New Project Pony, meet Boland!

This is so cool! Love seeing great outcomes from auction purchases.

Just curious, was this a low end/dead end auction or one where good horses were sold?

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I can’t wait to see a proper profile where you can see is body as a whole. His backend is lost in the dark vegetation, and it if is anything like his neck transformation, I wanna see that bootylious bottom!

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I’m assuming it was on the lower end side as far as auctions go. SIL met the girl who was selling him and said she seemed scared of him. I haven’t seen a single inkling of any intentionally bad behavior, but he did get really worried about having his hind feet handled and kick out so I’m thinking that might have something to do with the previous owner being nervous.
We’ve worked through a lot of that already and I can pick them both up without much issue.

He’s really relaxed about a lot of things, but I’ve been basically going back to the very basics and filling in holes as they come along. There’s been zero real drama with the riding part, he has a “I have no idea what that means, so I’m going to guess answers until I get the right one” attitude. If someone was unaware that he knew essentially nothing about being ridden I guess they might interpret it as disobedience or him being “bad”, which along with the hind feet issue might be what landed him at the auction.

Of course I don’t know with any certainty what his background actually is, but I’ve started quite a few and he acts for all the world like a freshly backed baby with lots of try. Kind of wiggly when tracking straight and minimal understanding of what leg means, so I’ve been trying to keep cues simple and as clear as I can. I was joking with my riding buddy earlier that I’m using crayon and block letters to ask him for things, lol.

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I don’t have any decent stills, but this is a video of his post-bath zoomies today. He hadn’t been turned out in a couple days so I expected him to tear around, but even his sillies aren’t terribly silly, lol

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Absolutely love your description “I’m using crayons and block letters to ask him for things”.

It’s heartwarming to see a great outcome from a so-so/low end auction horse. He sure is blooming under your care and it will be fun to follow his progress.

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Thank you! I hope I can do him justice, I think there’s a fairly fancy packer type hunter boy hiding in there somewhere if I can bring it out.
Just got done having a 45 minute scritches session… Poor guy was nervous about me poking around until I showed him just how itchy his belly and inner thighs were. By the time we finished, he was practically holding up a hind leg to help me find the right spot :joy:

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Boland the chocolate hony is a treat! Def hang onto him and see how he takes to jumping :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I love his round rump! He is super cute and I am glad he is tryer. Do we have another “handyman”???

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He is super cute!

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I set up a little jump during our turnout/hang time just to see what he thought about it. Seems like he might enjoy the whole jumping thing!

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SEEMS?
He sent his Cute Self right over!
& Not in terrible form either.
Oh, the FUN you’re going to have! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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I was so excited that he was enthusiastic about it! It was only about a foot high so I’m hoping that with some top line muscle and a little more height he’ll pick his knees up.
I keep loving his attitude more every day. He has some difficulty bending right and yesterday wanted to lug in whenever we circled that direction, so we worked on that for a while. Today we rode in the indoor and there were standards along the wall, and whenever we’d move in to pass them, all I had to do was lift the inside rein and he scooted right back over. He’s like a kid that learned a new thing and is excited to show it off wherever he can, lol.
We didn’t do too much ring work today because he was doing well and I didn’t want him to feel like he was being drilled, so we went for a hack out on my little trail loop. I definitely think there’s something to the pack horse origin story because he acted like he’d been doing it all his life and was having a blast.
I’m really having to restrain myself from pushing too much because he’s just the coolest guy!

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Fun Boland update! Things have been going really well, so yesterday I decided to catch a ride with my barn friends who were going to school XC at the venue down the road. Mr Boland thought the 2+1 trailer looked a little suspicious, but after a quick pause at the ramp he loaded right up and hauled like a pro.
I expected the usual baby brain antics once we got into the field and planned to walk around while they schooled over fences, but he didn’t look twice when horses were cantering around and being silly. We ended up trotting over a couple teensy logs and telephone pole-style XC fences and ended with a nicely balanced canter around the perimeter and up the hill.
The venue has a really airy indoor ring which is different than he’s used to so we tooled around and worked on some circles in there. Another total non-issue, lol. He was so solid that Im seriously contemplating entering him in an intro test at their schooling show in a week. I wasn’t planning to push anything, but so far he’s happily gone along with everything I’ve asked so I’d like to at least introduce him to the show environment even if we don’t end up competing. Is it totally absurd to even consider taking him?

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He sounds very sensible. Go to the show and see what the judge says. It is a total win no matter what

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It sounds like a nice low-key learning experience to me! I say go for it.

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Adding another vote for: JUST DO IT :grin:
You said all the right things:
Local
Schooling
Intro

Take Boland, have fun & post pics!

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Omigosh I love him!!! So cute.

What’s his size and future?

I recently went from a 17h brontosaurus to a 13.3h welsh/Warmblood pony. He’s still 3 and I just started him, hoping he hits 14.1 when finished.

I initially thought he would be a fancy project pony for my kid niece but after a couple weeks with him I have fallen in love :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: and I don’t think he will go to a kid anytime soon :rofl: sorry neice.

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My measuring stick has disappeared into the barn vortex so I haven’t sticked him, but I’d estimate he’s somewhere between 15.2-3. I’m 5’9 so he looks smaller than he actually is, lol.
He belongs to my SIL and was initially coming to me for 30 days of training, but I’m thinking he’s going to end up sticking around longer. He’s eventually going to be for sale but neither of us are in a hurry because he’s so nice to have around, lol.

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Oh it’s good he found a nice landing with you then. A well trained horse is never in want of a home! I’m glad you are giving him a foundation. He looks a treat.

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Mr B officially has his first big boy dressage score on the books!
It was a loooong day and I’m still recovering, but the cliff’s notes version is babyhorse handled it like a champ. We did the Intro A test and while he looked every bit of the greenie that he is, there were some really nice moments that make me really excited for the future. He was distracted by the crowds and the random umbrellas and we ended up with a 56.5 (the general commentary theme was “wandering” :joy:), but I honestly couldn’t be happier.

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