Success!!

Horray! We did it! Gobie has been successfully loaded in a trailer and delivered to his new home.

It was a group effort. I am so grateful for the awesome help that we had: Michelle, Melanie, Berry, Bonnie, Jason, Patty and Sam. It was truly a team effort. Gobie was being a very good boy without a bite or a kick, just some nervousness. He got to eating grain off the floor, but it took Michelle and Barry pushing on his butt to get him to actually stumble in to the trailer. Once he was in there he was quiet and well behaved.

This trailer's not a-rockin! On our way home...

The drive was pretty quick. The weather managed to hold off on the rain until we actually got to Bonnie where it just sprinkled a little bit. Gobie unloaded like a champ and was good about being lead into one of the pastures. He's in his own big area which shares a fence line with another pasture where the rest of the horses are. His first meeting went great!

Oh hey.

There are four other horses at Bonnie's. Honey (Bonnie's palomino), Cinder (a big white horse with a crippled leg), Bo (a plucky Arab gelding), and Kahlua (a brown 30-something mare). There was a little bit of squealing between Gobie and Bo (as the two bachelors) but their first meeting was pretty mellow.

Okay, I'll see ya later.

Bonnie put out some hay for Gobie in case he wanted it. He ate a little bit, but since he'd had some grain and was grazing all morning he wasn't super interested.

I guess I'll have a few bites.

Bonnie let out her corgis and Sam and I had a good chat with her about logistical stuff. There's a tack area where I could put my stuff, an area for feed and things if I wanted, and smaller pasture areas where I could work Gobie when I need.


Bonnie's Corgis, Furby and Belle, have great manners around the horses. Gobie checked them out, but then went along minding his own business.

Let's all eat grass!

Gobie didn't check out his entire paddock, but he see where the water trough was and checked out the tree.

What IS this crazy thing?

I was glad to see he didn't seem frantic or nervous about anything. He wasn't squealing for his friends, or pacing the fence line or anything. He was curious about the other horses, but not nutty about it.

And he came over to the fence to say hi to us several times. And of course to get a treat or two.

This is Sam's "I have a horse!" look.

And from over the fence Gobie seemed to be making good friends with Bonnie's horse, Honey. She almost started grooming Gobie's back, before Bo got a little bossy about it.

BFFs?

It started to rain a little bit, so we made everything was good and cozy and then went on our way home. Of course, now I can't wait to go back :)

So the Good News Is...

So the good part about the visit today was actually ADOPTING Gobie, although the getting him in to a trailer and taking him home part didn't work out so well.

His adoption fee was a little bit cheaper than I first thought it was going to be. And the contract was pretty straight forward. I'm actually a co-owner of Gobie with HorseNet Horse Rescue. That means he goes back to the rescue instead of being sold/traded/etc. The contract also says:

Adopter is aware of the following: Gobie came to HorseNet in 2004 from a horrible cruelty case in Washington County. It took him a long time to trust people, and will continue to need reassurance. He is a super smart boy and should be a fun project. Gobie requires training both on the ground and under saddle.

The adoption packet also includes his negative coggins test. And lists his markings as star, stripe, snip, right front pastern, left front fetlock, left hind coronet.


My favorite thing in the packet is his History, though. It has two pictures of him as a little dude looking pretty steely gray. It lists his information as:


Breed: PONY
Sex: GELD
DOB: 2001
DOR: 2004
Weight: 715
Height: 14
Training: UNTRAINED

As well as his last worming, farrier, nutrition, housing, vaccinations, and so on.

Even though it was pretty discouraging not being able to get him loaded into the trailer, I didn't get a bad feeling from it. Even when he was being naughty about it, I didn't feel intimidated or threatened by him. And even though he may turn out to be more work that I first thought (and way more work than I really should be getting in to) I think he will absolutely be a good "student" as far as training goes. If only we can get him home... ;d

So the Bad News Is...

