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My new horse!

SallyQZ

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It has been a rough few months for my horses. My two year old colt was bitten by a rattlesnake. He had to have an emergency tracheotomy and spent a few days in the horsey ICU. He has recovered fully, thankfully. 3 days after the snake bite, my daughter's retired show horse injured his leg and had to be put down. Then my show horse went lame and, after many vet visits for X-rays/joint injections/special shoeing/etc, I had to accept the fact that he would have to be retired (at 6 yrs old!!!). He's now happily living a life of leisure in my pasture.

Such is life when you have horses. They are incredibly fragile, despite being seemingly powerful animals. I am fortunate enough to have land & resources to keep my horses, even when they can't be used for anything other than pasture decoration. So Zen is retired and my new horse has taken over the responsibilities of main riding horse and show pony! His name is Tank and he is a Westphalian gelding. He's 9 yrs old, and I use him for eventing (dressage, show jumping, and xc jumping).

I'm new to eventing, so I stick to the weenie levels and only jump the itty bitty stuff. I will eventually move up one, maybe two levels, but not further than that. I'm too old to be falling off over big fences these days!


Tank head.jpg

tank tongue.jpg
 

iamwhoiam

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Sorry about the issues with the horses. Your new horse, Tank, is very handsome!
 

rocky'smom

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what beautiful horse, love love the picture with the tongue out, my mare does that a lot.
 

Birdbabe

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Sorry for your horsies issues and your loss, that cute horsie tounge though..:xflove:
 

WendyN

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Wow, beautiful horse!
 

DQTimnehs

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What a beauty! Love the tongue! :p
 

sunnysmom

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Your new horse is beautiful!
 

jmfleish

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Loree! Long time no hear! Sorry to hear about the problems with your horses but glad to see you back. How are your Pinksters?
 

Tyrion

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So sorry to hear about the issues with your ponies ..I always hated when mine got hurt ..but your new one is beautiful :)
 

SallyQZ

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Loree! Long time no hear! Sorry to hear about the problems with your horses but glad to see you back. How are your Pinksters?
The Pinksters are as obnoxious as ever. They don't get as much time with me now that I'm spending so much time outside with the horses, but they take advantage of every minute they do get with me. Their favorite thing is to both sit on my legs while I watch tv, and scream & do eagle wings every time they see an animal on tv. Since I watch a lot of equestrian events that I have dvr'd, I watch half of my show through pink wings. They do crack me up though.

Looks like you are trying to corner the market on pink finks yourself! Sucker for punishment, eh? LOL!
 

jmfleish

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The Pinksters are as obnoxious as ever. They don't get as much time with me now that I'm spending so much time outside with the horses, but they take advantage of every minute they do get with me. Their favorite thing is to both sit on my legs while I watch tv, and scream & do eagle wings every time they see an animal on tv. Since I watch a lot of equestrian events that I have dvr'd, I watch half of my show through pink wings. They do crack me up though.

Looks like you are trying to corner the market on pink finks yourself! Sucker for punishment, eh? LOL!
Awwww! They sound like they're doing great! Yep, I think we're opening a rescue for the pink powder puffs! My youngest, Addison, turns three today and Kishka turns seven tomorrow. We also have Kishka's biological brother and clutch mate, Fozzie, so he will be seven around this same time as well. I don't have an exact date for him. Finally, we have the breeding pair, Leo and Letti who are truly amazing and sweet. I think we'll try to do something special for all five of them this weekend involving food and five free pink fluff balls flying around just because I'm feeling incredibly brave!:)
 

SallyQZ

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The thought of FIVE of them flying around makes me kinda light-headed! :nervous:

Here is a pic of my two, "helping" me watch show jumping. Every time a horse jumps, they squawk and do "eagle wings" pretending to be scared.

galahs wings up.jpg
 

jmfleish

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The thought of FIVE of them flying around makes me kinda light-headed! :nervous:

Here is a pic of my two, "helping" me watch show jumping. Every time a horse jumps, they squawk and do "eagle wings" pretending to be scared.

View attachment 247357
I've never had all five out at the same time! The mated pair are really easy going...it's the two boys that scare me! Pink vampires they've become...they literally go after your neck, ears, and head! My little baby girl is my sweetheart!

That picture of your two is adorable!
 

SallyQZ

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Yeah, Tiki Bird is 9 yrs old now and he can be fairly unpredictable. He still pretends to be a sweetie, but he's just as likely to bite you than not. And he still tries endlessly to go on my shoulder like he did when he was a baby. I haven't allowed him on my shoulder for at least 8 years, but he never stops trying. Cockatoo persistence! Whew!
 

Gimby

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Hah! Like that pic of the two that's awesome and your horse is beautiful
 

zoo mom

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You new horse is beautiful. Looks like he is giving you a raspberry. Love the pink finks celebrating the horses jumps.
 

SallyQZ

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The line "horses will break your heart and heal your soul" continues to ring true for me. My true love heart horse "Courage" had a colic attack and had to be rushed to the vet hospital. He managed to recover from that, but continued to have a rapid heart rate and decreased appetite. His blood work was normal, then a bit off, then anemic. It turned out that he had cancer. I had planned to keep him as comfortable as possible for as long as I could, but I was shocked at how fast his health declined. In less than two weeks, it was obvious that he was in pain and it was time. So he was sent over the rainbow bridge and my heart broke.

My new horse Tank had been showing some slight lameness, which didn't improve. A number of vet visits and the conclusion is that he had a tendon or ligament strain on his right hind leg (vet suspected a high suspensory ligament strain - the worst thing you can hear from your vet). It was showing slight signs of improvement, so we ended up not doing an MRI as planned. But he has been off for three months now, doing rehab on that leg. As of today, we are doing mostly walking under saddle, with 5 laps in each direction at trot. No canter. He is mostly sound, but still takes an odd step on corners, so we're holding at this level of activity until he shows further improvement. It's a very slow process to rehab a tendon or ligament unfortunately.

The bright spot in the pasture is my rattlesnake bite colt "Plus". He is now 3 1/2 yrs old, and ready to start some light work. I've only been doing a bit of ground work with him, but his work ethic is amazing! He absolutely LOVES to work, and he is the quickest learner I've ever worked with - and thanks to all the time it took keeping him clean during the tracheotomy healing, he is very bonded to me. When I ride Tank for his rehab walks, Plus stands at the gate to the arena and paws the fence, demanding to be worked too. When I do my 5 laps of trot, Plus will trot around the outside of the arena alongside of me. It's very cute! I hope he stays this interested and keen when I actually start the riding part!

So, yes ... horses have continued to break my heart and heal my soul, all at the same time.
 

Omena

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Your boy is very lovely. I'm sucker for the blacks. Tank looks like he could have either Ferro or Rubinstein lineage.

Sorry to hear about the new injury :( With ligaments, it can take up to 12 months, or more, for the tissue to heal. Best would be to give it rest. It will never be 100%, but will recover closer to it in time. Problem arises when enough time is not given and the tissue is too fragile to keep on functioning.
 
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