Comment

Comment by lesley bruce on September 19, 2008 at 5:19am

Thank you very, very much, all of you for telling me your stories. It's really nice and truly moving to hear what's going on out there.... you are doing me good.

Spidershephard
You should write a whole book about "Fight your Corner" his life story is fascinating such a talent, so many setbacks and to have the happy ending with you is just the best.

So many injured racehorses just get shot or sent for meat, his story could raise hope and awareness of what goes on in the racing world and how the lucky ones are happily re-homed. There, he he! to cleverly school their new jockeys how to sit tight in a dressage test.

Well done you.

Kristina
Summit
What a story, you must have been scared. "Summit" certainly lived up to his name.

It's amazing what they can get up to and away with. my mare Patina (she's the horse in the card "a quiet hack") I once watched her roll right next to a sheep grill fence, she went right over got all four feet caught it it. ... I PANIC .... not her, she just lay quietly and asked me to go and get the wire cutters, when I cut her free she just stood up said thanks and ambled off.... this is my mad chestnut mare????.

So I know how you felt waiting for the thrashing explosion when Summit found he was trapped. They must have more sense than we think and are just having us on most of the time.

Oh I feel for you to have lost him so young, horrible just horrible. such a special horse and beautiful horse.

Hot Air Balloons
Cor! Kristina I wish you'd had a camera too.

Linda and Salad
Salad is a character that's for sure, love reading about him ... great phrase ... "he did the famous teleport"... and what a wonderful site ... him silhouetted watching the fireworks ... you lucky person.

Heather and Taxi
I believe the spirits are with you, with us all.

Thanks all of you
Cheerio for now
(¯`*•.¸(¯`*•.¸Lesley¸.•*´¯)¸.•*´¯)

Comment by Heather on September 18, 2008 at 9:29pm

Lesly: thank you so much..he really has shown me that there is always another one to love, and still keep your cose to your heart..yeah, we have had many rides with the "Taxi" butterfly at our side..it truly does fly alongside of us around the ring..lol..and yeah, he either has a bad dream, or his "other" personality comes out..the other girls at the barn call him "Antoine" on his bad days...lol

Comment by Kristina on September 18, 2008 at 7:14pm

This story is not about a single horse, but a group of horses. I boarded at a barn in MI. This barn only had dirt paddocks for turnout. There would be 1-2 round bales in each paddock to keep the horses busy and there would be 5-8 horses out in each paddock. The paddocks were bordered by a forest on the backside. At the time of this story there were roughly 2 dozen horses out in these paddocks.

I was in the barn cleaing up when I heard this weird hissing sound outside. I went outside and looked around. I didn't see anything. I was about to go back in the barn when I heard the sound again. It sounded like it was coming from the forest. I stand there staring at the trees, trying to see something. Nothing appears. I am about to go back inside when I hear the noise again. That was when I saw a hot air balloon crest the trees.

Within seconds, over a dozen hot air balloons crested the trees. It was quite a sight. I immediately became concerned about what the horses would do and looked down. Much to my surprise they were all sticking their necks straight up with their noses pointed to the sky. Now, I have never seen a horse look straight up before, much less two dozen of them looking straight up. It was even more of a sight then the hot air balloons. We all watched the hot air balloons float overhead. Then the horses dropped their heads and went back to eating. I do wish I had a camera that day.

Comment by Linda on September 18, 2008 at 3:12am

I had Salad gelded at 9yo, he'd been a super stallion (he was kind enough to nanny the colt weanlings safely), but his only baby, whilst the most beautiful creature on the planet was the most nasty horse you ever met, I decided we didn't need horrid foals and stuck to outside stallions. Once gelded he was out at the same time as the mares and foals, with a double row of electric fence keeping them apart until he wasn't capable of reproducing. I got home from getting a feed delivery one day to find that all of the mares, their babies and the yearling I'd kept had all packed their bags and moved in with him - fence trashed. As all was peaceful and the time had past I left him out with them.

Around November time, I'd popped out to see the owner of another stud quite a distance away, set off for home early as it was bonfire night, but got caught up in the tailback of a serious accident. Panicking that the whole herd was still out, I made frantic phone calls knowing that a huge firework display was starting soon - couldn't get hold of anyone. Getting home, the sky was ablaze and the bangs crashes and whizzing noises were deafening.

Parked car somehow and raced to the field with shaky legs to see Salad, silhouetted against the sky, calmly watching the display with ears pricked and the others stood right behind him taking his lead. I called him, he looked at me with his ears pricked, I swear he grinned and said - did you see that one mum!?!

