Introducing Windy Dean, a.k.a. Rebel!

Thank you! Even though he's driving me crazy currently, I'm still pretty thrilled with him. I think he'll end up being a really great horse. :)

I'm FINALLY posting an update... It's been a crazy couple of months.
Hubby and I are moving to Arkansas next week, so we're working on packing up our apartment and our ponies and our cats to make the move. Whew! Lots of work and lots of stress. But there's a sweet little house and a beautiful 10 acre pasture awaiting us, where my horses can live on my own property. This is a dream come true for us, but doesn't come without a lot of work.

The "coming in from pasture" roadblock was a short-lived one, thank goodness. He now happily comes over to the gate at dinnertime every day!

Here's a super short little clip of Rebel being his adorable self. He's one of the most gentle, intelligent babies I've ever seen. He picks up on training sooo fast! He walks and trots nicely in hand, picks up all four feet, yields hindquarters and forequarters both directions, lowers head on command, and clearly gives kisses on command. He is so much fun. He is very used to having his hooves trimmed now, and allows us to open his mouth and check out his sweet little baby teeth. Any ideas on what else we could teach him? I refuse to start his lunging until his joints can take the circular motion without doing damage.

Some new pics of the little man... His growth had me worried for a while, as he stayed basically the same height through the winter. Is that normal for babies? Anyway, we moved to Arkansas about 6 weeks ago, and since then he's been noticeably filling out and getting a bit taller. He string tested to 16 hh, but I THINK (haven't actually measured since mid-December) he's just now hitting 13 hh. Seems like he has a bit of catching up to do? Maybe I did the string test incorrectly... I'll have to check all my methods and try again.

He has been doing well with his training, and is really coming into his personality. He LOVES people, but can get a bit pushy. I think HE's realizing he's getting bigger too! So we're doing a lot of re-working the basics, I.e. Personal space, de-sensitizing, hoof handling, yielding hindquarters, etc... He is such an amazing little man-- He takes every new experience in stride! We have tried so hard to find something new that he will react to so we can get him thoroughly used to it... He doesn't mind ANYTHING!!! "Walk over a log? Ok. Go through a puddle of water? I'll play in it! Rub me down with a plastic bag? I'll try to eat it. Fly spray for the first time? Psh. No problem." He is so unbelievably inquisitive and smart!

He'll be a year old on May 15. Will be taking "official" yearling photos at that point. He still looks pretty shaggy in these pics... Nebraska was an absolute frozen ice land when we left, and Arkansas can't decide which season it is, so the ponies have held onto their fuzzy jackets a bit longer than usual this year. They are starting to shed out finally, though!

Pretty soon, Ryan plans to take him on his first trip out on the trail... He'll be leading him, of course! After he gets used to that (so after the first time! ), I'll start ponying him from Caly on our rides so he gets used to the idea of a person being above him. We'll also start lunge training him in approx. July. We will have settled into our house and hopefully have a round pen up by then! Let me know what you guys think... Any suggestions on raising the little man up right would be appreciated! Thanks!

He is cute
Good luck with Rebel

Thank you!

What an exciting day...

Rebel managed to find a way out of his pasture today. Not sure how that happened. Weather has been awful, and we are going to walk the perimeter tomorrow and see what we find. Until then, Rebel is hanging out in the smaller, more solidly fenced enclosure beside the pasture!

This little adventure did not come without its downsides for the silly boy... He has a triangular-shaped gash in his left front knee and wire scrapes on his chest. I LOATHE BARBED WIRE!!!!! Very glad that this is just a temporary boarding pasture for the horses. We should be into our house in just the next few weeks, and then NO MORE BARBED WIRE!!!!! (We are boarding with a friend until we can get into our 10-acre property... Set to close May 15! This current pasture's fence is only partial barbed wire, but it SO doesn't agree with horses!)

This debacle occurred this morning, while I was at work and could do absolutely nothing about it. The neighbor called my father-in-law to say, "your littlest horse is out." He tried to call my cell and leave a message, but it apparently didn't work out, as I have yet to receive a "missed call" or "new voicemail" notification. So when hubby got off work, a FEW HOURS later, dad-in-law asked him if I had gotten Rebel back into the pasture. Hubby's reaction: "Umm, what?!?" So, they quickly made their way to the pasture and found the little man hanging out in a neighbor's yard, looking a bit befuddled at his predicament. Vet came out and put two stitches into his knee injury. He said everything was surprisingly clean and it should heal up with no problems and very quickly. THANK GOODNESS. He gave him a tetanus booster, penicillin, and we are giving bute and antibiotics for the next week. After that, we should be peachy keen.

UGH. Silly horses. And I was just thinking about how lucky we were with our healthy, easy-to-maintain pets. Lol! That's what I get for thinking that, I guess!

Oh, what a fright, that should heal up ok. Hope you get into your new pastures soon.

Claire

Almost a week later, Rebel is on the mend. All the scratches have pretty much healed up, but his knee still looks pretty nasty... It is healing, just much more slowly than everything else. He hasn't been limping on it at all though, so I'm taking that as a good sign. We had a little escape artist join our two for the last few days in our pasture... Apparently, this was the week for horsey runaways. Hubby got a call on his phone again on Monday-- it was our boarding manager, saying a neighbor called and said our little horse had gotten out again and that he'd put him back for us. Hubby was very unpleasantly surprised, as we had walked the fenceline, found and repaired the spot where Rebel had gotten out before. He hurried back out to the pasture to see what had happened... Only to be greeted by 3 horses instead of 2! Not quite sure how they mistook a tiny mini paint mare for our yearling quarter horse gelding, but oh well. Everyone is safe and sound, and we found the mini's owner. She will be picking her up ASAP. In the meantime, Rebel is enjoying his new pasture mate!

P.S. At the end of the video, Rebel found a hole. Lol. Not a big one and he's fine, just tripped him up a little.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgcvfW6QATE

Aww, that's a cutie...

I have enjoyed reading this thread. Rebel is absolutely precious! I can't wait for more updates and pictures!