Novice needs advices on naughty horse (We have a baby!)

[AnnaCrew]

Yes, I agree - she stands somehow crunched on the back. But when you lunge her, she looks ok, and when ride - nothing. It is so hard to judge past of the horse when you know nothing or very small amount of info. In a minute I will put some pictures on internet so you can see.

Lunging this morning, very dirty girl, she really likes mud
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq222/ozolkalni/07-09-09lilly/PICT5885.jpg
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq222/ozolkalni/07-09-09lilly/PICT5889.jpg

Riding
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq222/ozolkalni/07-09-09lilly/PICT5906.jpg
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq222/ozolkalni/07-09-09lilly/PICT5922.jpg
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq222/ozolkalni/07-09-09lilly/PICT5925.jpg

After training - all hugs and kisses
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq222/ozolkalni/07-09-09lilly/PICT5927.jpg

And please, no comments on Peter’s seat - he already felt like prat on her back. When he hopped off, he apologised to her “Sorry, my dear lady, for me being such an idiot! Please, forgive me!”

[pegasus209]

Anna! Hello lady! {{HUGS!}}
I adore your posts and am in awe of what you guys have done and do. The horses all are so happy and there is such harmony there. It’s just magic!!
Peter is an inspiration! I love seeing his pics! You can feel his love for the horses in every one!
Please do consider making a book! I’m in the line to get one!
… edited to add-- trying to think of a way to fly Guido to Texas… :D:D:D

[AnnaCrew]

I’m now even more confused than before. Just found the breeder of the mare and you know - the Gypsy was right! She had been sold to the stable X as weanling and all 6 years were hanging there in pastures doing nothing. Plain nothing - no basic riding, no Dressage, no foals… Just nothing. For 6 years.

My head is just spinning. How strong her Dressage genes must be to act like she did today??? (Gypsy never trained her some Dressage, for sure, he is rough boy who loves horses, but that’s about all). And how sweet she must be to act like that with us on ground.

OK, her genes might be strong… this afternoon we were watching her in pastures gazing wen she met a frog. She walked backwards 4 steps, then 4 sidesteps (you know, nicely crossing legs), then again 2 back, 2 on the side, all still gazing. It was funny to watch, but we thought that it must be something that she had learned… nope.

People, I wish everybody would have such a horse - there would never be any untrained, bad, nervous, dangerous horses at all… and no unhappy owners, no helpless ASAP giveaways and no rescues… She is such a gem!

[Equibrit]

There is still something strange going on in her loin/sacrum/stifle area. Can’t put a finger on it. But - I sure would have the vet investigate. She is muscled oddly in that area for a 6 year old with no work.

[Lieslot]

Anna, as always, I’m in awe about the great work you guys do.
Lilly is adorable.
Glad to hear Renny found a good home.

Peter has become such a pro really!

@Equibrit

There is still something strange going on in her loin/sacrum/stifle area. Can’t put a finger on it. But - I sure would have the vet investigate. She is muscled oddly in that area for a 6 year old with no work.

Well in the pic in post 193 would you say she could be just a weenie tad roached backed? That’s about the only pic I can really see it. All other ones she looks okay to me.

[pegasus209]

What an amazing mystery about your new lovely mare! I am in awe. I want to come and work for you guys.

ps… and Dagy is gorgeous by the way!!!

[AnnaCrew]

Thank you, Pegasus!
About Daggy I have good news - his poor legs are results of several injuries, nothing inheritable - so he has hope!
By the way, the new mare is closely related to Daggy - sire of her mother is also sire of Daggy

Anyway, here are several pictures of today - so the day 4th with us.