Gobie would not get in the trailer!

Today was the day I was going to adopt him and bring him "home" to Bonnie's farm. But, Gobie had other ideas. Namely, there was no way he was getting in that deep, dark, creaking cave that he was pretty sure had a horse-eating monster in it.

I can't really blame him though. For some reason I thought to myself, "Well, I can start training him when we get him to the new place." But really, I should have been training him (instead of just bonding with him) for the last couple of months. I don't think that I figured he would just HOP into the trailer. But I sort of did think that after a few tries he would get in. Not so much.

To his credit, he's a 9 year old horse that has probably SEEN a trailer all but a handful of times in his life, and has probably only been INSIDE a trailer ONCE. And it probably wasn't the best experience of his life.

To my credit, I thought he was little more trained and trusting than he is, at least when it comes to stressful situations. The six year old girl in me was pretty sure that if he loved me out in the field he would trust me when I asked him to get a trailer. But the trainer in me knows that was a pretty silly assumption.

He really did TRY though, and I'm thankful for that. He was literally shaking from fear, but he came so close to going in a couple times. And he really didn't try to fight so much as run away and even that was halfhearted.

When we first arrived he was flirting with Magic. I think she must have been in heat or something because he was raising his upper lip and sniffing around her girly bits. And she was acting rather inviting. Lucky for everyone, Gobie is gelded.

Getting him to come in from the field wasn't too bad. He was definitely a bit stubborn, but he eventually came through the gate to where the trailer was parked. Part of the experience definitely confirmed my sneaking suspicion that he's not totally halter broke--or at least he doesn't have great manners probably because he was never told he needed them.

Anyway, we had a bucket of grain for some encouragement and he liked that. Part of me wondered, though, if it didn't get him a little too excited. It took some doing to get him close to the trailer at all. But every little noise--every creak and groan from the metal--would send him backing up again. It didn't help that semis would be barreling down the road, or that dogs would be barking their heads off. He would try running to the left or the right, and if he made a lot of ground we'd have to walk him around in a circle to gain it back. At one point they were trying to use brooms and a rope around his neck to get him to go in. But the broom seemed to wig him out more than motivate him to move forward. And using two ropes was kind of unmanageable. We got pretty close to getting him to load twice, but alas...

Some broken nails and a bruised finger later, we decided to give it a rest. Probably a good thing, too, because it started pouring rain on my drive home.

So we'll try again tomorrow! They're talking about sedating him (yikes) and setting up some panels to kind of "chute" him in. We may try putting him in with another horse. Part of me wants to take it really slow and just get him use to being around the trailer, and then get him eating out of it, and then getting him finally jumping in to it. But I think everyone else has more expedient modes in mind.

I guess we'll see...

Congrats it's a...

My in-laws sent us a card in the email today:

(oh dear..)

and here's the inside:

lolz!1

They are so cute! Plus, I like that it's from the cat also.

Big News!

Adoption Pending!
...to me!

Herding... horses.

Today at HorseNet Horse Rescue's New Windsor barn we had to move the gelding herd to the pasture across the street. When it starts getting warm and nice out the geldings go to this other pasture so they have room to run, and grass to eat. It also gives their winter pasture time to recover and grow more grass.

As you might imagine, moving a whole herd of horses is a little tricky. Horses can get pretty anxious about new things, especially when it involves members of their herd going places.

We moved the herd in groups. There were four of us volunteers who were trusted with leading the horses so we could move only four horses at a time. Fortunately all them were pretty well behaved!

Leading the last group up the driveway.

The volunteer coordinator was a little nervous that Gobie would be naughty, but he was a good boy. At first he didn't want to be lead out of his paddock, but we got him moving without too much trouble. He got a little excited once we actually got across the street and saw his pals waiting for him on 20 lovely acres of grass.

Looking pretty tiny out there, Gobie.

It was a productive day. By the end of it the horses and the volunteers were happy.

