Little Jasper

I had several trade offers for Jasper.  The one that sounded the best for Jasper was a man that had 30 acres in Waller.  On the other hand the pony he was trading me was a 6 month old Welsh cross gelding.  I thought OK, he can grow up with the kids.  The man delivered him one morning.  I didn't know the pony had not been weaned.  I didn't know he had not been handled much and was not familiar with a halter.  I'm being really nice here to this guy. The man unloaded this crazy pony and I walked my calm beautiful appaloosa onto the trailer dumbfounded.  He asked do you want to trade? I though too late now....my horse is in the trailer and this pony is running around like he's crazy with no halter on ?!  Then I thought about the 30 acres Jasper would get to roam on and though he would rather that lifestyle....loose on all that land with no kids. 

As the man got in his truck he said by the way he's part mustang too.  I watched the trailer go down the street.  Then the persistant nickering snapped me to attention.  I needed to get this baby in the pasture before he breaks a fence. The pasture fence is much more solid.  So I opened all gates leading to the pasture and began to walk that way.  He decided to go behind my husbands shops which was a narrow path between the shop and the neighbor's fence.  He decided to take this path at full gallop.  To get tot he gate he needed to take a left behind the shop and the gate would be on the right which leads to the small pasture.  Instead he decided to go straight and hit the small pasture fence and flipped over.  I ran as fast as I could to him and just before I got to his side he jumped up and ran to the back of the small pasture.  The poor scared baby.  I got him some hay and our relationship began.  He never suffered any ill effect from flipping over the fence.  Although, he was much more aware when he ran around and careful of the fencing. 

I knew this was pony was not going to work for me.  I even quit watching training tapes because I couldn't get near him and my knowledge of training was very low.  I placed another ad this time for a mini only and I was trading a Welch Mustang cross. I continued to try everyday to touch this baby.  He began to associate me with food and in the beginning he stayed his distance in no time he was the opposite and was all over me at feeding time.  Finally, on Thanksgiving Day I touched him and haltered him for the first time.  A couple of days later my ad was answered.

My ad was answered by a man's wife that said he needed a project and they were geting out of breeding minis.  The had a small herd of mustangs so her husband was knowledgeable in their training.  They offered me a 16 year old mini mare. It was a trade.

Jasper

In 2004, I was getting in the car at the food store after picking up some chicken food. My kids said look look at that appaloosa in the horse trailer.  My kids knew my favorite horse was an appaloosa and I had always hoped to own one.  I looked across the parking lot at an open stock trailer with a red roan appaloosa looking back at me.  The lady that owned him was coming out of the feed store and heard my kids talking about him, it was early fall and we had the windows down on the car.  She walked over to me and said he is for sale, we were on our way to the auction with him.  She said she would much rather him got to a home instead of possibly getting bought by the meat buyer at the auction.  I asked her how much do you want for him ( I expected to hear a price that was high for me like $1200) the lady replied $400.  I thought for a moment.... that my husband would throw a fit...then I though about my dream right in front of my for a price I could afford.  I asked her would you deliver him?  She said YES I asked if she could wait while I got the money out of the ATM....She said YES☺

Within 45 minutes I was the proud owner of a 2 year old appaloosa gelding.  My husband came home and actually though this was neat.  Jasper was his name and he spent the rest of the day enjoying a pile of hay while we groomed him.  The next morning we went hurriedly out to see Jasper and feed him.  He came right to us from across his pasture but he seemed to be much more alert and didn't seem to like the kids too much.  It didn't take me long to realize he must have been sedated for the auction.  I had heard of people doing this when selling a horse but why me?   The dream horse..my appaloosa... I've waited 20 years for.  Well, he will need to be trained I thought.  I began reading everything I could find on horse training from the internet and library.  I watched some John Lyons videos and ordered his series of books.  I checked out a Parelli video at the Library and was instantly hooked.  I became the house wife horse trainer. 

When I owned horses as a kid they all did what we wanted and we rode all over, went swimming in creeks and spent the whole day in the saddle everyday.  I don't really remember much about training them.  We just rode and it worked?! 

So I trained with Jasper everday and he improved alot but he still didn't like kids and tried to bite them.  My husband said why don't you get a pony or a mini the kids can enjoy too.  The kids are such a big part of my life that I thought about my Dream horse and decided to do what is best for the family.  Another Dream Appaloosa will come into my life again one day if it meant to be.  So I set about the task of trading Jasper for a pony or mini. 

Why Blog?

The reason I started this blog was to create a Journal of life with my equine friends.I actually just found out about blogging last year.  I enjoy writing and this give me a way to document memory pages I can look back on in years to come as well as share with my family.  I also don't have paperwork everywhere and the blods stay so organized by date.  Since the beginning I have been writing about this or that but I should write about how each of these special creatures, My Herd, have come into my life.  Let the real blogging begin.