Getting dressed
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/09-09-09/PICT5941.jpg

To look at legs and hoofs - seems quite ok for me
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/09-09-09/PICT5944.jpg

After the light ride
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/09-09-09/PICT5950.jpg

Just playing with Peter and Sapphire
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/09-09-09/PICT5962.jpg

One of Giva today
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/09-09-09/PICT5969.jpg

Remaining lot here if you want to see them all
http://s965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/09-09-09/

And here is other new girl, Sigma - old Latvian broodmare.
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/09-09-09sigma/PICT6006.jpg

Sadly we found out today that she has inflammation in her uterus and our vet is out due to the broken arm so we need call reprovet with all equipment and so… ah, these FREE giveaways!
More of Sigma here
http://s965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/09-09-09sigma/

[lalahartma1]

Go, Giva, go!

http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/09-09-09/PICT5969.jpg

[ivy62]

I think Peter and Giva need to start 3 day eventing…they look marvelous together! How on earth did you get some many wonderful animals for free? Can I have one. Prefereably the smalles, I am oly 5’2"!!!
Keep the photos coming…

[AnnaCrew]

ivy, you know, free giveaways not always are the cheapest - we got her for 200, then another 200 to transport and then… about a week we were not sure if she will even live (thank heavens for my really loving and caring vet - she was coming 2, sometimes three times a day), then next 6 mo she was up and down - wound opening again and again (last time was in March this year) and we were not even sure if she will be rideable again…

Only now she had started to get some muscles on and looks like a horse, isn’t it? We put her in foal to give her another year to properly establish her back and now we do hope that the next summer after foal we shall be able to start proper training with her and see how far she can go. Currently we know that she quite like jumping, jumped her up to 1 m, and now, as she is so big and still a bit clumsy, and pregnancy is going on, we put her back on small, 1-2 ft jumps, just to exercise her.

All in all she had cost us now about 4000$ +keeping at our place (it is not as costly as a boarding stable, but still - she can not be kept on grass only even at summer, quite a bit high maintenance horse).

But at the same time - she is our alpha mare, real gem when we introduce new horse to the herd, and when herd is established and she has learned all the names, she turns the naughty ones directly at gates when we want - stand at pasture gates and call the name - good ones are obediently running, the bad ones… if they do not come instantly, Giva runs and brings them to gates. At present she is a bit confused and instead of X can bring Y, but then she realizes mistake and makes the second go right.

And the main thing - she is very good to newcomers, it makes introducing so much easier. I can not praise her enough on that. She makes every miserable scared mind to feel welcomed, calms them down, explains that there is no reason to go wild over a food as it will be always more, takes them to water trough to show where the things are and they are not scary and so on. She is such a helper, really.

[ivy62]

Ya know Anna…you guys make the statement," Love conquers all." true…All you have is love and that sems ot be enough…If you ever get a small one let me know…What would the shipping be"? YIKES! My horse would be jealous…
I do know that a free horse is not cheap. I have a rescue that I have spent the better part of the last 3 years trying to figure out what was wrong with him and trying to rehab him only for him to hurt himself again! I do not even want to mention the cost except thank god for insurance!

[AnnaCrew]

What your vet does when elbow is broken and arm in cast so no way working?
Our vet does this:
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/10-09-09/PICT6024.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/10-09-09/PICT6025.jpg

Today we were working only on sending Lilly forward from the leg.
And I think we got some success
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/10-09-09/PICT6039.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/10-09-09/PICT6047.jpg

And here is one of the canter - picture itself is crap, but at least you can see all her 4 legs on air - she canters so soft and light.
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/10-09-09/PICT6041.jpg

[harveyhorses]

I love reading your posts! I think Peter looks much more secure, he looks so confident. All your horses just have that happy relaxed, ‘I am at Anna and Peters now’ look. :yes:
Thanks for a bright spot, I know I can find this thread and read good things.

[feetofclay1678]

Anna, I have read this entire thread(48 pages!!) in the past couple days, and I gotta say…the horse world really needs more people like you and Peter! I am amazed at how empathetic and caring you are for these wonderful animals. I am sure they are thanking their lucky stars that you found them. Keep up the good work! I look forward to hearing about your continuing journey and pictures!

[AnnaCrew]

![]('m so silly PROUD mum today!

Look at this! What is this?
[IMG]http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/03-10-09usma/PICT7362.jpg)

It is son of our Daggy, Dandy.
[IMG]http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/03-10-09usma/PICT7236.jpg)

Here is a small video with Dandy jumping first 2 jumps.

And this?
[IMG]http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/03-10-09usma/PICT7542.jpg)
Boy on the right is his brother, Dilando - another Daggy’s baby!!!

