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I didn’t really intend on starting a journal (because I don’t know how good I’ll be at keeping it up) but I wanted to document some stuff and this seems to be the best place.
Background on Cade: I had been looking for a backup paint horse for drill performances/parades to give 21
yo Skip a break from our busy schedule during performance season. Some of the rodeo weekends include three nights of performances, sponsor flag runs, maybe a parade and/or personal appearances and I would like Skip to stay healthy and sound, so was looking for a potential backup. After going through a few that just didn’t seem to be suitable, I had pretty much given up. My sister, however, (who is also my teammate and our team director/coach) continued to look behind the scenes on my behalf and unbeknownst to me, found Cade, a (now) 9 yo grade paint gelding, 15.2-15.3, barefoot, passed a minimal PPE, with the intention of taking him on a week long trial basis and if he worked out, purchasing him herself to work with him and see what she could do with him. He had been born on his former owner’s property so she was relatively sure of age. He had not been exposed to much, it’s questionable if he had been even hauled off property.
He had had no vet appointments and didn’t even have a Coggins. He was strictly ridden around the pasture by the former owner and even that was sporadic due to her starting her family.
So..my sister and BIL (who is a farrier) went to check him out (he was a couple of hours from their location), and my sister thought “Well, he doesn’t know much, BUT he’s also basically a clean slate.” So they negotiated a week long trial with the owner with the understanding he would either be returned or purchased at the end of the week. They loaded him up and brought him home.
During the week trial, she worked with him every day and based on the potential she saw, went ahead and purchased him after having him seen by her vet, getting an up to date Coggins, and her farrier husband checking out his feet.
She started him with the basics, but did something with him every day for six weeks. After loading in the trailer to come home, he wouldn’t load again in the trailer for maybe a couple of those weeks! Eventually they worked their way through that, and she was able to expose him to a variety of stuff, including hauling to a local arena, riding around her neighborhood where there’s a “dog gauntlet”, UPS/FEDEX trucks, tree trimming equipment, holiday decorations, school buses, kids on bikes….just a ton of stuff to expose him to. After six weeks, my BIL brought him to my house (I live a couple of hours from them). My sister said I could try him as long as I liked, and to only bite the bullet on purchasing him if he was “the one”.
When he arrived, I had 20-plus year old Skip (gelding) and 5-6 yo Poppy,
a grade mare. It was obvious from about the second day that Poppy was an issue. She was already mean to Skip and she joined forces with Cade, and they were both mean to Skip. I’ve had Skip 18 years next month. No one gets to be mean to him for long! Poppy was also in love with the gelding next door and she and Cade tore down the fence to get over on their property. So….the first order of business had to be finding Poppy a new home. She was strictly a companion for Skip and had been free to me..I wasn’t really attached to her. Although I have plenty of room for three horses, I’m just better with only having two. Found a wonderful new home for Poppy through my farrier and she now has a 10 year old little girl to love her.
Back to Cade! I rode him shortly after he arrived here, and I really liked him. He’s affectionate and friendly like Skip, stands for mounting, stands to be saddled and bridled, isn’t hard to catch in pasture (thank goodness, they are on 9 acres!), is great for farrier, and IS broke to ride, and during the time my sister had him, he wasn’t spooky. His cons initially were: he doesn’t neck rein, is pretty dead sided, paws when tied to trailer and he balks.
While my goal is to get him ready for drill by the summer, his first events will be parades, which is simply walking a route with the other horses. There’s a lot to be considered: high school bands (none of the horses like the drum lines!), balloons, crowd noise, everyone carries a flag, pavement, wagons, Shriner cars, weather, you name it.
Our rides were going well, but due to the holidays and our insanely bipolar Texas weather, were not as consistent as he had been getting at my sister’s. I have no arena to haul to around here (or not that I’ve found after two years of being here), so the rides are either in my pasture or along the road.