Spring Ideas...Unicorns

The days have been so nice but with this nice weather also comes the blooming of plants and pollination as well.  I have had allergy symptoms for days and have been cooped up avoiding the pollen.  After more than enough rest it must be time to get creative.  So I came up with unicorns....as close to the real thing as possible.☺  The minis are very co-operative while we play dress up.  Now I can say unicorns have walked on Texas soil.

Freindship

♥ Destiny came to us very thin and I wondered if she still had a will to live.  She has a petite frame and seemed so frail.  Each day she seemed to get a little stronger.  One day she began kicking and hurling herself at the buddy she came with, who's weight was good.  I knew that of the small amount of food they were getting he ate the most by his body condition.  When I first met them and they first came to live here they were inseperable.  Destiny followed Kiwi like a shadow.  Then the day of strength must have came for her and she let Kiwi know he would never eat all the food again.  For me it was a relief, the first sign she did have a will to live.  To this day she has to be separated at feeding time, which is most of the time according to her and has only been allowed surpervised visits with some of the younger geldings.  When my mare Sparkle had the seizure and went on a special diet I began separating her with Destiny.  Sparkle is 21 now and is the lead mare of the senior herd but now she needed rest and a break from leadership for awhile.  Destiny who is 5 immediately made it clear she was to be the boss in their herd of 2, unusual for Sparkle she accepted this and let Destiny be in charge.  They have been together for several weeks now and I've not seen any sign they were becoming friends or even liked each other.  As I was leaving for my afternoon errand I noticed Destiny mouthing Sparkle's neck and back.  I backed out slowly because I wasn't sure if Ishould see what they were up to and break them up in case Destiny was picking on Sparkle.  I kept watching and Destiny switched sides while Sparkle just stood there.  I realized that Destiny was going to groom her, that friendly scratch horses give each other on the withers. I watched them intently as my son closed the gate. I felt so happy for Destiny she now had a freind or a buddy at least.  She really didn't seem to know what to do at first but Sparkle patiently showed her and tolerated her clumsiness. ♥

Sparkle

Sparkle was my first mini horse.  I got her when she was 16 years old ironically 16 years after I had seen a miniature horse for the first time.  Today Sparkle is 21 and counting!  Recently she had a seizure.  She was twitching and couldn't stand up without help but at 250# it wasn't easy to help.  I couldn't imagine if this was happening to a full size horse.  I now empathize with those that have HYPP positive horses and appreciate how important their diet is to them.  After our emergency trip to the vet and some bloodwork results the solution was simple?! Karo syrup as she had a low blood sugar level.  Total opposite of what some of my other minis have trouble with which is insulin resistance, with spikes in blood sugar.  This has all set in motion countless hours of research on equine nutrition, diabetes, hypoglaucemia, vitamins, minerals, holistic treatments, etc......I really love it. Sparkle is now on a special diet I have developed for her and has not had another seizure or a need for more Karo Syrup.

This is my favorite picture of Sparkle and her mini mule son Echo with Thibideaux his Dad in the background. The only baby she ever got to keep! She had 6 owners previous to me and was a broodmare. Around here she is our special girl and Echo is her constant companion and friend. Echo is believed to be the reason she had low blood sugar as he is 4 years old and was still nursing...now he is being weaned by us because for whatever reason Sparkle has not made him stop. I never worried about it since she was not going to be bred again until the night of the seizure.  She is just too good of a mommy. Currently Echo is hanging out with his Dad, Tibby.

Horses are not so easy to feed and care for as they are grazers yet have small stomachs and miles of intestines.  I find the challenge of feeding each one as an individual very gratifying.  Funny though the kids and I still like junk food and don't spend half as much time worrying about our own nutrition.  I think that's because we don't really want to hear about the things we shouldn't eat since some things are too good to resist even if we could make better choices.  I have a couple of minis that feel this way too and I'm thankful they don't know about Sonic and those shakes or what french fries and hamburgers are. 

Brandy

Well tonite we got a call from Down Under Horsemanship and they selected another horse, although Brandy is still on the back-up list.  I actually feel good about this because she must not be naughty enough for a Demo Horse.  I've been to Parelli and Clinton Anderson tours and think Clinton Anderson picks some really tough Demo horses.  The best trailer loading demonstration I've ever seen (and learned from) was at a Clinton Anderson tour and I've seen a 3+ hour trailer loading demonstration by Linda Parelli.   Not that that says alot because they are all my favorite trainers. 

I think I will take the money I would have spent on taking Brandy to the tour and invest it in some Clinton Anderson DVD's.  I already own about everything Parelli has done and last year I began following Down Under Horsemanship but have only purchased a couple of halters for Brandy and Dancer and an absolute must, an Aussie Tie Ring.  I still have a collection of John Lyons books I enjoy reading and drawing information from but I saw him do a demonstration once and unfortunately it put me to sleep, so I will stick to his books.

We will resume Brandy's training with the Down Under method and see how it goes.....it will give me something to blog about.