I figured that as they were calm, they were better off where they were:-)

Salad doesn't hold with football/soccer. Around here we have loads of men who play in a Sunday league. The first time we passed a group playing, with the shouts, cheering and the thud of the ball being kicked, he did his best llama impersonation, got tense but carried on with a pat and a word. Suddenly as we passed the ball was kicked with a huge thunp quite close to us - he did the famous teleport - the one where the horse disappears from under you and you are still sitting in mid air with nothing under you - cartoon like! After landing I got up quickly, still had the reins, and there's him, come on come on come on, what you doing down there! Jumped back on and he power walked until the football was out of sight.

He's over it now, but on the odd day when he's fresh, he'll still do a little 'ballet' past them....

As a 5yo I had him on a yard that was et up for stallions/colts, they were turned out either individually or with a quiet gelding. Salad loved his mate and would go cantering off in the field until the other boy was put out with him, he'd then go with him into the sand arena, and have a lovely roll. Salad would do his quickly and while poor old Fred was still down enjoying himself, Salad would gallop up to him and leap over him, land, turn round and as good as stick his tongue out at the other horse, boy of boy playing then they'd settle to the serious task of removing all the grass from the field.

I had to be quick though to get him in. If he was last turnout before feed time, he'd pace the fenceline, checking his watch and shouting, if we took too long to serve dinner, he'd take himself back, and jump the fence and bring himself into his stable - straight past the big stallion who didn't appreciate his space been invaded, then park himself with his ears pricked waiting to be served. (This was a 5ft 5 fenceline). Funny thing, the bugger spooks at a cross pole....

Comment by Kristina on September 17, 2008 at 12:35pm

My story is about an OTTB gelding, named Summit, that I bought a few years back. Summit was a four year old, 16.2hh, 1300 lb horse. When I was in Michigan I kept my horses on my Grandmother's property. The barn was old and the lofts were open to the elements. So, I kept my hay in a stall. I would buy around 100 bales at a time. I put down pallets and stacked the hay on top of the pallets about 7-8 bales high. When I fed the hay, I would take the hay from the front and work my way back in a stair step pattern. At the time of this story, the front row of hay was only one bale high, the next row 2-3 bales high and so on to the back row which was about 6 bales high. I would keep a pair of large blue scissors stabbed into a bale for easy access.

I had two geldings, one being Summit, that were not stalled and were able to go into the front part of the barn for shelter. This part of the barn was an aisle with four stalls on both sides. I kept my hay in one of those stalls. They would watch me climb on my stacks of hay every morning and night and bring out the flakes of hay and follow me to where I would deposit the hay in troughs. The door on the hay stall would only swing open wide enough to let me through, so I was never worried about the horses coming in the stall. So, on this particular day I went in to the hay stall like normal, with the stall door cracked open and was breaking a bale of hay. I was also cleaning up some loose hay. The next thing I know, Summit, is breathing down my neck attempting to “climb” up the hay stack behind me. I say attempt, because he weighs almost 10 times as much as me and needless to say, the hay would not hold up his weight. As he tried to climb the hay stack his legs would poke through the bales up to his body. I scramble as fast as I can up the hay stack, so I don't get crushed. On my way up, I grab the scissors so Summit doesn't impale himself. I hear pallets breaking underneath as Summit's front end made it to the third row where the bales were 3-4 bales high. His rear end was in the first and second row, where the bales were 1-2 bales high. And that is where he stopped.

At this point, I am crouching at the highest point, looking down at Summit. My heart is racing a mile a minute, my hands are shaking and the only thing I can imagine is that Summit tore tendons on the bailing twine or will tear tendons once he panics realizing he is stuck. I am imagining the phone call I will be placing to my vet in the next couple of minutes. I am also imagining how it will take a crane to get him out. Mind you all these thoughts went through my head in the matter of seconds. At that point, Summit tried to move his legs and realized he was stuck. I was getting ready for the explosion in which I would need to leap over the stall wall into the next stall so that I don't get hurt under a panicked horse. Much to my surprise, Summit assessed the situation realized he was stuck in a pile of hay, probably figured life can't get much better than this, and layed down. He really didn't have very far to go, since is body was resting on the hay, but I did see his butt roll sideways and his legs relax. At that point he started to eat.

