Behind the Stall Door With: (insert your horses name here)

[Syrynx]

Bentley

• Bentley is a barn favourite with his huge floppy ears and massive hooves. His hooves are approx. 8" x 8" and look like dinner plates.

• He’s deaf. “We didn’t realize he was deaf until attending a clinic where one of the assistants took one look at those floppy ears and said, that horse is deaf!” says his owner. It doesn’t bother him at all, that we can tell.

• He comes right over to everyone looking for cookies and other treats. Except apples. Bentley does not like apples or apple flavored anything.

• “We think he’s a full blooded Clydesdale but the DNA test from Texas A&M says Clyde/Shire/Fell Pony”

• He’s surprisingly athletic and lighter on those big ole’ feet than you would imagine. And he loves to jump.

• He used to be the biggest horse at the barn at a solid 17’3hh but another draft cross just moved in and has an inch or two on him.

• His show name is Ever Given - named after the big cargo ship that got stuck in the Suez canal "because he’s big and sometimes hard to turn.

• His best pal is his owners husbands chestnut OTTB.

• He has his own IG account to share his adventures going out and about.

I thought this would be a fun thread to start. Please feel free to share your Behind the Stall Door !

[Grey_Dove032016]

How fun! I’ll have to do Donzi’s when I have more time. I love the Behind the Stall Door features and I’m always composing his in my mind

[quietann]

I love Bentley! He looks a bit goofy.

I’ll do one for Feronia this weekend. Would love to see some of the other COTH “stars” done too.

[Syrynx]

Thank you!

He’s about as goofy as they come.

[beowulf]

I love this idea! I can’t wait to see more photos from other COTHers. We as a community spend so much time discussing various things, but not always sharing the reason why we are here – the horses in our lives. I would love to see a behind the stall doors featuring Feronia and Donzi!

Bentley looks positively massive next to that cute chestnut TB. His show name made me LOL.

Behind The Stall Door: Holden

• 14 y/o TB
• He lives outside 24/7 and loves it. Maybe instead of “Behind The Stall Door” it should be “Behind The Paddock Gates”?
• He will do anything for a Fig Newton, to the point it is a barn joke to use figgies as a bribe method.
• His life motto seems to be “work smarter, not harder.” For example, he learned in his first free-jump session it’s easier to jump out of the chute (even when raised max height!) than stay in the chute and jump 3-4 fences in a row.
• Despite the above he is a great riding horse and not lazy under saddle.
• He is the resident “Trail Nanny” for the greenbeans and/or anxious hackers.
• To me, he is the quintessential TB and everything I love about them: honest, kind, and you only have to show him how to do something once.

[Syrynx]

I love Holden’s dapples. He is just lovely. And now I want to see if Bentley will eat a Fig Newton. I suspect he will, he’s very food motivated.

[beowulf]

Thank you. I wish I could say it was because of our brilliant care, but he came to me with them 9 years ago and they never went away.

I discovered Holden liked Fig Newtons when I had to sneak Previcox in him for a few months. Great result, and he loved being given treats seemingly indiscriminately. Figgies are fantastic for sneaking in medication.

[BatCoach]

The reasoning behind his show name is hilarious!

[BatCoach]

Hubba hubba! Holden is my kind of horse! what a TB dreamboat.

[quietann]

Behind the Stall Door with… Feronia!

• Happily retired 24 year old Morgan mare. A big personality in a little horse. Her main job is to be beautiful.

• Where did that name come from? Feronia is a Latin harvest goddess, who also was someone Roman slaves prayed to for release. Feronia’s breeders are Mythic Morgans, and all the horses have names of gods, goddesses, spirits, etc.

• She has 3 close relatives (2 with the same sire as her, and one nephew) who have reached national FEI levels in dressage.

• The most important thing in the world to her is FOOD. She has inherited the Morgan tendency to approach food as if it must be gobbled up now, because who knows when there will be more.

• If she’s eating hay slowly and deliberately, as many horses do, there is something wrong with her.

• Her role in life is “watching for bears.” She is the horse in the herd who will let all the others know that danger is approaching. This also makes her a good babysitter, but on the other hand, situations where there are horses all over the place stress her out!

• This carries over to me, her rider and handler. Her job is to protect me. The only time I fell off of her, she was much more rattled by it than I was.

• She is sensitive but sensible, most of the time. Sometimes the spirit of her grand-dam Julie, a Park Harness champion, shows up, and then all bets are off.

• Relatedly, she has an impressive history of silly spooks. Starting with a butterfly landing on her nose. Her spooks are over quickly; usually she just flails around for a second or two, and stops.

• Also relatedly, if you give her a job, she’s all business. No silly spooks and no antics.

• She is friendly with other horses, over the fence. Any horse that gets near her butt or near her food is going to get kicked! (but she would never, ever deliberately kick a person.)

• When she’s all puffed up with excitement, people think she’s at least 16 hands. Nope, just a bit under 15 hands.

• In her younger days, she had a fast hand gallop over terrain. She loved to go fast!

• Every horse professional she’s ever met, every vet, farrier, trainer, barn owner… with one or two exceptions that were ill-chosen on my part, loves her.

[2DogsFarm]

I’ll play
My 3 are Behind the Fenceline as they’re out more than in. By their choice, stalls open to drylot, that opens to pastures 24/7/365.

I’m not bragging (okay, I am ), but I picked a single small pile from just 1 of 3 stalls this morning.
And that was after a rainy night.

