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No Name the Rescue Horse: First Lunge.

4K views 56 replies 9 participants last post by  nherridge 
#1 ·
So, I brought home a horse yesterday. A little bit of a charity case. Barely any human contact, fear of humans. Fairly thin. Never seen a vet, farrier, dentist etc.

She is a 2 year old Arabian, she turns 3 in March.

She came to me with the name of "Rosebud" but I think she desperately needs a change.

Loading her was interesting. I used a 4 horse stock trailer. The man yanked and yelled at her (obviously not halter broke) so I told him to quit and be gentle. I got the chance to scratch her for a minute, asked the guy to move forward and I patted her bum and up she went.

Yesterday I settled her in, scratched her a little (she would barely come near) and fed her and left out heaps of hay (she is used to a round bale).

They were feeding her scant amounts of the crappiest sweet feed available. I am slowly switching her over to Dumor - All Stages, and investigating supplements and vitamins that may be beneficial. Anyway she spent the evening eating and watching us warily.

We let the dogs out (who have never seen horses, normally we board horses not take them home, but she hadn't seen a vet yet) and found out about her lovely hatred for small dogs and she viciously attacked one of them. The dog still likes her. She, still doesn't.

This morning, she was like a different horse. Came right up (we fed her treats) and enjoyed a good scratch, but was surely cautious. She ate, drank and seemed content. I went out again and decided to brush her, which she was okay with. Picking her hooves was a bit harder, but she worked through it. She was more scared than anything.

I measured her with a plastic height/weight tape - god knows that was terrifying. The tape, that is. I had to sack her out for a good 20 minutes with it. She is 14.1 on the button and 900 lbs. (I am not sure the weight is correct, she looks thinner than that to me)

She was being level headed enough, so I decided to start lunge training her. I had a 40 ft rope, idk where my lunge line is. I sent her to the left first, she got it well. Got kinda fast and a tad pulley threw in a couple bucks and rears but she calmed down. The change of direction was the hardest part because she wanted to join up. I just kept sending her off and swinging my rope. No whip. She did good. I joined up with her and let her cool off for a bit and tried it again just for the purpose of this video.

So that's her story. These are her pics from yesterday when I got her home:
newhorse11 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Conformation Crit if you want. She is not actually cow hocked as it appears. She obviously needs lots of weight and muscle. Her shoulder isn't great and she is a bit ewe necked but nothing too serious.

And her lunging video:

This was a virtually untouched horse yesterday.

Do you think we are going to fast? I think I am only giving her what she can handle. And she was great afterwards, followed me around (not angry because I "chased her off").

Any disciplines jump out at you? :) Any other comments welcome!!!
 
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#4 ·
Thank you so much. I adore her.

On another note, I am hoping she keeps progressing with lunge training so quickly. However, I need an opinion. Should I wait until she is train to w/t/c/stop, change direction on command before lunging her with a saddle? Or should I go ahead and saddle her up?

SHE WILL NOT BE RIDDEN UNTIL THIS SUMMER AT THE EARLIEST!

And she will NOT be bitted until she has seen the dentist. Then she will be ground driven.
 
#6 ·
She's so lovely!

Maybe a gentle name like Ella or Annie or a non-human name something like Sahara or Fonda or Cadence or something. (I'm terrible with names.)

But she needs a girly name that expresses her beauty and personality.. but nothing too girly IMOP
 
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