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Yesterday, I had a fantastic lesson on my Trakehner gelding, Sam. We spent most of the lesson working on getting him to travel freely over his back in a long, low frame to help him build the strong topline necessary for more collected work. He's got an incredible length of stride and tracks up perfectly, stretching down and into my contact to accept my forward aids. ("Tracking up" means that his hind feet fall in the hoof prints made by his front feet.)
Sam
(Side Note: His poor tail is finally growing out a lot! Much better than last summer when a cow chewed the hair off down to the bone.)
Sam
(Side Note: His poor tail is finally growing out a lot! Much better than last summer when a cow chewed the hair off down to the bone.)
Category Photography / Portraits
Species Horse
Size 934 x 718px
File Size 914.3 kB
There were fireworks on July 3, 2010 at a nearby church. A recently weaned calf at our farm was frightened by the loud noise and somehow jumped the 5 ft. fence between the weaning pasture and my horse pasture. Young animals have a tendency to chew things to relieve stress and anxiety, and I guess Sam was just being generous enough to offer "a shoulder to cry on," as it were.
Sam is a very, very gentle giant... as you can probably see by the fact that he has a few scrapes from the bullies he shares a pasture with. One of them is supposed to be leaving for NC this morning and I couldn't be happier about that. Maybe Sam won't come in every day with a new kick or bite mark. :D
It's actually very comfortable and serves its purpose. I'm in love with my helmet and tall boots, the breeches don't ride up into the bend of my hip when I sit the trot, and the whole ensemble is much cooler than any jeans could ever be. Granted, I know I'm a chub and not all that awesome to look at...
He lost a good bit of weight (approximately 100 lbs) when we moved from 23 acres of lush pasture in Tennessee to an atrocious boarding situation in metro Atlanta. He has since been removed from that situation and is in far better condition. Why I haven't posted updated pictures is far beyond me. He's 13 years old, and will be 14 in July.
When I first brought him to the area, I had less than a week to find a barn with a pasture boarding option that I could afford because my trainer called me the week that she was bringing a bunch of girls down for a horse show and wanted to bring Sam with her then. He was at that barn for less than a month and a half when he lost an incredible amount of weight due to the barn manager's failure to provide hay and grain as per our contract. I moved him to another barn in July and was happy there until late November/early December, when the barn manager there also started falling back on her distribution of hay. To keep Sam at an ideal weight, I was forced to start supplementing him heavily with alfalfa, rice bran, and senior feed while I searched for another barn. Not only was that very expensive, it was also very unnatural to force an otherwise perfectly healthy horse to consume that amount of concentrated feed in a day.
After a lengthy search, I have made the decision to move Sam to https://www.hollyspringsequestrian.com on February 1. He will have full-time access to 12 acres of grass pasture to be shared with only 5 other horses (2 acres per horse) and they have access to two large round bales of hay at all times. They believe in rotating pastures and paddocks with the seasons to prevent the grass from being overtaxed and relying primarily on quality forage to meet a horse's individual caloric requirements. Needless to say, I'm thrilled to be moving to a place that shares my philosophy in horsekeeping. My only regret is that I didn't find out about the farm until now!
A semi-recent photo of Sam: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7291584
After a lengthy search, I have made the decision to move Sam to https://www.hollyspringsequestrian.com on February 1. He will have full-time access to 12 acres of grass pasture to be shared with only 5 other horses (2 acres per horse) and they have access to two large round bales of hay at all times. They believe in rotating pastures and paddocks with the seasons to prevent the grass from being overtaxed and relying primarily on quality forage to meet a horse's individual caloric requirements. Needless to say, I'm thrilled to be moving to a place that shares my philosophy in horsekeeping. My only regret is that I didn't find out about the farm until now!
A semi-recent photo of Sam: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7291584
I know where that place is! Hahaha nice!
The backstory is very sad though. It sucks that some people are stuck with those few idiots in the horse world that are like "Oh, these aren't my horses, so they don't matter. I'll just.. forget.. to feed them properly. The owner will never notice!"
He's a pretty boy! You're lucky with him. C=
The backstory is very sad though. It sucks that some people are stuck with those few idiots in the horse world that are like "Oh, these aren't my horses, so they don't matter. I'll just.. forget.. to feed them properly. The owner will never notice!"
He's a pretty boy! You're lucky with him. C=
Right? I've worked at several different barns over the years and it just baffles me that these people can be so lackadaisical about the care of other people's horses. Back home, $350 would have gotten you full board in a show barn so clean you could eat dinner in the middle of the barn aisle, semi-private turnout in giant green pastures, and all feeding, worming, and blanketing included. Here? Barren pasture, no run-in shed, and questionable provision of hay.
At one point, I was so stressed by the whole ordeal that I considered sending Sam home to sit in the pasture for the next year and a half while I finish law school. At least I knew I could trust my mom to feed him properly and have his feet done every 6 weeks while I was gone. She treats Sam like he's her grandson. :D
Also, thanks so much. Sam is the love of my life and I wouldn't trade him for anything in the universe. Every day, I'm thankful that he's in my life.
At one point, I was so stressed by the whole ordeal that I considered sending Sam home to sit in the pasture for the next year and a half while I finish law school. At least I knew I could trust my mom to feed him properly and have his feet done every 6 weeks while I was gone. She treats Sam like he's her grandson. :D
Also, thanks so much. Sam is the love of my life and I wouldn't trade him for anything in the universe. Every day, I'm thankful that he's in my life.
My mom's the same way with our horses. Even my asshole of a Quarter Horse. >_>
But yeah. I'm thankful for every horse in my life. I would be who I am today if it weren't for them. They have helped me with confidence issues, boosted my self-esteem, and made my morale sky rocket. <3
But yeah. I'm thankful for every horse in my life. I would be who I am today if it weren't for them. They have helped me with confidence issues, boosted my self-esteem, and made my morale sky rocket. <3
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