Bloom Where You're Planted Farm

We had a really warm, sun-shiney day on Tuesday.  When I came home from work around noon I went out to see what the horses were doing.  This is how I found Sully...

He was so still and peaceful that I watched for awhile to make sure he was still breathing!

I guess he was storing up his energy for these shenanigans with Dash later in the afternoon...

Sully is the second horse we adopted from the horse rescue in June of '07.  He was not quite two years old at the time.  We chose him because of his sweet disposition -- he came right up to us in the corral, and after getting his nose scratched swung around to ask for a butt scratchin'.  He'd been born at the rescue and was very tame and gentle.  We were told he was part Quarter Horse and part Arabian, which would indicate he would be a smaller horse.  Those factors helped us decide he might be a good horse for me to ride, so we took him home.

He is still sweet and friendly, and his promise of small size held true...maybe a little too much.  Now full-grown at age 3 1/2 he is barely bigger than when we got him.  We've been told that instead of an Arabian mix he's probably part Welsh Pony.  That would make him an ideal size for someone of my stature, but he's become Terry's horse instead...

Sully wasn't broke to ride, and for the first several months we had him he was a very happy-go-lucky, pokey, "ho-hum" kind of guy.  That all changed the first time Terry rode him.  Something came alive inside him, and he bucked Terry off.  We recovered (Terry's shoulder is still recovering 15 months later) and continued working with him for awhile.  But, it became evident he was too much for amateurs like us to train (it's much harder than they make it look on RFD-TV!).  So, after a rest over the winter we took him to Kelly at MidStates Ranch Horses for professional training.

Even Kelly found Sully to be a challenge, but she persevered and did a great job with him.  He's still very spirited, but Terry enjoys the challenge of riding and working with him.  I, however, am a big chicken.  I've been riding Abbie, a tall Paint mare, while Terry rides tiny little Sully.  I'm sure we make a funny picture, but it works for us!

To find a horse rescue organization in your area, click here.

Saddled and ready to go last summer

Wearing his teddy bear winter coat 

Since my last entry was about our mare Sachi and all the trouble we had with her horse trainer, I thought I'd tell you a little more of her story. 

Sachi was my first horse.  I've wanted a horse for as long as I can remember.  I used to set up buckets in our driveway and ride my bike around them like I was barrel racing.  My dream of owning a horse finally came true when I was 31 years old and I convinced Terry to take me to Heartland Horse Rescue (it isn't there anymore, but to find a listing of horse rescue organizations in your area click here.)  We went into a corral filled with horses, and one of the first to approach us was a beautiful bay mare.  She really stood out among the other horses and I was instantly in love.  We learned that she had been brought to the rescue a couple weeks earlier by the owners of a boarding facility.  Her owners had abandoned her there, and no one knew her name or if she was registered.  She appeared to be full Quarter Horse and was around three years old.  As far as we knew she wasn't broke to ride but was halter broke.  We looked at the other horses and met Sultan, a young stud colt with a super sweet disposition.  We liked them both but decided to talk about it first and to not commit to anything that evening.

We probably weren't back to the main road yet before we decided that we wanted them both.  We called the next morning, and a week later brought our new friends home.  Sultan (Sully, as we call him) had been born at the rescue and was already named.  We decided to name the mare Sachi, a name the Internet told me meant "Joy" in Japanese.

Sully, who we were told was a Quarter Horse/Arabian mix, was not quite two years old at the time.  We knew he needed to be gelded ("fixed") soon, but the rescue owner told us she wouldn't do it until fall when the fly population was down.  He didn't look full grown so we didn't expect any problems right away...  Around two weeks after we brought them home Sachi went into heat and Sully was there to answer the call.  We made an appointment with the vet the next day, but it was already too late.  Baby Dash was born the following Memorial Day!

We had plans to send both horses to a trainer, but Sachi was too far along by that time so Sully went alone.  The trainer, Kelli, did a great job with him.  Her opinion is that he's part Quarter Horse, part Welsh Pony.  He hasn't grown much in the nearly two years we've had him and is quite small for a horse (part of the reason we were deceived into thinking there was no need to geld him yet -- just one of the lessons we've learned along the way!)

Sachi was an excellent mother, and Dash is a real joy.  We certainly didn't need another horse, but it has been so much fun watching her grow and learn.  Our pumpkin patch visitors really enjoyed her too, and their attention has been good for all the horses.  When the season was over it was time for Dash to be weaned.  At the same time an opportunity came up for us to take Sachi to a horse trainer (the infamous trainer mentioned in my last post) and we saw it as good timing. 

As I mentioned last time, it was not a good experience and we wish we could go back and do it over again.  Sachi has been home for five days now and seems happy to be back with her friends.  She will come up to me in the pen but avoids Terry like the plague.  She always did favor me (and seems to dislike men overall) and her experience with the male trainer seems to have reinforced that feeling.  Its hard to know what happened in her past to cause this.  Maybe nothing.  That's one of the risks you face whether you buy a horse or adopt one.  We aren't sure what our next step will be, but we'll probably wait until spring to start working with her again.  We can decide at that time whether we'll pay hundreds more dollars to send her to the trainer we should have taken her to in the first place, or if she'll just be an expensive pet.

I don't mean these posts to scare anyone off adopting or buying a horse.  They are a big responsibility but bring so much joy to our lives.  Now, more than ever, there are many horses in need of good homes!

Can you see why I fell in love??

Making friends at Pumpkin Patch time