could ride him and get him to the point that I could ride him. She had her first, and last, lesson on him last Sunday. We decided to use the trainer from the rescue organization since she was not only familiar with him personally, but has worked with gaited horses and rescue horses.

Frosty had trouble during the lesson staying focused and kept wanting to take Samantha back to the barn gate. She was able to redirect him and gave him plenty of rest time at a spot in the farthest corner from the barn. On her last lap around the pasture, however, Frosty decided to break into a full-blown gallop. Samantha has never galloped a horse, let alone a horse that isn't responding to leg or rein commands. As they headed towards the barn gate Samantha tried to steer him right to go past the fence post. Frosty decided to go left at the last minute, and unfortunately, Samantha continued right. She fell off and slammed into the fence post, which just happened to be a square one and the only one sticking out into the pasture.

We called for an ambulance because she was coughing up blood and already has serious bruises on her back. After being rushed to the trauma center with sirens on (25 miles away), we were told everything was fine and Samantha was released within two hours. We are so thankful that she wasn't seriously hurt. She doesn't ever want to ride Frosty again, which I completely understand, but still loves him.

Our quandary now is, do we keep him as a companion only, keep him and try to train him, or send him back and get something rideable? He's very sweet on the ground and we've grown quite attached to him.