July 15-20, 2014

Things that make you say: “Hmmmm”

And this, folks, is why I do have to roll my eyes when we get reminded it is all about “education.” Please accept the fact that too many cannot be educated, and that we have to make the right calls and do the right thing in spite of that daily.

Another of Grace! What progress!

Sawyer

Wynn at the open house

Alice looks stunning! She is adopted, and this was at the Open House with a lesson rider from Sunday Stables showing her off — with Stephanie Davis.

Oh, folks. What a video I have coming

Check out Ferris in his adoptive home and his after shot! — with Stephanie Treadwell.

We just saved this little girl – this is the condition she was living in – tied out and in an awful area. Sonora will be taking her to her place to start her rehab.

In order to get her safe, we paid $200 just to purchase her.

Anyone with horse sense knows how hard to have to try to get a Mini this emaciated

Safe in the trailer – Board member has a friend who saved two more.

This owner is a repeat offender type – we rescued a mare named Ginger for someone from her last year. — with Amanda Morning and Sandy Hall.

Alfie has been a bear to teach to tie – but Now there he is

More Alfie! Our favorite pony!

Senior Paint gelding needs a home NOW.

Wilkesboror, NC

Broke to ride, seems sound. Rescued from going to auction by someone who really cannot keep him.

Needs adoptive home or rescue

Interested? You need to be able to pick him up, supply vet and farrier references and facility photos to equinerescue@live.com

What a lovely shot of Willie and his adopter today!

Honey and her adopted gal getting practice in for a show. Honey was rescued in 2011 and has been with her family for years now. She is Amber’s dam.

Wonder how many horses I could save if I had a dollar for every time someone tried to belittle my efforts for horses by saying: “I wish you worked that hard trying to help people.”

LOL.

Things You Should NOT Say to a Rescue
Oh, here is that video I promised you.

Yes, I’ve heard these things in person, in sincerity, from far too many folks (Well, except maybe the donkey comment)

Not quite how I really sound. — with Tinia Creamer and John Creamer.

I’m thinking, after seeing some inspiring photos from MHP photography, that a pretty amazing fundraiser for the rescue would be to do a themed photosession with our rescue mascot, Luka, based on the Unicorn/Princess type photos seen here.

Who would be interested in bring their kids to such a shoot based in the Huntington area if we offered something like this with either print or disc offered in the price range of $100?
With Jarrod Newton and Jenna Grissom Newton.

I’m being told that the Mason county sheriff, as of 7/15/14, has not really taken this act of cruelty seriously.

I’m also told the Animal Control says they do not deal with horses. It seems, in addition to this horse found dead, there are horses nearby that are in bad shape, and it just stands to reason they are in danger.

I think calls to Mason county’s Police Department demanding a serious investigation and consideration to the horses being neglected nearby that are surely in danger would surely be in order:

(304) 675-3838 – Sheriff
Non-emergency: (304)675-0850 for State Police

I’ve seen the photos of the actual scene that aren’t published – grizzly beyond words.
http://www.wowktv.com/story/26007190/dead-horse-found-inside-garage-of-a-mason-county-wv-home

Rudy was gelded today

From HOP Volunteer, Suzanna J.

Is Raising a Youngster Right for You?

Raising a foal or a young horse is not for most people. It is difficult to raise a young horse well. It helps if you have the foal from birth, it helps if you have had experience with horses before, and you need to be able to commit yourself to being strict with the foal. The worst thing you can do for a young horse is not to enforce boundaries and discipline.

The most important challenge in raising a foal is your ability to be strict, set boundaries and discipline your foal. It is with this area that most modern horse people struggle. Even a youngster that has been started properly can be messed up when acquired by a person without the necessary skills to keep it respectful. A horse is not naturally well-mannered. They are always seeking to establish their pecking order in the herd, and humans are part of their herd.

We see John Lyons, Clinton Anderson and Pat Parelli getting amazing results with horses without beating or breaking anything. And what they do certainly looks gentle. That is what we want to do as well. But viewing these methods as gentle – and thus, trying to sculpt our own methods into the human concept of gentle – can cause some problems.

Look closer at John Lyons or Pat Parelli, or any of the great modern horsemen. They are some of the strictest, strongest figures you will ever meet (at least when they are working with a horse). They are not so much gentle in their working with horses as firm. Their work looks like what humans call gentle for two reasons:

First, they are so good at what they do and so experienced, that they can get even the most unruly horse to react with a single look. It would take extensive physical energy and whole body effort for most of us to achieve anywhere near the same results. Controlling a horse by the slightest movement of your body or glance is very advanced horsemanship and most of us cannot do it yet.

