Unexpected Delivery

I received a phone call from a friend of ours last Thursday. I couldn't believe what she was telling me on the phone. My friend's brother knew someone that had a horse they wanted to find a really good home for, free. She wanted to ask us a really big favor, could we go pick up the horse for them? We are the only ones they know with a horse trailer. My friend and her husband have been talking for years about getting a horse. He had grown up around horses a little bit. She had a horse as a young girl. They now have a 14 yr old son and a 10 yr old daughter. They have been to our house numerous times, and the kids loved going out to pet our horses.

So when I answered the phone, and she was telling me about this horse that these people were giving away, I was excited for her but also a little concerned. They had went to look at the horse the day before she called me. What she told me about the horse is this: the horse is a 3 yr old Tennessee Walker mare with Oklahoma Star breeding. She is very calm, gentle, very friendly. She has been ridden by the adults and kids, they did see the kids riding the horse. She had shoes, but threw a front shoe. She would come with halter, leadrope, bridle, and a saddle pad, but no saddle.

Ok, so here is where all my questions come in. I try to find out as much as I can. More about the temperament, training, how old exactly, more info on the breed, trailering issues, vaccinations, and all that good stuff. Yes, the horse has been vaccinated, she hadn't been trailered much and from what I could understand, they had a hard time getting her into a straight load trailer. She was very sweet, the owner's kids were crawling all over her and she didn't care. Ok, so I tell my friend, let me call my OH and see what he says. I call him up, tell him the situation. He says yes we could help them out. I knew we'd help them out, we were in a similiar situation with Fritzy 3 years ago, when we didn't have a trailer and had to call a friend up to help us. So we planned on meeting our friend at her house at 6:00 to pick her up, than we'd drive another 35 minutes south to get the horse.

We get to the peoples house. They live in a housing development, larger lots, but NOT a horsey area. Hmmmm......... ok, so we back the trailer into the driveway and get out. Our friend goes to get the owners while my OH and I are looking around for the horse. We see a dirt paddock with one strand of electric fence about 3 feet high. I am thinking of Lisa, from Laughing Orca Ranch at this point! What is up with the fencing? Still didn't see a horse. The owners come out. All of a sudden we hear a horse running full speed, right up to the short electric fence. She actually came running to see us! Ok, this is good, she loves humans! So I asked the guy "She's a TWH right?" he says "TW and Oklahoma Star". Ok, so I know Oklahoma Star is not a breed, it is a bloodline. But I didn't get into that with him. I asked him how long he has had the horse, he says a year. The horse, whose name is Grace, was a sweetheart. She stood at the fence and just let us love on her. I asked the guy how old she is. He says she won't be 3 yrs old until August 28th. My friend had said she had thrown one front shoe, but I noticed she had thrown both front shoes. Her feet were a little overgrown. My friend asked about his farrier. He said he used this woman and she did a really good job if he was there, but if she came out when no one was home, than she seemed to not do a very good job. Red flag. What? This guy lets a shoer come out to shoe his horse when he isn't there? There isn't even a place to tie the horse, which is unsafe anyways! Ok. So they were going to give my friend a couple halters, one she had on and you could tell that she wore it all the time from the rub marks on her face. He also gave her some electric fencing supplies, a bridle and a bareback pad. They didn't even own a saddle. Hmmmmm...........So my OH and our friend put the little bit of stuff they gave her in the tack room of my trailer. After about 25 minutes, the guy finally gets a leadrope and leads her out of the paddock. The first thing I notice is he lets Grace run all over him. Oh no. She wanted to eat grass, so he lets her do it. I knew at this point that even though she was really sweet, that this guy basically lets her do whatever she wants. So I already had both my trailer doors open, and all the windows open to make it as light and inviting as possible for her. He says she has been trailered around 10 times. He walks her up to my trailer. He gets in my trailer, Grace walks right up and stops. She sniffs the shavings, she sticks her head into my muck bucket that I keep in the back on my trailer. I had to pull that out, because she kept tipping it over. He never once asked her to get into the trailer. He asked his wife to go get carrots. So the guy has a huge carrot and is kneeling in my trailer trying to get the horse inside with the carrot. Still not asking her to get in. He never once pulled on the leadrope. My OH and I give each other the "look". He asked his wife to pick up Grace's front leg and put it into the trailer. She was wearing flip flops. I had to contain myself from laughing. The first thing I thought of was the Clinton Anderson clinic I went too awhile back. When he did his trailer loading demo, and he showed us how most people try to get their horses into a trailer. If you want to see something very funny, go to this post I did on the Clinton Anderson trailer loading demo, where I put the pictures of him making fun of people and how they try to load their horses by trying to pick up their feet. Yes, this is what I saw. Ya gotta be kiddin' me! The wife picked up one of Grace's legs and sets it into the trailer. The guy still has a carrot in front of her face. Grace has her neck all stretched out. I do want to say that she was not showing any signs of being fearful of my trailer. She just did not know what she was supposed to do and her owners were not helping the situation. So after about 15 minutes of this, I finally say, "You know, I have boots on, let me get in the trailer". So I jump in. The guy gets out. I put pressure on the lead, she stepped forward, I praised her. The guy picks up a leg and puts it in the trailer. I didn't feel like I should tell him what to do, but apparently he doesn't know horses. I mean, I'm not a professional trainer, but I do train my horses and I know what horses respond too. So I continue to put pressure on the lead. Too much pressure and she felt restrained and backed up. I didn't want her to go up. My OH asked if he should get another rope. I said yes. So he goes and gets a rope. Now I don't like doing this, but this horse wasn't scared. She just didn't know what was being asked of her. My OH and the guy put a rope behind her butt, I put pressure on the lead, and viola! She is in the trailer. I make her stand calmly, praise her, pet her, get the trailer tie on her, get the divider shut. She starts to paw, uh oh, another Fritzy! We would have been there all night if we didn't step in. I was trying to play it safe by not loading the horse, I don't know the horse, this guy wanted to do it, ok. But seriously! Grace is not a dog! He totally treated her like she was his puppy. Here is Grace, in the trailer, finally!