Harley

Alleged TWH & acknowledged Herd Boss.
Gal who gave him to me 7yrs ago told me he was the same in her herd of 6.
A Benevolent Despot, he rules without violence.
No kicking, biting, just a pinned ear or The Look.
He even thinks I fall under his rank.
If I’m late feeding, he’ll walk towards me, then at the last minute, turn & pointedly walk away
He graciously allows the mini to share his hay, in his stall. When they were both on oats (mini now on TC Sr) he’d allow the little monster to put his nose in the same feedpan
Both privileges denied the pony:
Kouma

Acquired as a Freebie from my shoer 12yrs ago as a companion to my WB (lost in 2015 )
Largely decorative, though he was trained to drive.
Harley’s 2nd in Command minion.
He’ll make Nastyface at the mini, but never do more. Same threat to Harley when they’re fed, but only with the stall grille safely between them.
Typical Hackney Pony: 22 acts 5
Lastly Wascally Wabbit aka Bugs:

My OldLady Folly, bought when I was 66 as an unbroke 2yo. Based on his disposition.
Friend asked me to help clip him & his 1/2 brother. Bro had to be put in a headlock.
Bugs was Whatevs, even for face & ears
He went to Amish Boot camp for 6mos (due to bad weather) came home Broke to Death & has been more fun than I imagined as a Newb to Driving myself.

All 3 are Hos for Dollar Tree gingersnaps.
They’ll never meet those $20 German horse treats

[Syrynx]

Oh my goodness Feronia is doing an excellent job of being beautiful. And please tell her that Bentley agrees, food is THE most important thing and hoovering up hay is required.

I have 3 retiree’s who are Behind the Fenceline @2DogsFarm. I’ll have to do a write up on them as well. Sadly mine are not nearly as neat and tidy as yours, so bragging is perfectly fine.

I love Harley’s look in that picture “ahem…are you talking about me?”

Bugs could easily walk under Bentley with probably 6" of clearance. And also probably scare the wits out of him. When Bentley first came to the farm, trainer turned him out with the smallest on the farm, a 20+ y/o 13’hh pony who then proceeded to chase him around mercilessly.

[NaturalSelection]

@beowulf, what kind of side-pull is Holden wearing, I love it!

[2DogsFarm]

Bentley is a very handsome guy!

Bugs has always charmed the Big Guys.
When I drive with my Club, he always keeps up with the horses, generally with his nose nearly on the cart in front of us.
We just got back from the Ntl Drive, where he rode the 3h haul in a stock trailer with a 16h+ DraftX gelding.
It was the 2nd time they rode together, 1st was a 40min test run in July.
No partition between them, front half of the trailer held their carts behind the center gate.
Not a hair out of place on either when we arrived.
When we loaded to go home, the minute Bugs got on, the Draft started grooming him

[beowulf]

Every time you post pictures of Feronia I’m taken away by how stunning her coat color is. She’s such a richly colored horse. I bet she fits perfectly in autumn backdrops.

I did not know that about her sire having 2 FEI horses. What an accomplishment. Who is her sire?

@2DogsFarm Love Harley’s expression in that photo – he’s asking if you got any additional Gingersnaps since his meal was late.

Kouma being “largely decorative” made me laugh. We have a few of those… At least he is cute! Our decorative horse has a face only his mother could love. Our hackney pony was the same way, was way older than you’d ever know but he acted 2 and unbroke most of the time…

Could there be a mini cuter than Bugs? So glad you are having fun with him.

@NaturalSelection The bridle is a Dyon “La Cense” bridle: https://marystack.com/dyon-la-cense-bitless-bridle/?sku=147762-001
The design of the bridle is fantastic. The leather is not worth the price. It is Dyon name brand on Suffolk leather quality. Mine started cracking within a few weeks of infrequent use (1-2x a week). I still use it and it still looks good, but the cracks bother me for such an expensive bridle.

[arbeegirl]

Barn Name: Louie
Nicknames: Little Louie, 50 First Dates
JC & Show Name: Looking Ready

Louie is the laziest OTTBs I have ever ridden. His favorite thing to do is stand in the the middle of the ring and watch others work.

He is a big time mama’s boy.

He is the youngest horse in his field yet he is the boss without being mean.

He loves every horse he sees and any other animals.

He may love other horses and animals but he is fussy with people. If he doesn’t like you, he lets you know! Thank goodness he loves me😉

He does not like to be touched or brushed but he will always want to touch you.

He loves looking at himself in mirrors. He cannot walk by without stopping to check himself out.

[Syrynx]

Oh thank you!

Your Bugs sounds amazing!

[Syrynx]

@arbeegirl

JC & Show Name: Looking Ready

OMG as soon as I saw his name I had to look him up to see if he was by More Than Ready! What a handsome boy!

Bentley’s bff brother-from-another-mother-and-father, the chestnut OTTB in the picture above is by More Than Ready. JC name: Cleveland Sound. He’s DH’s horse

And I own a few microshares in their half sister Miss Sakamoto.

We’re big More Than Ready fans and had a chance to see him earlier this year before he passed.

[arbeegirl]

I wanted to take a trip to KY so I could see More Than Ready in person. I never got around to scheduling the trip.

[quietann]

Thanks… The year she wore a fly sheet all summer, she was almost orange. She’s getting her winter coat and will have a lot more white hairs, but her color doesn’t really change.

Mythic Juma and Mythic Odin are the FEI horses I remember, but I’m sure there’s another one, whose name I can’t remember. Feronia is kind of a conformation train wreck, but that’s absolutely not the norm for that program. Her sire is Mythic Aladdin. Juma by him and Odin is by his son Hyperion, who is one of those “if only” horses. Aladdin was a sweetheart, but Hyperion is a bit more studdy. Saw him again a few months ago when we visited. I met Odin when he was a butt-high yearling and very silly, and then a few years later when he was very green and pretty full of himself. I’ve also met Juma.