I said a couple days ago that I had something exciting to share. This is it. Meet Lucy! She is a coming 3yo Grade mare (a Nuke baby) that manged to escape from the pasture of broodmares and fillies last year so Zach put her in the trap where the calves, the heifers, and the horses that we need close and handy- Big, Hope, Shuttle, Sonora, (right now) Gump and Pommel etc. So she’s lived out there since last summer. She is very kind; friendly; sweet; nice to be around. We halter-broke her in Sept. It was the first time she’d been handled at all, really. She’d let you get close enough to rub on her, but we had never haltered her. Within 30 minutes of having her in and having a halter on her, and getting her soft and moving forward, Zach was on her bareback, riding around. We kicked her back out into that trap where she’s lived all winter. She usually comes to say hi, when you’re out catching something as all the Nuke babies are so friendly. They’re just certain they were put on earth to do a job for you.
I decided that on Friday I was going to start Lucy under saddle. A couple weeks ago when we made our list of horses that we were keeping for the time being, Lucy made my list. I just love how nice she is to be around. I figured if nothing else she could be an embryo transfer mare if I want to breed Shuttle without having to have her carry the baby. As an aside- Zach is really not in favor if that process or cloning. I’m with him on the cloning. And I think the embryo transfer should be limited to one registerable foal/year. But that is a discussion for another day. Bonus: she’s bred to run, and built for it, and even if she’s grade, I can still futurity her, so I decided that’s what I’m going to do. That should give me two futurity horses for 2011. I’ll introduce the other one later.
I spent about an hour with her before lunch, getting her to join up, and getting her soft in the face and hip- where I could touch her left shoulder and have her move her hip to the left and stay round. Same thing on the right. Then with the assistance of Zach, I sacked her out with a soft navajo- of course she could have cared less; I rubbed her all over with it (we even picked up her feet that day). Some of you are probably thinking: why do you need Zach? Aren’t you a professional horse trainer? Why, yes, I am. But I am not a professional colt starter. Give me a horse with 30 rides, and I will make them soft, have them spinning and they’ll be running a second off the pro horses. Starting colts is different. Shuttle is the only colt I’ve started by myself- basically unassisted. Zach’s methods are slightly different than mine. Again, that will be for another post. I then saddled her. She never offered to buck. Moved out well. Faced up, paid attention. Followed me; I could send her off, bring her in. Anything I wanted. We haven’t loped around yet- just long trotted. I want to film her moving around because she really is a pretty mare. I’m very excited about her. This week I hope to bring in Dino- Gump’s half brother, by Tom, and my 2012 futurity prospect; and Wyatt (also by Tom). He is another cute grade colt that made my list- he looks just like Black, and he’s super friendly too- both of them are coming 2yos. So I’ll start them under saddle. The goal is to get where I’m comfortable starting the colts under saddle as well, so that I can at least have them ready for Zach to put the first few rides on them.
Those of you that asked about horses for sale- we thank you- and thanks to Ve for the purchase of three really nice registered boys! Most of what we have left that is going to the sale are grade. I’m also willing to sell any of the horses mentioned above if anyone is interested.
I love reading this post. Period. Even though it made the itch worse. =]
I love it when you talk horse! I get excited reading it cause I know how excited you are about it!!
Lucy is cute! The pictures you sent me on the phone were fuzzy so I could not see what she looked like.
I am so mad about that guy saying all that stuff!! Now I know exactlly how you felt last year with the peps from the ‘ville.