All about my horses!

Miss America

She Came Knocking-Miss America

I thought my life was pretty exciting. It is not the case.  I found out just how boring my real life was.  It happened at 5:45 AM October 2012  Tues.   I was trying to catch Lucky Star in the yard and put him back into the pasture. I’ve been from house to barn and no Lucky! Usually Lucky Star sees my in the yard and silently appears about 6″ from my face.   I shook the grain bucket and I caught a glimpse of him in the light of the garage.  He was heading the other direction…away from me.

What!
Lucky Star is a “always in my space” kind of horse.  He never runs away from me.
I hike after him and find him standing by the far fence.  I go get him.  I saw a big tree branch move on the other side of the fence.  What was there?  Big tree branches don’t move like that on their own!
By this time all the other horses had finished eating and left the barn lot corral. They disappeared into the inky darkness of a crisp predawn day.  A horse whinnied.  The whinny didn’t sound like it came from my pasture.  It sounded like it came from where the big tree branch moved.
What?
More whinny.  I see all my horses but Sue.  It’s still dark.  I decide Sue must be the whinny source and she is out of the pasture.  How could she get out? There are no gates open.
I get into my car and drive out of my yard into the sod farm next door.  I drive along the fence row, looking for Sue.  Trees are lighted up in my headlights.  Nothing else.
No Sue, no nothing.
I return to where Lucky is eating his breakfast ..  I worry some more.
I drive out to the turf farm again.  Headlights shining into the row of trees lining the fence.  Nothing there.
Drive back to my yard, park my car and return to the barn, I see a shape in my yard.  It’s shaped like a horse!
It is a horse.! It’s not Sue. I have a loose horse in my yard!  I have a lost horse in my yard!
Horse goes over and sniffs noses with Sue and Lucky.  She’s in a small dead end place.  She is calm and quiet.  I go get my halter.  I decide that I might live if I walk up to her in the narrow dead end place.  She’s calm. She let’s me halter her.  My my my!
I look at her and decide I have a short saddlebred horse.  Her neck is elegant and stretched up to the sky.  She’s wondering what I’m going to do.  I’m wondering the same thing.
I lead her to the barn and she follows right along with me.
Thank you, Lord.
She’s in a stall.  I give her lots of hay and go on to work.
I called the Cass County Sheriff  to report.  I call my town police and talk to the Animal Control officer.  I report a missing horse. Animal Control officer drove to my house to see the horse and took her picture.
No phone call all day from anyone about the horse.  I call to find there has been interest, but picture proved not to be the right horse. (How could there be interest in missing horses? How many missing horses are there in Cass County?)
Go home and feed the horse.  She is nice and friendly.  I let her out into the corral where the other horses sniff her.  She floats across the corral. Beautiful extended trot.  Horses sniff and loose interest in her.
I decide to let her out.  Since she had been cooped up all day, she had some energy. She galloped up and down the pasture.
I am standing in admiration of her beauty when two young men walk up to me.
Excited, I say, “Are you missing a horse?”
“Yes”  We chat a long time.  Nice young men. One of them is the owner.  We chat about how his horse got out of the boarding place.  Boarding Place thought the young man had picked her up and took her somewhere because the halter was missing.  When he took a bucket of oats to her this evening, she wasn’t there.  She’s missing.  He checks with police and gets sent to my house.
We chat about the horse.  She is 4 years old.  Young man bought her for his self and  his daughter.  Her name is Wild Fire.  He bought her when she was two.  Her former owner named her for the wild flower, Wild Fire.  (I shudder at the name.)
She had a week and a half of training by an Amish trainer somewhere down south of KC. She’s quarter horse/fox trotter mix.  hmmm…I thought she was a short saddlebred.  I don’t see QH in her at all.  She’s a very elegant horse.  I don’t see fox trotter in there, but fox trotters don’t have a set look.
Young owner sez he just bought a truck. Truck broke down and he’s in a bind and needs to sell this horse.  Taking her to auction Saturday.
We chat some more.  I mention killers and no one is buying horses because of  drought hay situation.
