4 yrs ago we bred our stud horse to the mare I rode at the time. The baby ultimatly was for my daughter. We have never raised one from the womb, we have always sold them as babies. But this one was for Jenny to raise.
The filly, Dot, (she has a perfectly round white spot on her head) is 3 now. Jenny and I took her out today for her first trail ride. She went like a champ. Was not spooky or scary of anything, walked out real nice, didn't stumble and trip even though she is barefoot. Really did good.
UNTIL...:) we got to a muddy water hole. She did not want to go thru it and there were to many low branches on either side for a rider to get under. We tried everything. Finally, we both got off our horses, I took one rein, Jenny took the other we both got switches to peck at her hindquarters. Well she locked up at the edge, till she suddenly reared up and jumped towards Jenny's side which of course drug me thru the pubble. I came home covered in mud, down inside my boots, but once I was in the puddle she was getting in too:), She did, not as much as I had too though, but she did do it finally.
We really think this horse has a great mind, she never acted scared, she just didn't want to get in and that is something that will be easy to work out. In fact we are going to next Wed. when Jen is off work for a whole day, in case it takes awhile.
But besides that she is doing great, and we are real pround of our first attempt at raising, and breaking one.
We got to see her birth, and did imprint training before she even stood up. She has a great personality. Anyway just want to tell:)
We are going to breed her momma again this spring, that is if I can get Mack to come out and help. And no:) they can't do it by themselves. We have always halter bred so to keep the stud from getting kicked, or the mare bit. We don't bred the stud often so it's been 2 yrs since he bred one, he may be a bit aggressive.
Becky
What does that mean?
SD
Understandably so! ;o)
Thanks for sharing. I enjoy your horse stories!
When I was 15, I helped skid logs for a sawmill, that used horses. We had a beautiful team of sorrels, that worked great together, and the boss decided to add a second team, but couldn’t find a team that was used to working together.
They settled for one nice sorrel mare, and a smaller gray horse they named “Glue” for apparent reasons. When the sled was loaded, I tried to start them together, but when the mare would tighten, and lean into the harness, the “glue” would be pulled backwards and end up setting down on his own single tree.
Regardless of what we did, he’d refuse to lean into the harness. The owner got so frustrated he unhooked the mare from the team, took a piece of fencing wire, wrapped one end around Glue's tail, and wrapped the other end around the chain saw spark plug, gave the starting rope a hard pull, and Glue galloped from the woods all the way to the skidway, with out one stop, pulling a full load of logs by himself, a distance that we normally would have given them two rest breaks.
Today that would be considered cruel and unusual, but back then, those who worked teams, believed the teamster should never let a horse get it’s own way, or do what it wanted to do, even if it was right.
If a horse stopped exactly where you wanted it to stop with out the teamster doing the stopping, he’d make it start again, and go another 5 feet, and then he’d pull the reins back and tell it to stop.
The Old Story Teller, JH :-)
That would be construed as cruel and inhumane treatment for the mare.
And besides, they would have one ugly baby!
Ya think? :-)