I put her in the middle stall, I really don't think she had been in a trailer 10 times, so I didn't feel comfortable putting her on the wall. Ever since Fritzy had issues on the wall, I am a lot more careful about that. She looks so small in my trailer! She is around 14.3 hh though. The guy did say her dad was over 17 hh. Who knows if that was true. I did shut the drop down window, I know some horses see it as a possible escape route. I didn't want her to freak out and think she could try to jump out the window, even though there are bars there, doesn't matter.



We drive another 35 minutes to get back to our friends house. The pictures I got aren't that good. It was around 8:00 at night, and in all the excitement, I forgot to turn my flash on. Here she is a little while after we got back to our friends. She wasn't very nervous at all. When I went into the trailer to get her out, she stood perfectly still for me to unsnap the trailer tie, and I made her whoa and stand before I turned her around and we very calmly walked out of the trailer. She did that better than my horses! I didn't want to back her out, not knowing her trailering history, and dealing with a horse I didn't know. I noticed she kept trying to run over me in the driveway, so I went and did a training lesson with her. I did tell our friends that they need to stop that asap. They need to show her who is boss, and get her to back off. I showed them how to do that.



There is only one thing I am not sure of. What color is she? She is not bay. I wish my pictures turned out better. Her mane has black and brown in it, she seems dappled. She does have black legs. I was thinking some kind of dun color? I am not good with the dun, buckskin colors.



She seems a little underweight, but it could also be her age. If she isn't even 3 yet, than she has some time to fill out.



This picture makes her neck look like a pencil. It isn't that bad. She wasn't holding still for my OH, so it was really hard to get a picture. I will have to go over there another day to get some better pictures.



Overall I think she is a very nice horse. She has picked up some bad habits from her old owner, that need to be handled. I have offered my services to my friend to come put some rides on Grace and give lessons, if they want. I have already been emailing her a lot in the last couple days, giving them advice. I hope Grace works out for them. Her attitude and level head, makes it look like she will work out to be a good horse. I hope so. I am sure I will keep you updated on her, and hopefully I can get some better pictures of her color.