Former horse has fallen off the map

[hollynanne]

Hi guys-
I will start this by letting you all know that I NEVER post over here. As much as I’d like to try hunting, I haven’t yet (hopefully soon! jeagermonster is a friend of mine IRL- if she claims me! :lol: )

Anyway, there is a hunt in Minnesota and one of their huntsman had (through several steps after us) purchased one of our horses. I’ve been able to see the gelding (“Mickey” was what we called him, but “Manny” is what they call him, which I think is cute) through their website and see how well he’s done.

My husband (before he was my husband) bought Manny out of a kill pen in Iowa, 10 years ago last month. I spent the money we had saved for an engagement ring for a horse for my DH. Obviously, he has a very special place in our hearts.

Manny was always an experience, but a total love. I have a friend up in the twin cities that sometimes hunts with this club and remarked to me one day via fb chat that she hadn’t seen Manny in awhile. I asked her to email the huntsman and she didn’t hear back. It was the end of last season, and I figure things are quite busy.

I know that Manny is getting older (for those of you keeping track, he’s a 1998 model, so he’s 14 this year) and did have to take part of a season off a couple years ago because of his hocks. I don’t want to bother the “higher-ups” of the hunt or cause any concern, I just wanted to find out how he’s doing.

If Manny ever needs a retirement home, we’d either take him ourselves or help in finding him somewhere to live out his days.

If you have any Manny stories, I’d love to hear them. I guess he’s been quite the fixture for that hunt for quite a few years. The owner/huntsman is a pretty big guy, and Manny is a 16.1hh 1500# black and white pinto draftX. When we owned him, Manny only had two gears in his transmission, park and overdrive! :lol:

I kind of miss that big lug of a gelding.
:rolleyes:

p.s. Disclaimer- I am not insinuating that anything has happened to Manny. He’s had a wonderful home with an amazing owner for several years, I just want to make sure that he didn’t have to retire early as he apparently loves hunting.

[Jynx]

Hi!

Manny has a wonderful home now, too! He was bought by a family that started hunting. The big lug gets to pack around either one of the parents or the darling daughter. It took him a bit to get used to being in the field, but not in a bad way. They have to be careful about getting near the hounds 'cuz they still think of him as the big kahuna.

He is loved and coddled.

[FlashGordon]

[QUOTE=Jynx;6305121]
Hi!

Manny has a wonderful home now, too! He was bought by a family that started hunting. The big lug gets to pack around either one of the parents or the darling daughter. It took him a bit to get used to being in the field, but not in a bad way. They have to be careful about getting near the hounds 'cuz they still think of him as the big kahuna.

He is loved and coddled.[/QUOTE]

How cool is that! OP, glad your boy has a nice home. It is always nice to hear about happy endings.

[hollynanne]

Yay! Oh thank you! I’m so glad! He’s such a love! I heard the hounds loved jumping up to the huntsman and Manny would just stand there, because he really liked the hounds.

Please pass on to the family how happy I am that Manny has moved on to such a wonderful home.

I do have one funny Manny story for you guys…
Manny always had this love for the water trough, more specifically, whatever was on, around, or in the water trough. One summer, we put goldfish in the tank to try and combat the mosquitoes and algae. We pulled up to the farm one day to find Manny’s whole head wet! We couldn’t figure out what was going on, and were concerned about a water line being broken. The barn and stalls and run were fine, no water. Where did this mystery water come from? We forgot about it and rode, and it wasn’t until we had cooled out and turned out our horses that we figured out what was going on.

Manny was trying to “catch” the goldfish in the tank. Okay, maybe not trying to “catch” them, but most definitely chasing them in the tank! He would get his eye on one and be really still (like a dog), and then plunge his head into the tank! We thought it was just a weird way to drink, but eventually the goldfish died and he stopped. Apparently, it’s not as fun when there’s no goldfish in the tank!

He’s such a funny guy and I’m so glad he’s doing so well!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[BluesBuster]

What a great story!!! Thanks for sharing…especially the goldfish story

[otterhound]

Just love happy endings =)