Second, the level of skill which these have achieved allows them more time to be gentle, because they have the horse’s respect, devotion and obedience. They have spent many hours honing and perfecting their skills and studying horse behavior.

If we recognize that we are not yet capable of that level of control which allows us to gain respect and obedience from horses with minimal physical contact, but we want to take as much as we can from the methods taught by these modern horsemen, what do we do?

The modern horsemen, like the old cowboys, recognize the need for strength and control in a relationship with a horse. But their understanding of the reason for this need is different. The difference is that they are getting this control; projecting this strength, by learning the the horse’s natural language and communicating with the horse on its terms – not by beating the horse into submission and forcing it to always interact with humans on human terms. In doing this, they are looking for respect and voluntary submission, not fear and defeat. They don’t want the horse to give up and obey them, but to actively choose to follow them. And they achieve this by learning the horse’s language and the horse’s world view and communicating with the horse on its own terms. They make the effort to learn and understand what a horse is at its core, how it sees the world and what rules it lives by among other horses. Then they seek to interact with the horses on those terms, by those rules, as if they themselves were horses.

The Tough Reality of Horse World

Horse language and horse psychology is not gentle. The byplay in the interaction between horses involves a great deal of physical communication including shows of strength and physical discipline. If you are going to learn to communicate with horses in their language and enter their world under their terms, then you will have to be physical with your horses, at least some of the time, just as they are with each-other. If you’re going to follow their rules, you will have to accept that those rules do not view physical contact the same way as we do in human society.

Of course, the better you get at understanding, communicating with and working with horses, the less actual physical contact you have to make. If you ever see a really good lead mare, she controls the movements of every horse around her with no more than a glance. She rarely needs to kick, or bite to get obedience from her herd. But a weaker mare, one defending a medium spot in the herd hierarchy, perhaps, often has to resort to kicking or biting to keep its dominance over the horses bellow it. Usually, we are those weaker mares. The experts named above are the top-notch lead mares who get total obedience even from strangers with little more than a look. We may be working towards being that, but we are usually not there yet. Because of that, we will need to employ more physical force in our dealing with young horses than the trainers we learn from ever seem to.

And here is the thing to keep in mind about that: That lead mare will bite or kick or employ whatever physical force is necessary if one of her charges doesn’t back down to her look. She’ll go after them without hesitation and clobber them so well they will never think of defying her again. She will, in fact, do whatever it takes physically to establish her strength and her dominance with each horse in the herd. She just rarely has to resort to anything more than a look because most horses are so hard-wired to recognize true strength and give way to it that substantial challenges rarely come.

Never think the “greats” would not use physical action to bring a horse into line if it were demanded of them. They are different from the old style trainers because they use such action only when the horse’s code of law demands it and only because it is internal herd rules that dictate its use. They let the rules which nature set up to govern horses determine their approach to horses. However; using physical discipline does not mean we humans are beating the crap out of the foals. There are very definite techniques to employ which “speak” to the foal, without causing them physical harm.

If we are going to be effective in the methods the great modern trainers use, we have to be willing to back up our actions with physical contact when appropriate. We’ll need to do that less and less the better we get at establishing our own strength without the need for physical contact. But until then, one of the primary obstacles people have is in their reluctnance to use physical force when necessary. Learning to be okay with this aspect of horse training is important when working with any horse, but especially when working with a foal.

A foal who learns that he can walk all over people, control them and boss them around soon becomes a full grown horse who is a danger to the people around him. That horse will hurt someone and eventually be put down because of it. That horse will never learn the joy and fulfillment of working in true partnership with a human being. It is your ability to be strict and to discipline your foal while it is young which will determine which path your horse takes. Before you decide to breed your mare, (or adopt a foal) you owe it to the foal that is coming to make sure you can give it the firm guidance it will need to grow up well adjusted to human society.

If Being Strict Is Not For You

So what if you take a realistic look at the premises above and realize you are not up to raising a foal well at this point? First, good for you. Ii is impressive when anybody can see their own limitations realistically and adjust their plans because of them. You can find another way to get the bond with a horse you are looking for. Or you can take some time to learn more about raising foals well, hone your ability to be strict and work up to raising a foal sometime in the future. (Giving it up now doesn’t mean giving it up forever.) .The important thing is that you don’t teach your foal to be unsafe around people – to not respect people. That is hard to unlearn. Perhaps you will gain more skills as time goes on and be able to successfully raise a foal later on.