Guess what? Ponies.

I've been laying off the ponies for a little while, but I finally made it back out to the barn this weekend. It's been a combination of being busy, and being bummed out. On the one hand I enjoy being around the horses, but on the other it brings up all these conflicting emotions about keeping a horse of my own.

Today the horses were very much interested in soaking up and snoozing in the sun.

Seriously, Gobie. Could you BE any cuter?

Everyone was enjoying their hay as well.





Our main chores were spreading out the hay so everyone could get to a heap without fighting about it, and checking water troughs. Part of the work involved going in where the goats stay. They were feeling pretty cheeky, and I had fun messing with them and deflecting their headbutts.

nerd.

The rest of the gang was working on the fencing to the pasture across the street. They're going to move the geldings over there next weekend. I'm not really looking forward to that.

The Best Pony Evar

Photos by Jason Putsche.
More here.

EP and Jason accompanied me to the horse barn last weekend to take some photos of the barn cats for work. They also took some pictures of the ponies, and got to meet Gobie.
When we headed out into the pasture to greet Gobie he recognized me instantly and started walking toward us. It was a veritable love-fest with lots of petting and nosing and such. I had brought my curry comb along with me, so besides the usual petting I took the time to brush him down a little. Some of the other horses came over to say hi, and they were all pretty polite for the most part...
Except one black mare. She came over with her ears pinned and looking cranky. I tried shooing her off, but I wasn't very convincing. Gobie too care of us, though. He protected us quite readily by turning his butt to Magic and pinning his ears back. She moseyed off and we were saved. Gobie is a hero, pretty much.
EP and Jason agreed he was a pretty great pony. We showed the photos to the other volunteers and they loved them, of course. <3

My own pony! (sort of)

I'm sponsoring Gobie, one of the horses at HorseNet Horse Rescue, and today I got his sponsorship packet in the mail!



It was really well put together with a letter from the Executive Director, my donations to date, some information on the organization, a business card, and a photo of Gobie including his story:

"Gobie is a super cute 9yr brown/grey pony gelding.

He came to HorseNet from a horrible abuse case in WV. Gobie arrived with the rest of his herd of horses, they were malnourished, infected with parasites, and all had painfully over grown hooves. They had not been receiving proper care from their former owner for many months and their temperament and body condition showed it. They were basically wild horses. Gobie was one of the ones who turned around quickly. After much needed care and attention his health and behavior was complete different. He became a wonderful, loving boy.

Gobie is also a very comical boy, who is very willing to please and tease. He loves treats and a good scratch. He is enjoying his life in his herd of horses. This little man will make a great project for someone who can put the time and patience into training him.

Gobie has been with HorseNet since 2004 and is patiently awaiting his very own life long loving home."

I was sad to hear that he was part of an abuse case, but I was glad he made it to HorseNet. The description is totally fitting. And I was surprised to read that he's been at the rescue since 2004. That seems like forever!

At any rate, it was great hearing more about the pony I've been pining over for the last several months.

I (heart) Gobie

There is one horse at HorseNet Horse Rescue that I'm particularly fond of. His name is Gobie and he's listed as a grade buckskin pony. A grade horse is basically the equivalent to a mutt dog -- their parentage is unknown and unidentifiable. Buckskin is a pretty "western" style horse color (as opposed to "english" -- the two dominant riding styles) but I'm pretty sure Gobie is actually Grullo (or grey dun) which is even MORE western and even more obscure. These things, coupled with the fact that he's a technically untrained, 9 year old pony, means that he's been with the rescue for a while.

I love love him to bits. He's got that mellow, but slightly mischievous disposition that I love in a horse. All the things that work against him in Maryland's horse culture makes me love him more. Plus, I think he's absolutely adorable.

I give you a celebration of Gobie:























That last picture is of Sam helping me groom Gobie. He doesn't know it yet, but we're going to have this pony if I have anything to say about it. :)