We chat about hay and how the boarding place before bought some cheap 3-4 year old hay.  Plus the other horses wouldn’t let his horse eat.  Boarding owner wanted him to pay when his horse wasn’t getting to eat the inferior hay.  He got her out of that situation.  She’s been well taken care of and in her present boarding situation for 5 months.
He offered me $50 to keep horse till Saturday.  He has to borrow a trailer.  We talk about the magic number needed to fix his truck $300.
hmmm.  I like this young man.  His horse is proof of a well-loved and cared for horse.  He is polite and truthful.
The next day,Wednesday,  I tell Facebook groups about the horse. What to do to save this horse.  Let’s raise $300 and he can keep his horse.  I’m doing my best to not own this horse.
Then the fatal comment came on Facebook:
Wild Fire is a Stolen Horse!
What.  Wild Fire is a Stolen horse is repeated and no further explanation
A day of fury on Facebook.
I report to police that allegation has been made that she has been stolen.
Fury keeps on coming on Facebook.
That evening, I come home to find the horse has leaped out of my pasture into my neighbor’s pasture.  Neighbor has geldings that think they are stallions.  Or it could have been Lucky Star exerting some dominance over her and she jumped the fence to get away.  She found me because of Lucky Star and now she’s with 5 other geldings.  She must be a great jumper!  There’s not a scratch on her.
Called neighbor  and tried to explain this. She’s at work and will get home in about half an hour.
Darknes comes. Young man, his wife and nearly one year old daughter come with a bucket of oats for their horse.
“Bad news,” I say.  “Horse jumped fence and someone alleged she is stolen.”
WHAT!
It’s the former boarding place with the cheap hay and the horses that kept our horse from eating.  Boarding place locked horse up for non payment.  Owners Stole Their Own Horse.  That’s the stolen part.  I am furious with the Facebook alleger. Furious!  I revel in furious, because it’s been years since I’ve felt furious at anyone except spouse.
We drive 5 miles to see horse. If we had a gate between our pastures, it would be about a block away. She is now in stall in neighbor’s barn.
Neighbor agrees to keep horse for time being.Owner sez it takes 4 grown men to load this horse.
Here’s a horse destined for auction, alleged stolen, wanted for a child less than a year old and needs four grown men to load in a trailer!
I’m busy Saturday and Sunday, but tell them that I’ll walk her back home if I can find a gap in another neighbor’s fence.  Neighbor sez she has a shute system rigged up to trailer load a horse.
Monday am comes and I’m up at dawn plus an hour or so…9:00am.  I did find a gap in the fence.  I need to saw a tree limb so I can walk a horse thru.  I call up this neighbor and ask permission to lead a horse thru his yard.
“Sure” he says. He’s noticed that his neighbor has an extra horse.
I go get the horse.  All her geldings try to friendly up to me and run away the mare.  We have words. I catch the mare.  She doesn’t want to leave the pasture.  We have words.  Geldings decide to run elsewhere and watch the show.
I get mare to leave the pasture.  Whew!
We walk about a half mile to my house and I get her into barn stall again.
I go into house and collapse in my recliner.
After I recovered, I called the  young man and told him I was buying his horse.
Turns out she is half Morgan, 1/4 qh and 1/4 Arab.  That explains her “look” .  She is beautiful.
Jenny comes out on that Friday and takes about 15 minutes to load her.  She is a quick learner and not really too afraid of the trailer.  Jenny loads her in both my trailers.  It takes about 1/2 for all this to happen and she is a relaxed loading horse.  I get to take over.  It takes a few moments for my kind of communication to get through and some coaching from Jenny.  She loads.  I get her to load in both trailers.
Loading lesson done for life.  She can now be transported!
I take her on trailer ride on Saturday to Fair Play.  I played with her in the morning and another person played with her in the afternoon.  They are hooked on each other.  Love is blooming!
Meet Miss America…..  Missy….  MissA

Miss America under Saddle!

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Here they are: Jennifer Vaught and Miss America! I bet Jenny had no idea about meeting Miss America! Just shows you that “stuff happens”!

Day One of a week of natural horsemanship training for the horse that came knocking on my door!

Rick Lamb and The Horse Show-Fame!!

Rick Lamb. The Horse Show: Meet the Morgan Horse. The ADM segment was filmed at Pine Dell Farm. The program was aired in 2008,but Dr Judy Reynolds and Rick Lamb filmed at Pine Dell and both Pine Dell and I am in the final credits!! Wowsa!