So, now I am trying to contain a laugh as I watch my horse stuffing his face at the all you can eat buffet. I know I am not out of the woods yet though, because he will eventually want to leave. So, I grab my scissors and scurry down carefully to where Summit is laying and snip all the bailing twine I can find. I go back up the pile and try to figure out how I am going to convince him to leave in an orderly fashion. Before I can come up with a plan, Summit stands back up and bulldozes his way backwards. In my mind, I could hear the back up beeper as if he was a lumbering Semi backing his way out of parking spot. He extricated himself out of the stall, gave a good shake and looked at me as if to say, ok now feed me. I run my hands down his tendons and he didn't have a scratch. I attribute his lack of injuries to his goofy personality and level head. He was a very easy horse to retrain, especially for being an OTTB. Unfortunately two years later, he colicked, had surgery, but did not recover and passed on. I don't think I will every forget this horse, because of his personality that busted at the seams.

Comment by spidershephard on September 17, 2008 at 11:22am

Hi,
I have read some of the stories on this wall and I they are brilliant, my story is not exciting but more of hope.

My horse Fight Your Corner was a group two winner and a group one runner. He ran in the Vodaphone derby here in the UK and was a hot favorite to win. Unfortunately he broke a leg when running and spent a long time recouping from this. he was then sold to Godolphin where he ran again. He was trained for the staying races and flew out to Austrailia to run in the melborne cup. He was the favorite of the Godolphin horses to win but did a tendon while training. he was then sent back to Dubai where he won a large race, on his return to the UK he raced again at Sandown where he won. After this he started to tail off he was gelded and sent back into training as he was a contender. Unfortunately for him he always ended up injured before a big run so never felt sucess. He was sent off to a rehoming program where we met. i will never forget it was a cold febuary morning and he was on the horse walker and when he came off I knew he was coming home with me. He has taught me so much about myself as a rider and I definatly have a better seat that I thought. The reschool progess to make him an eventer started!!!

At our first show we went off to do dressage and it was a complete disatered it is hte only time I have ever got a STANDING OVATION from the judges because I completed the test and stayed on board. I has some only comments about how lovely he is and how well I sat!!! the most amazing thing is that a photo of us was published in a magazine of us!!

We then stated the ever eventfull training him jumping at first we all thought that this maybe not a good idea as we crashed through a number of fences but he started to get the hang of it and now we are flying around cross country.

2 weeks ago we completed our first ever One Day Event and he did me proud again almost unseated in the dressage but we finished 9th over all. Amyway sorry for the length of this but I am so proud of my little horse that was almost a star race horse who is now on his way to be a star eventer

here is the link to the photo of him from the first ever dressage outing that was published!!
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj156/annunziata1981/IMG_8745.jpg

Comment by lesley bruce on September 17, 2008 at 3:32am

I'm working out how to do this now, I can do one post and write to each individual on it ... sooo lets see if it works. .. here goes ...

KT.
Thank God for people like you, Paris and Al are very lucky horses. It does me good to hear stories like yours.
You won't be pregnant forever and they will be waiting for you.

Weezy Lamb, I wait with bated breath to hear the exploits of Porridge, just tell us the tales and don't worry about the words.


Heather.
Andy with his striking white blaze is Lovely and your tale of awakening marvelous, I've recently lost two special horses and my dog and feel very dull .. you give me hope ... thank you. -

On his special spooky days perhaps Andy has had a bad dream the night before and thought hes was back at the old place, without you, you never know? seems he's got it all sussed though. And he has his butterfly to help him.

Thanks
Cheers

(¯`*•.¸(¯`*•.¸Lesley¸.•*´¯)¸.•*´¯)

Comment by lesley bruce on September 17, 2008 at 3:18am

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for all your stories, just want o say that andif I haven't replied to anyone I will, but have to go and do some work now - Gasp!!

also I'm a bit of an old git and sometimes get lost on the site lol
cheers

(¯`*•.¸(¯`*•.¸Lesley¸.•*´¯)¸.•*´¯)

Comment by lesley bruce on September 17, 2008 at 3:15am

Sue
My heart goes out to you and Delilah, thank you so much for telling us about her she was truely, truely wonderful it just doesn't seem fair.. There are no words that can say how you feel.

In the last 18 months I have said goodbye to 3 old friends, my Stallion Luther he was 27, My Dressage star Tucker, he was 24 and my little dog Katie. It's raw, it knocks you for six,

I know there is another place where the spirit horses live and they are ok. but it's hard that they are not in the barn.

Take Care
Cheers

(¯`*•.¸(¯`*•.¸Lesley¸.•*´¯)¸.•*´¯)

Comment by lesley bruce on September 17, 2008 at 2:47am

Linda,

What a handsome gent your Salad is, very dishy. and 10 out of 10 for manners. Love your stories and know you have loads more to say about him.

Stallions are special, I know, I was with my treasured Luther for 27 years, you could touch the friendship it was so strong.

Thanks
Cheers
(¯`*•.¸(¯`*•.¸Lesley¸.•*´¯)¸.•*´¯)

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