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Rescue Horses
I volunteer several days a week during the school year with a local horse rescue. The rescue currently has close to 2 dozen horses. They are all my favorites, but here’s a bit more info about a few that appear semi-regularly on the blog. Ocassionally we ride (photos), but a lot of the horses are not yet trained to ride, so I work on ground work and pre-riding exercises.
PadenPaden’s a handsome 5-year-old paint gelding. He’s broke to ride, but still needs a lot of work before he’ll be a reliable riding horse. I’m currently doing some ground work with him, once or twice a week. He sometimes tenses up, so we’ve been working on head lowering and some stretches to help him relax (see a short video of Paden here.
RosieRosie is a smart, gregarious, 2-year-old, red roan quarter horse mare. She has beautiful conformation and probably has great breeding, even though the rescue does not have papers for her. She doesn’t have a whole lot of training, so we’ve been doing basic ground exercises. I’ve been doing quite a bit of training with her, you can watch her practicing some figure-eights here.
LunaLuna is a sassy little black pony mare. She’s still doesn’t completely trust people, but is extremely food oriented. We’ve been working on her letting me touch various parts of her body and standing still to be groomed.
SebastianSebastian, who is probably at least a half sibling to Rosie, is curious and interested in people, although still sometimes a bit shy. Now though, he’ll pace up and down the fence line, watching me, begging to come out and play. A huge change for a horse who wanted nothing to do with me last spring! You can read more about Sebastian’s progress here.
ShilohShiloh and I have just recently started playing. He spent 90 days with a Parelli trainer around the beginning of the year and is doing great so far. He’s sensitive and willing both on the ground and under saddle. See more pictures of Shiloh and I playing and riding on this post. He’s still pretty green under saddle, but he’s a fast learner and will make someone an awesome horse!
GracieGracie is an untouchable, extremely skittish mare who probably has an pretty troubled past. I spend a lot of time talking to her, sitting in the pasture with her and feeding her treats (when she’s in the mood to take them). We’re making progress, as just in the first few months she’s gone from a horse who wanted absolutely nothing to do with people to a horse who is interested in people, willing to approach people and willing to take treats (even if she is still terrified of being touched).
Three Young ColtsSuede, Moody and Tilde were all born this past summer and rescued at the end of the summer with a large group of horses from Iowa. They’re working on the basics, grooming and standing to be scratched. We’ve also begun getting them use to halters and leading. See more baby pictures here.
The Senior Citizens
A handful of the horses are permanent residents, including about half a dozen old timers, such as 27-year-old Shadow. Even though some of these old guys are still rideable, they’re mainly pasture pets now. Some of them have been rescued from neglect and bad situations and they now get to live out their life in peace.
Everyone Else
There are quite a few others and they’ll all probably appear from time to time. Here’s some recent pictures of some of them, including one of the adorable burros who lives at the rescue.
