Arwen Update

Arwen is my foster horse with Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society.

I finally got a good read on her tattoo confirmed with my vet, and found Arwen to be: D35990, Lady Carlina, a 2000 TB mare, who had 17 starts, raced as a 2 and 3 year old, and won over $67,000. (Her tattoo did not show the "D", but the numbers were clear, and based upon her age and markings sent in to the Jockey Club and they confirmed her ID). Oh, and she is only 14.2, instead of the 15.2 that is on her webpage.



Arwen is nearly up to weight - just a shadow of ribs showing occasionally. Her back has filled in nicely, and I expect her rump will muscle up a bit more, too, over the next couple of months. I decided to play with her a bit this morning.

She has been soooo good in the cross ties, and stands very well, even for Sammie (my 3yo) who likes to help groom. I got out the saddle just to see, let her sniff it, and then put it on her back - she seemed familiar with it, but was curious/anxious to find out what I was going to do with it. No trouble putting the girth on and tightening it (loosely). I went ahead and got out a bridle with a plain snaffle just to see. She knew what it was, knew to open her mouth, but simply didn't like the bit at all. Her tongue was constantly moving the bit around, playing with it rather firmly, even after properly adjusting it, she was still moving her tongue over and under the bit, constantly mouthing it. I will try a different kind of bit next time - maybe one that has 3 pieces to it instead of the two, so that it might be more comfortable in her mouth. But today, I took the bridle off, and put the halter back on to go out to the ring and play a bit with the longe line.

Arwen was very anxious - no doubt due to her race training. The normally peaceful, calm mare on the ground lifted her head up and was very excited to be going to the ring. I started to play some friendly game with her, but she needed to move her feet, so I let her move out on the lunge line. She did a nice trot (to the left of course), and excitedly took off into the canter a few times, came back to the trot, and I kept her at the trot for a few minutes until she calmed down and halted on her own. My cues no longer held any persuasion with her (and I certainly didn't want her to be too excited about the whip) so I instead brought her in and rubbed her forehead, and started working with her to the right. Any racehorse will look at you like you're crazy going to the right. :) She didn't understand, and we just walked to the right, eventually making a small circle instead of just following me (even though I had my arm out to hold her head as far away from me as I could). We went back to the left, and it seemed as though the longing she had done at the beginning was more of a fluke than actual understanding of cues, and after a circle to the left again at the walk, we quit with lots of pats and treats back in the barn. Oh, that is, after I took her to the mounting block and stood up on it. She knew what I was doing and looked at me like "you can't be serious" but stood still while I rubbed her neck and shoulders, but did not even attempt to mount, of course.

So... her behaviour today suggests that she definitely was race trained (and fits what her Tattoo says she is). My goal is to make her feel relaxed in the ring and with the saddle on, but now that I know where we stand I can take smaller steps and just go slow to get everything right.

Does anyone out there have any experience retraining TB's and have any hints/suggestions? My first horse was a 3yo TB mare, but she was unraced. She definitely had been ridden, just never raced, so didn't have the speed issue that I suspect Arwen will have at the beginning. I'm sure there is plenty of info on the net about it, but just looking for some firsthand experience for a horse that definitely spent some time on the track.

New Horses - "Arwen" and the gelding

I wanted to give everyone an update on these two since we've all been worried about this group. Compared to the rest, I have the two "fatties" so to speak - if you can call them that. Neither was as bad as those that Nan, Carolee, and Sarah have been caring for, but they are both plenty ribby still.

Everyone has calmed down around here and no longer panics during turnout/feeding time, and the fence that keeps the two new ones in the paddock is getting torn up a bit, so I figured yesterday was a good time to let them out into the main field for a few hours to begin eating grass a few hours a day (there is some in the ring, but not a lot at all). (I would not do that with the thinner ones yet, but these two seem to be fine so far). So I let them out for about two hours yesterday.

Here is a link to Arwen's Webpage

Arwen was so excited to be out in the pasture with the grass and galloped around with her tail up. She also strutted her stuff at the trot and I have some great pics of her movement - she is a gorgeous mover!



The gelding trotted a few times, but basically just walked casually around. He did not feel the need to get involved in the excitement at all - which really only lasted a few minutes before everyone was back to grazing. The gelding seemed a bit of a "loner" and I had to always go find him because he was away from the herd - not in distress, not upset at all, just calmly not paying them any attention.

I got the barn ready for dinner, called them all up to the barn, and my herd came up fine - that is, everyone but Penny and the new guys. She was glued to Arwen's side and saw no reason to convince her to come eat. I looked around and found the gelding just standing, relaxing, and brought him in first. Penny & Arwen saw that I had put him in but did not budge from their grazing spot. They made me walk almost halfway across the property to get them! But once I got there, both girls were happy for me to put a halter on, and I walked them in together.