So today I met two boys from our stallion, and both earned ribbons.

Am I proud or what?

Oh, yes, BTW, the boy on the right (red ribbon) is son of Inka. 2 more ribbons he earned today… Here is video, made by his owner.

I’m not a breeder, I had not raised them, had not trained them and saw these boys for the first time on my life. But this “they are my relatives” thing is sooooooo strong, especially when they are earning ribbons

We went to regional show today and I had not expected to see the boys but they were there and made my day!!!

If seriously, now I had seen some of Daggy’s babies in work. And a bit of conformation. Makes me think.

[AnnaCrew]

Taking rescues is such a challenge, never a boring moment Since we took Lilly, I was digging and digging as I was worried about her roach back. Had found vet who saw her as a weanling and there had been pictures taken then, and had found person who wanted to buy her then (offer was rejected) - she had not had roach back at all then… so it must be a medical problem. I will probably never be able to work out when and what happened, but at least there is a hope for her.
I had arranged a vet check - in 2 weeks the very experienced vet from Sweden will be here who is especially familiar with my mare’s sire line along with other vet who knows well the dam line, so we shall have an international vet team to look at her and run the all the tests possible to find what’s wrong with her. So please keep fingers crossed for Lilly on 17th October!

[sdlbredfan]

Anna, for safety’s sake please tell Peter not to do that (“Peter took him out on halter, no lead”). He really should have a lead line attached to the halter. Otherwise there is too much danger that either Peter could get a dislocated shoulder when the horse pulls away suddenly, or could accidentally be trampled by a suddenly ‘wired’ horse who smells a mare in heat.
On the DSLD thing, he does have the appearance of it however the jury is out on exactly what causes it. The disorder was only recently named/discovered and research is ongoing on whether it is inheritable or not. There is a nutritional protocol that you will read about on that website someone shared, that might help. (edited to add, I kept reading and you said Vet believes the sagging fetlock resulted from injury, so that is good to know)

[sdlbredfan]

Hilarious!

[QUOTE=AnnaCrew;4308597]
Can I introduce my barefoot farrier?

http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq222/ozolkalni/09-08-09kalejs/PICT5035.jpg

http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq222/ozolkalni/09-08-09kalejs/PICT5040.jpg

:D[/QUOTE]

I really enjoyed that second picture!

[AnnaCrew]

sdlbredfan, Story behind the picture - our farrier had a day off, visited us with his girlfriend and as he was not working had a silly flip-flops on. And then he said that he had not been on a horse very long time so we decided that he can have a bit of “horse healing” on Shella, who is old school horse and as safe as a horse can be. In his professional life he is not a barefoot one at all - he is working in our second largest stud full time, and is a really good one I do believe. He finds the best solution for every individual horse - if they need shoes, they have them, if they need angles changed or “higher heels” they do have them. I’m very happy with our farrier and he is always ready to teach us, explain things and show.

About halter and no lead - I know, and I’m telling Peter off for that but I’m guilty as well for sometimes doing it (when suddenly you can not find the lead) and only with some horses, never with Puika (or Inka, or with yearling, for example) - we know they might be naughty. Especially with Puika - he still can forget that he must “lead his humans”.
We do not know how Daggy will act when mares will start the season but currently it is autumn here and no mares are open. Season usually starts here in February-March, depends on winter. Then such walking will be no-no. Currently - it is bad practice, but with some of ours it is 99% safe.

Daggy’s ground manners are perfect and seems that he is hard to spoil (in general we are spoiling them all here) - that is why we were so happy to let Renny to go directly to people who are known being good trainers - we are not capable to train properly a spoiled 2 yo with no ground manners at all. Too dangerous game for us and also for the horse - we did not wanted to mess him up.

We really try to be realistic about what we can do and what is way too much for us. Pampering an abused adult who needs extra care - great, that’s for us, but breaking a healthy youngster with bad manners - not yet.

[sdlbredfan]

Anna, I am so glad you responded. You and Peter are loved and admired by so many of us, I (and am sure I speak for many others) just do not want you to get hurt!