In any case, it is important to have thought this all out before you acquire a baby. Be realistic about your abilities and your present skill level. Then go from there. It is a great tragedy in the horse world when a well-meaning human ruins a young horse beyond salvation because they can not recognize that they are in over their heads.

A few good articles on raising respectful youngsters.

http://www.carolynresnickblog.com/when-to-start-a-foals-training/

http://www.equisearch.com/article/imprint-training-newborn-foal

http://highmountainhorse.blogspot.com/2009/10/kindergarten-working-with-newborn-foal.html

Sent to me this morning –

Mingo county,WV – All over the roadway.

Sheesh.

For those coming late to the issue, http://www.wvhorserescue.org/mine.html

This guy was a starving colt when he came to me in 2010. . .check him out now. I saw him yesterday for the first time since his adoption well over 3 years ago, and he surely remembered me.

Ranger/Boogey — with Jacki Collins.

Little Misty yesterday for her vetting

Congrats to Cait and Honey, a HOP horse from 2011:

Boyd County Fair 2014 Open Show…
1st place Showmanship, 2nd Place Youth Walk Trot

Check out little Alfie with his darling little rider (who is only 11!) — with Suzanna Johnson.

Alfie and Raven – Raven has put him undersaddle for HOP and done an amazing job with his training! — with Suzanna Johnson and Raven Johnson.

What a perfect Child’s pony Alfie is going to be! — with Suzanna Johnson.

RESCUE: To free or deliver from confinement, violence, danger, or evil.

200 and some odd likes away from 4,000!

We’ve had almost 1,000 shares of our “Things Rescues Do Not Want to Hear” video. . .give us ideas for quick one or two liners for the next video piece! These are sure to be a hit!

Please share in the Oregon State area – What a gorgeous girl she is!

Owner says:

Anawyn is about 7 years old (rescued at about 1.5 years old),
Paso fino X Draft

Fully trained in archery, jousting, medieval games, trail riding, round pen. She’s done a bit of horse camping as well and is fairly comfy on a high line. Never used hobbles or ground-stake.

Originally had 6 months with trainer for loose reining and formal reins, but she’s very sensitive to leg aids due to the archery.

High line trained. Can be led or lead. She’s fine with kids, better with soft hands. Slight stubborn steak when close to barn or leaving herd. Lots of folks have worked with her on that. When she is really well tuned up it goes mostly away, but I think it’s a personality thing combined with the rescue situation.

Does gait of sort, but even without, she has a very smooth trot and canter.

No medical issues. Good feet. A bit overweight, easy keeper, and a tad rusty due to minimal riding lately.

Looking for a contract free lease for her in the Sisters, Bend, Eugene to Portland area, but open to other possible locations

Just received a plea about a herd of registered Arabians in Galena, Maryland that MUST BE PLACED by July 22. There two senior mares and a stallion are in dire need. The farm is sold and ownership changes that day. Lovely horses in the photos I have. No fees to homes with solid vet and farrier references and photos sent to us at equinerescue@live.com

Sawyer met his future family today!!!!

Remember Chism? What a horse. He is doing so well in his adoptive home

Rudy is recovering from the gelding, is moved to his long term foster and getting acquainted with being a people horse

From HOP follower and supporter, Linda S:

“I’m gonna throw a challenge out there….many of us drink coffee in the morning..sometimes its Dunkins or Starbucks. I am willing to send the $5 I would normally pay for ONE coffee to help this mare survive who’s obviously gone without what she needs. One day, one coffee…..Coffee challenge is out there people. Who’s willing to forego ONE day of coffee to save this little lady and help her expenses??”

Thank you, Linda! The mare in question in pictured here: https://www.facebook.com/HeartofPhoenixEquinerescue/photos/a.485813968116570.112242.356449524386349/802867293077901/?type=1&relevant_count=1

This little mare comes to us tomorrow. Her intake will max us out until we have some adoptions.

We will update once we have her. If you’re able to donate for her transport, vetting and care, please do so by visiting our website.

Kaya in his home –

HOP pulled him from a bad situation to keep him from going to auction, Debbie P fostered him and Marie K of Illinois made the long trip to pick him up and give him a home! — with Nicky Walters and 2 others.