The new guys went back in the paddock for the night since they need their hay, and then I kept them in a few hours this morning to eat more hay before I turned them out in the field again. Arwen was excited to be out and about and she and Penny buddied up immediately again. The gelding found a nice spot on the other side of the ring to just chill - he did not follow the herd around, just needed a nice snooze. But I kept checking on him - and more than an hour later, he was still in the same general spot, just standing there. My grass is short right now, and I remembered hearing his teeth sounding weird once, and realized that maybe this poor old guy had trouble biting the grass off - he has all his incisors - I've looked, but maybe they don't meet quite right or he has something bothering him. He has not been quidding or anything, so I hadn't yet realized there might be an issue. So I put some hay in the ring/paddock, and put him in there until dinner (will get the mare in a bit). Within a few minutes, he had rolled and started eating the hay. I have put the hay in a giant manure-type bucket for them so it doesn't get mixed up with the sand there - a neat trick I learned from the trainer working with some of our fosters!

I also worked with both horses this morning with the help of my 3yo daughter, Samantha. She always comes with me to the barn! We started with the gelding and he stood quietly on the crossties and let both of us groom him together, but tossed his head about - maybe just to hear the crossties jingle, I wasn't sure. :) If I was riding him, I'd want to check his teeth. Sammie was so cute, she said, "Look, he has a cutie mark!" (Cutie marks are what the My Little Ponies have on their butts) :) I explained that it was actually a number 10, but it was still adorable. She also commented on Arwen's "cutie mark" and that it was a number 9. But what blew me away this morning was how good Arwen was. She stood quietly on the crossties and let me groom her - I am always anxious about Sammie grooming a new horse - especially TB's since I have one that has trouble standing still. But since Arwen seemed calm and was standing quiety, I let Sammie come up - she loves to pet the horses on their foreheads, as she has watched me do so many times. And Arwen saw her, and slowly lowered her nose all the way to the ground so that Sammie could pet her forehead, and kept it there quietly while Sammie rubbed, and Arwen even closed her eyes in relaxation.



Sammie also groomed her a little, and Arwen gently turned her nose to look at her - in a very gentle manner, not at all worried. It just touched my heart how gentle she was being with my daughter - and how thankful she must be to be here.



While grooming, I noticed her tail was not yet grown all the way down - like she might be younger than 15, and after looking at her teeth, I am certain she is less than 10, maybe as young as 5 - I'll mess with that again later after I check my charts. I also found that she has a tattoo in her lip - so I'll also have to give that a look to see if we can actually identify her and her breeding, etc.

I've always loved horses, but every once in a while, one of them really touches my heart with something that they do, and Arwen's gentleness did that for me today. And yes, I named her after the beautiful, dark-maned, gentle elf princess in Lord of the Rings. :)

Hugs to all of you and your horses,
Elizabeth

My Box of Chocolates for the day...

Well, you never know what you're going to get when you volunteer for a horse rescue. :) Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society was awarded 7 horses yesterday from a neglectful owner, and I volunteered to help organize travel arrangements for them to their new foster homes since I live close to the area they were seized. Today was a Wednesday, and we needed to have all the horses moved by Sunday. I went today with the intention of picking up 2 horses - my future foster horse, and another for a member that lives locally.

Upon arrival, I found 7 poor souls - 5 of which that were absolutely emaciated (a Body Condition score of 1 on a scale from 1-9) The other two were slightly better in the BC 2 category. (We had been told that 2-3 were really bad, but upon arrival, it was clear that 5 of them were awful, and the other two were headed that way). I looked around and noticed that none of the group had access to any kind of shelter - they had a few run ins in other pens, but I asked and they were not available. Although I'm sure that the horses were fed at some point by animal control, there was no sign anywhere of any kind of hay.

Our weather has predicted the next 3-4 days will be cold (in the 40's) and rainy - which would make any horse without shelter chilled and shivering. These horses had absolutely no body fat on them, and no hay in front of them to create any kind of warmth. I recalled the two emergency calls I handled for the rescue over the last year (I am third on a list and rarely ever get calls). One of them was for a young horse that was very thin, and got too cold and then laid down, went into shock, and never got back up). I was not about to let that happen to these poor souls - if I left them there for just a few cold rainy days, my guess is that 3-5 of them would not have survived.

So, I made a few calls, and between myself and the other member that I was originally taking one horse, I figured I could take one extra, and the other member had room for the other four! So I loaded up all 7 in my 24' stock trailer and off I went. I have occasionally grumbled about the size of my trailer when I use it so rarely and usually for just one or two horses, but today I'd never been so happy to have it!

Here are some photos of the horses:



A 13yo bay mare - bottom of the pecking order it seemed.



A 9yo bay mare - whose baby was taken from her this morning. Her baby was awarded to someone other than the defendant that claimed to own it.



A 5yo bay mare



A 2yo filly



A 5yo bay gelding.



20yo sorrel gelding I'm holding for a local member



My new foster horse - a 15yo bay mare - and you tell me if that belly looks suspicious to you... oh, geepers. We'll have a vet out to check for sure, and depending on the results and how good I get at my feminine wiles with my husband... we'll see if she gets to stay. I have foaling experience, but I really do have a limit here on the number of horses we have. We'll see what happens. I'll be sure to keep you updated!

It really upsets me when people do this to innocent animals... I have lots of thoughts about that. But right now, I am focused on the fact that they are all safe, warm, dry, and fed. I am so glad that I was able to make arrangements for all of them to stay dry while they wait for their new foster homes. Yay!