Everything was going pretty well, until……
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Background on Cade: I had been looking for a backup paint horse for drill performances/parades to give 21
yo Skip a break from our busy schedule during performance season. Some of the rodeo weekends include three nights of performances, sponsor flag runs, maybe a parade and/or personal appearances and I would like Skip to stay healthy and sound, so was looking for a potential backup. After going through a few that just didn’t seem to be suitable, I had pretty much given up. My sister, however, (who is also my teammate and our team director/coach) continued to look behind the scenes on my behalf and unbeknownst to me, found Cade, a (now) 9 yo grade paint gelding, 15.2-15.3, barefoot, passed a minimal PPE, with the intention of taking him on a week long trial basis and if he worked out, purchasing him herself to work with him and see what she could do with him. He had been born on his former owner’s property so she was relatively sure of age. He had not been exposed to much, it’s questionable if he had been even hauled off property.
He had had no vet appointments and didn’t even have a Coggins. He was strictly ridden around the pasture by the former owner and even that was sporadic due to her starting her family.
So..my sister and BIL (who is a farrier) went to check him out (he was a couple of hours from their location), and my sister thought “Well, he doesn’t know much, BUT he’s also basically a clean slate.” So they negotiated a week long trial with the owner with the understanding he would either be returned or purchased at the end of the week. They loaded him up and brought him home.
During the week trial, she worked with him every day and based on the potential she saw, went ahead and purchased him after having him seen by her vet, getting an up to date Coggins, and her farrier husband checking out his feet.
She started him with the basics, but did something with him every day for six weeks. After loading in the trailer to come home, he wouldn’t load again in the trailer for maybe a couple of those weeks! Eventually they worked their way through that, and she was able to expose him to a variety of stuff, including hauling to a local arena, riding around her neighborhood where there’s a “dog gauntlet”, UPS/FEDEX trucks, tree trimming equipment, holiday decorations, school buses, kids on bikes….just a ton of stuff to expose him to. After six weeks, my BIL brought him to my house (I live a couple of hours from them). My sister said I could try him as long as I liked, and to only bite the bullet on purchasing him if he was “the one”.
When he arrived, I had 20-plus year old Skip (gelding) and 5-6 yo Poppy,
a grade mare. It was obvious from about the second day that Poppy was an issue. She was already mean to Skip and she joined forces with Cade, and they were both mean to Skip. I’ve had Skip 18 years next month. No one gets to be mean to him for long! Poppy was also in love with the gelding next door and she and Cade tore down the fence to get over on their property. So….the first order of business had to be finding Poppy a new home. She was strictly a companion for Skip and had been free to me..I wasn’t really attached to her. Although I have plenty of room for three horses, I’m just better with only having two. Found a wonderful new home for Poppy through my farrier and she now has a 10 year old little girl to love her.
Back to Cade! I rode him shortly after he arrived here, and I really liked him. He’s affectionate and friendly like Skip, stands for mounting, stands to be saddled and bridled, isn’t hard to catch in pasture (thank goodness, they are on 9 acres!), is great for farrier, and IS broke to ride, and during the time my sister had him, he wasn’t spooky. His cons initially were: he doesn’t neck rein, is pretty dead sided, paws when tied to trailer and he balks.
While my goal is to get him ready for drill by the summer, his first events will be parades, which is simply walking a route with the other horses. There’s a lot to be considered: high school bands (none of the horses like the drum lines!), balloons, crowd noise, everyone carries a flag, pavement, wagons, Shriner cars, weather, you name it.
Our rides were going well, but due to the holidays and our insanely bipolar Texas weather, were not as consistent as he had been getting at my sister’s. I have no arena to haul to around here (or not that I’ve found after two years of being here), so the rides are either in my pasture or along the road.
Everything was going pretty well, until……
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. You can teach a lot on the rail, including correct leads
) but he was tied where he could see him and that ended up fine. He is pretty inconsistent on picking up his feet for cleaning; however, it’s a different foot every time. Today he was a champ about the back feet and didn’t want to pick up the right front. Every time I would reach for that right front, he would start backing away from the trailer. I do tie in a quick release but did NOT want the lead rope to get really tight, so I made the decision to untie him but leave the lead rope loosely threaded through the tie ring on the trailer. I once again reached for the foot, he backs up but discovers, “Oh, I can do that!” I’d let him back a few steps, he would stop and I’d just lead him forward to the trailer. By the third time, he decided that wasn’t fun anymore and he picked the foot up before I even asked for it. I was so proud of myself for not getting frustrated or impatient and just being like, “Well, I can do this all day if you can!” LOL! He’s not one you can jerk forward for anything….he’s determined to win and at his size, he will!
