long battle

It has been an excruciatingly long battle to get George to not look like a poster child for neglected and abused animals. But I am happy to say that his ribs are almost non existent. I struggled for months and months with him but I think I figured it out. He was treated for ulcers, and he gets about 100 pounds of beet pulp twice a day, 75 pounds of Safechoice once a day, and then 64 ounces of cool calories 100. Totally kidding about those measurements, but it certainly feels like that's how much I give him.
So now that he has put on weight, it's time to put on muscle. I think when he muscles up a bit he will look great. I still am taken back sometimes at how pretty he really is. I always thought Piney was cute and probably the most adorable horse I'd ever seen in my life. But George is super elegant and classy looking. EVEN when he's covered in mud (98% of the time). I look at him and think "holy crap that is a fancy horse in my pasture!" I was going to give him a bath this weekend, but Saturday it rained all. day. long. And Sunday was super cold and our pasture was muddy so yeah that didn't happen. This week is supposed to be hot still, so I might try to bathe him after work one day. He loved baths so I am hoping that he still does. My hubby sprayed him with a hose and he loved that so I am guessing that bathing won't be a problem. But I will need nice pictures of him to enter in Niamh's awesome contest she has going on!!

This weekend we were invited to our vet's employee appreciation dinner because we are their best clients and they wanted to thank us for paying all of their salaries. Kidding! My husband was invited because of his work. It was a lot of fun despite the rain. It is always fun to visit with our vets on a more upbeat ocasion rather than the usual reasons we go in to see them. I also got to meet a few of the vets that I haven't really worked with and I must say they are a funny bunch of folks. They had a pig roast for the meal and I asked if it was a client of theirs. It was so weird seeing one of our vets cutting open the pig, it was like watching a strange, weird, bizzaro surgery.
In addition to socializing we got to meet a few of the host's goats. I want this one.... he is for sale.

missed it by that much...

Fancy pants George has had a more exciting life than I could ever hope to have. He's probably seen some pretty cool things and no doubt has been treated way better than most horses could dream of being treated. He's probably been treated better than most people could dream of being treated come to think of it. I love having the ties to his past. They are always happy to hear stories about him now, and love giving me insights to why he is the way he is. Or that his strange behavior isn't really something new...he's done it forever.
If you didn't already know, George is a multiple stakes winner. Which, isn't super impressive considering basically every racetrack has a stakes race. But he did compete in some big races with pretty big purses against some pretty big horses. Graded 1, 2, and 3 stakes races. Which for me is so cool. I've only seen that caliber of racing on TV. It doesn't even compare to the stakes races they had at the North Dakota Horse Park that I worked at a few racing seasons. I loved that track...but it was kind of a cow track. BUT I really hope they have more than ONE weekend of racing next season...One weekend...come on! That's almost not even worth going to.

But I love me some race replays. And I love that I was able to find some of George's bigger races on the YouTube. Here is that crabby sharkhorse that lives in my pasture, in the 2007 Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes race which was a Grade 1 stakes race. He was ridden by Corey Nakatani (who I've actually heard of). The purse for this race was $600,000. He finished in 4th, so he only won $30,000. I wish I came 4th in a race and walked away with that type of money...

 

 

And here he is again this time in the United Nations Stakes race, which was another Grade 1. Here he also came in 4th but this time won $42,500....pssshhht pocket change. The purse was $750,000... I can't even imagine...

 



 

Seeing him in these races, competing at this level of racing, kind of makes me realize...Hey, you know what, it's completely fine if we can't ever compete at a high level of equine competition. If we only make it to one dressage show and completely bomb an intro level test because he accidentally on purpose kills the judge, that is fine. I would be perfectly happy to just ride up and down the dirt road by our house for as long as he is able to carry me. He has run his races. He has been a warrior. He did what he was bred to do. Run fast, and win money. It is my job as his forever owner to take care of him for the rest of his life. We don't have the fanciest barn for him to live in. I don't have expensive tack. He isn't surrounded by million dollar horses. But I love him and I want to make sure that he is happy for the rest of his life. If he wants to be lame for the rest of his life (I really prefer he isn't) that is fine. If he wants to be a crackpot with a weirdo personality...that is great! The more like me the merrier! I am going to make sure he is as comfortable as I can make him until his very last breath. He is my horse and I plan to love him, and his quirks for the rest of our lives. He will have a special place in my heart. And I hope, that even though horses don't necessarily love the same as humans do that there is somewhere in his heart, he holds some sort of fondness for me... and not just because I feed him peppermints and bring him his dinner every night.



P.S I wish I had his racing saddle cloths with his name on them...how cool would that be to have?! I wonder what happened to them...

My little pony.

I realized that I don't often talk about our Shetland pony, Princess Rainbow Sparkles Dolly. I realized I don't talk about her much because he was a bit of a pill. If you wanted to interact with her you basically had to corner her, and then tackle her. She had a halter with a catch rope on it when we got her and I learned why. She just didn't like being caught. Once you did actually catch her she was great. Super easy to handle, groom, worm, vaccinate etc. But it was the catching part that just exhausted me.
For whatever reason, a reason that I'm not even sure of, she has become a little lover. Last night when I got home from work I heard her nickering to me when I got out of my car. So I went into her pen, and usually she will tense up and then bolt the other way. She came over to me, and then started nuzzling my hands. I walked across her pen, and she followed, I ran across her pen, and she trotted after me. I stopped, she stopped. She couldn't get enough of me. It was pretty cute.
The way she is acting, is exactly what I wanted in a pony. A sweet little creature that follows me around like a puppy. Instead of the nightmareish creature that we had a month ago. This is the kind of pony that you can catch and then put little humans on. One that will follow me around with out a halter and lead rope. Oh I just love that little critter.