I learned that the Morgan is “The Horse That Chooses You”. I now have a Morgan horse that came knocking on my door! Coincidence? I think not!

Pine Dell is also the location on the ADM segment called The HayThorn Land and Cattle Co, originally aired in 2008! Yahoo! There is Pine Dell, Karen and Ed Moulis and Me in the credits again too.

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She Squealed in Joy

This past Saturday, Miss America became a part of the entire Engle horse herd.  She’s been sniffing Lucky Star over the fence for more than a month now.  I thought she was ready!  Since she has been here, she’s been turned out only in the non lake part of the pasture.  She’s been turned out with all the mares who have been shifted from lake to non lake part of the pasture, except for Velvet.  Miss America has been turned out with Velvet for the entire time she’s been here. Velvet can’t be on the lake side of the pasture as there is too much green grass.  Velvet is a “diabetic” horse and green grass has too much sugar.  Velvet and Miss America have made some trips together in the trailer too.  Velvet snarls at Miss America and occasionally tries to bite her if she dares get too close to the Queen of it all.

Miss America’s adventure with the entire herd and getting to run in the lake side of the pasture was without event!  Lucky didn’t try to own her.  Grazing peacefully was the norm.  Velvet was alone in the non lake part of the pasture.

Early last week, I say Miss America take on Sage for the ownership of a stall.  I was stunned when Miss America won.  She has learned to stand up for herself.  Sage is old enough now that she gives way when another horse insists on being the dominant horse.

This past Saturday I looked across the lake and saw Miss America moving Sage around.  Miss America charged Sage and Sage moved!  Wow!  Not long after this drama started, Missy ran a few laps around Sage, kicking out and squealing in joy!  She wasn’t kicking at Sage, Missy was just feeling good and expressing her happiness!  She ran at Sage again.  Sage and Missy ran a short ways.  About the 4th run, Sage was done, turned her hind end and kicked at Missy.  Missy decided grazing was in order.  I kept watching and it wasn’t long before Missy started running again and squealing in joy.

I don’t remember ever seeing a horse squealing in joy.

Miss America is a very happy horse!

She Came Knocking….

