Teresa loaned Fancy to me while Cisco is recovering from EPM. I picked her up from Teresa and Junior Osborn. Fancy had nearly 60 day’s training with a Fox Trotter trainer who had problems getting Fancy to move forward when he started her. It was at her “colt start” when Fancy became “spur sensitive”.
Fancy had just completed 30 days training with a trail riding trainer. In her first two weeks with the trail rider trainer, she was ridden in a parade! Boy Howdy!
She had kicked the husband and two farriers. The third farrier just packed up her tools and left when Fancy tried to kick her. Fancy had also kicked Junior, the husband. The local trail rider trainer had done well with Fancy. She did get front shoes on her. No problem for me! Teresa had rode her. I’m just borrowing Fancy so I have a horse to ride!
I announced that Junior had just won #1 Boyfriend for a Year for this amazing act of friendship. My friend Hope came and observed the beautiful Fancy. I brought her home and installed her in a stall.
I was going to ride her the next day. We trailered to the stable where can ride in an indoor arena. Fancy walked down the stable aisle where a beautiful stallion whispered words of rebellion to her. In the arena, the rebellion started. Fancy had no respect for my personal space. She tried to walk on top of me like I did not exist.My body erupted into Italian gestures and then used the lead rope swinging lead rope to get her backed off me. The war started. Fancy had no concept of backing away from me. My body was in danger. The rope had to get big. Fancy got big right back. She struck at me with her front hoof and just barely touched my leg. Lordy! She screamed and spurted when the rope made contact on her nose. There was a witness who saw the strike, the heat induced spurting and screaming. This will be a story forever!
Playing the ground games in the arena didn’t work that day. There was much spurting and screaming when the rope’s metal clasp banged her nose.
Fancy and I went home. I started trying to play the Seven Parelli games to start our relationship. For a few days, I didn’t have a round pen and the leadership was won by Fancy. Fancy dominated me. I could not get her to go forward unless I led her forward. I was mighty careful of walking behind her.
There are four horses in the pasture and three run-in stalls in the barn. Fancy is the low horse in the herd. Heck, she isn’t even in the herd. Delta keeps Fancy away from the herd. I fed the upper level horses. I was going into the pasture with Fancy’s feed bucket while pushing a cart with hay in it. I was going to feed Fancy in the round pen so she could eat her feed and hay. When the other horses got done with their feed, they would run Fancy away from her feed. Fancy saw me and started running at me. In the seconds that I had, my brain determined that Fancy was going to run into me to get her feed bucket. I whirled the cart around to protect me. Fancy whirled her body around and kicked me. Her hoof just barely touched my lower leg. It didn’t hurt at all. Still, I knew that I could have had a broken lower leg. I threw the bucket at her in a rage and got out of the pasture. Humans lose really big when they lose their temper at the horse. I lost really big that day.
Soon I got my round pen set up and ground play colt start began. Fancy still won, but I was making progress with her backing up and not walking on top of me.. I was very careful of her back legs. Cisco came into the round pen with us to show Fancy what I wanted. Cisco showed Fancy how to run around the round pen at liberty. She already knew that. She knew and ignored the signal to slow down and stop. After a while, she would turn and face me, but would not come to me. I was able to go to her and rub her when she turned to me and stopped.
Tony Vaught was due in town to take her front shoes off and trim her back legs. They had about a fifteen to twenty minutes horse trainer/young filly “conversation” before Tony was able to trim the back feet. She did not try to kick Tony which was a huge success. Then I said I wanted to ride her once to assess her as to going to Florida with the Vaughts “customizing” her for me. Heck, I’ll go at it myself, the only horse in the world since Sage that I would just get on and ride. After all, she was ridable!
Tony frowned and gathered his thoughts. He looked at me and said the fun phrase, “Do you want to have fun with Fancy? You can ride her, but it will not be fun. She will be difficult.” Tony said those same fun words to me in the past when dealing with Lucky Star. Fancy was a whole football field different than Lucky. He had never kicked anyone. He wasn’t a young filly. I decided at that moment Fancy had to go to Florida and be developed by Tony and Jenny Vaught.
I called Teresa and chatted about Fancy’s ownership. It was a shocking talk. To both our surprise. I bought her. Fancy was Teresa’s dream horse, but she had turned into a farrier nightmare. Teresa could not take her on southern Missouri trail rides without shoes on her back feet. My husband pledged and paid half her price for my Christmas present. The other half was my Christmas present to myself.
Note: I tell people the early Fancy story and end with the clincher that I bought her. Horse people not in my natural horsemanship world think I’m crazy. Their expression goes from interested to horrified. How could you buy such a mean horse? Hell, she isn’t mean. She had the wrong start. She did not live in a herd when she was a weanling to about a year and a half old. She did not have a herd to discipline her. She grew up making her own rules and did not have much interaction with her human. Teresa had been sick most of the time she had her. Much of the horse world uses the philosophy of “kick em to go and pull back to stop”. Fancy resisted the go part. Her colt start was not a good experience. She became “spur resistant”.
On the subject of horse breeding, we have had much experience with the sire part of her bloodlines and wonderful horses which we developed from birth to World Grand Champion. I knew her dam’s bloodlines and the man who spent his life developing wonderful horses from his beloved bloodlines. This little filly has great potential. She is friendly and thinks. With the Parelli inspired natural horsemanship development, her potential will win out and prove her bloodlines!
Fancy will be going to Florida with the Vaughts and be developed into a horse with buttons that I can have fun while riding. She will be “customized” for me.
She had to be restarted.
Fancy will save some tricky fun “experiences” just for me. I love to develop a horse. It is much better for my ongoing health to ride and develop a horse “customized” for me by Tony and Jenny Vaught.
I rode Cisco yesterday. He looks fine running around with no rider. His back right leg drug when I rode him. It’s going to take some time for him to recover.
So that is the story! Yee Haw!
#Fancy #Cisco