Tuesday dark morning
feeding time
5:45 AM…a presence is felt. I saw a big tree branch move. hmmm
5:46am..I get Lucky Star and take him to barn.
5:48 AM…an alarmed whinny
6:00 AM…Discover a strange horse in the yard. She came and met Lucky Star. I had turned Lucky Star out in the yard overnight because we had such a nice ride. This is all Lucky’s fault!
Mare Nicely fed..feet ok…in good shape
6:05 AM…Horse appears calm..put halter on and lead to barn-long beautiful neck may belong to saddlebred. In stall.
8:00AM …call county Sherrif and local police
12:00am…call spouse to get horse more hay and check water
4:00PM… call local police-no one has inquired.
4:45PM…home.. horse is doing fine
5:00pm…Turn horse out in rectangle pen. She floats around the pen. how beautiful. Hmmm, she might be an Arabian…no….
5:45PM play with horse in rectangle pen. I’m impressed. She is not frightened. She has been treated with love. She responds to pressure when I ask different parts of her body to move. She loves being petted and rubbed.
6:15pm…let her loose again in pen
6:30PM…other horses are ignoring her now and I decide to turn her out.
6:31pm…she gallops to and fro. She gallops to me and comes to a stop right at my feet. I flinch, but hide it.
7:00pm… two young man come to the barn. One of them is owner!
7:15pm…much chatting about her. Young man owner is very likable and has been doing all the right things for her. He answers test questions well
7:16pm…I discover she is to go to auction on Saturday. WHAT!
7:18pm… young man asks if she can stay here till Saturday. We just disdiscussed how he needs money to fix his truck, his only transportation to work. He needs #300. He offers me $50 to let her stay here. I agree. She has had 1 1/2 weeks of training with an Amish trainer. She has been ridden. Young man has sat on her, but sez she needs an experienced rider because she is very green.
8:00pm…I report this to a group on Facebook-asking for help to raise $300 so he can keep the horse..or someone buy the horse
8:02pm much Facebook chat
9:30pm..”This is a stolen horse” comes on Facebook. WHAT! We all ask about the circumstances of this allegation. Nothing from reporter. I feel like I’ve been hit by a sledge hammer. My instincts and talk with young man owner say to me, “something is wrong here” I’m sticking with the young man. A horse tells a lot about the owner. This horse loves her owner.
10:00pm…alleger says, “I wanted to sue them, but didn’t have the money”. hmmm, doesn’t sound like a stolen horse to me
Wednesday – All Day Anger Issues at “Stolen Alleger”. I manage to keep quiet. I delete the Facebook Postings. 6:00 am…Go out to feed horses. New horse does not appear
6:10am… check out the number of horses my neighbor has. Oh there she is. She has jumped the fence and is in with 5 geldings. oh my! She is doing fine.
8:00am – I report stolen allegation to police. Animal control officer logs in to Facebook and joins the group. This is a closed group, people can’t join. Apparently, law enforcement can join any closed group. He sees this “stolen reporter” is a friend of a friend of his daughter. He’ll check this out!
8:10am..called neighbor. She’s at work and so is husband. when she gets home, she catches the mare and leads her into her stall
7:30pm…Young man, nice wife and 18 month old baby comes to see their horse. He had to take bill of sale to police. His parents took bill of sale that afternoon. This is not a registered horse. He bought her when she was about two years old.
7:31pm…We chat about stolen horse and she is now at neighbor. Horse was boarded, boarding owner told him that she had got a great deal on 3-4 year old hay and was feeding that to his horse. Also only one round bale…other horses were not letting his horse eat. He stopped paying when nothing was done. Horse was then locked up. He and family came and stole his own horse and took to new place for boarding. Horse has been in new place for 5 months and all was well.
We drove 5 miles to get to neighbor’s pasture. There is no gate between our pastures.
Neighbor agrees to keep horse while we find a new owner.
Owner says it takes four grown men to get mare into the trailer. Oh great. And the young horse was to be for him and his child. oh great…
Neighbor also has fallen for the horse. Husband has told her No…No…No! They just found out she is pregnant and he doesn’t want her messing with new horse in this environment where there is no hay for sale. He’s worried about having enough hay for five horses.
I tell the young man that I will come up with the $300. I offer to pay him there, but he sez won’t take money unless he works for it. See why I like this young man. I wasn’t going to take his $50 for the horse to stay. That was a test to see if he would give me the money when he needs money desparately to fix his truck

Weekend…I’m at Saturday and Sunday Ranch Horse Event

Monday is a holiday.
8:00am I search for an opening in another neighbor’s fence. There is an opeing, hidden by a big tree branch. I get the saw and get rid of the tree limb. There’s enough room that a horse and human can walk thru.
10:00am… I call this neighbor and ask for permission the lead a horse thru his property. I haven’t chatted with him for about 5 years.
10:30am..I go into the pasture with 5 dominant geldings and the mare. I take my carrot stick as I know what will happen. I caught the mare and got the halter on before being attacked by the geldings. There’s one gelding that wants to charge and bite the mare. Luckily the mare wasn’t too frightened when I slung the carrot stick rope at them. Finally was able to get out of the pasture.
11:00…lead the horse to my pasture. Chat with the other neighbor for a while. Mare occasionally balked at leaving the geldings, Mostly she came along just fine. We walked by many scary things and she paid them no mind. She is a left brained extrovert, able to think things through
11:30am..Collapse into my recliner
Friday… Jenny Vaught comes and trains horse to get into trailer. It took her about 15 minutes. She did some other things that we do before trying for the trailer. I have two trailers and she loaded into both trailers. Then I got the horse and loaded her into both trailers.
Saturday 7:00am…Loaded mare into trailer and took off to Fair Play with Tony and Jenny Vaught  for Obstacle Clinic.
Saturday PM… Everyone loves this horse.
I now own Miss America. She’s half Morgan, 1/4 Arab and 1/4 QH. She is 3 1/2 years old. She’s never had any vaccination shots. oh my…

The horse came and knocked on my door begging Lucky Star and I to save her from the auction!

Before that fateful Tuesday early dark morning, I thought my life was exciting. Now I know I was leading a dull life. I found real excitement

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