Sunny dun 20!

[greencinacheeks]

gotya...thats what i thought gelding meant...to lazy to google it

makes sense. do these thorough breds that don;t make it ever "calm down" or are they always explosive and ready to go.??

[TikusMom]

Depends on the individual horse. Most will settle down with retraining but it may take a while. Some catch on right away, some take a longer time, and then there are those who never change their original ingrained training.

[greencinacheeks]

well thanks for the info!!!!

[TikusMom]

My pleasure! I love talkin' horses!

[Halo]

Well... it was another one of those rescue things. These two horses had been retired from the race track and gelded so that they could no longer be raced or used as studs and they needed a home. One got taken before we got there but they still wanted us to take the other one so I agreed. We were so excited because he was just the most beautiful horse I'd ever seen. Well.... Cassie, our 24 year old, came to us that same day and we didn't think any of it. We got home with the thoroughbred and realized that Cassie was in season. We separated them but ohhhhh that horse was still going nuts. He was about 17 hands. My hubby is six foot tall and he could just get to the bottom of his head with his arm all the way up (off to search for pics lol) OK... here he is. His name is "Punk". He even had "Man O War" in his lineage.








Anyway... his owner had passed away and his last wish was that his horses be retired and allowed to live out the rest of their lives away from the track. Long story short, six days after we brought him home, I went out to feed him and as I was pushing the alfalfa thru the fence, he stuck his head thru, and caught my wrist between his head and our 3inch steel fence. He crushed the nerves in my right arm and to this day (this happened end of April) after therapy and surgery, my right hand is still numb. I have very little use of it and can no longer hold the reins and honestly couldn't lift a saddle if my life depended on it. Since that is my dominant arm, I decided it was best not to get on the back of a horse again since I don't feel that I could have enough control with just my left hand. I would probably be fine with Cassie but I'd rather not risk it. After this, he went to live with a horse trainer and is now a dressage horse. He was absolutely gorgeous and really not a bad horse. I don't hold it against him (after the first hour anyway lol). I also had to rehome my 8 year old mustang gelding because I couldn't ride him and he was too much for my kids to handle and he was the kind that if you didn't keep on him, he'd go pasture sour in a heart beat. He's getting spoiled rotten at his new home now and is very happy. I get updates all the time. This incident also led to my herd of llamas being rehomed which just about killed me. I could no longer halter train them with one hand. They were my babies and I miss them desperately. They went to a perfect home where they are being trained to be pack llamas and luckily I have full visitation rights It's hard to have them gone though. I'm also having issues with Blessing and being able to bottle feed her. She turns in circles because of her blindness and I can't hold her still It's an adventure for sure.

Here's a pic of Charlie, my mustang. I miss him too!



Here's Cassie too. This was the only time my hubby had the cajones to get up on her He's terrified of being thrown but this was after my accident and I couldn't ride her. I never even got the chance



Oh... and Diddle came to live with us right before this happened. Without him, I would never have made it through. Because I had him to work with and he was opening up to me, I had something to keep my mind off of things and not get depressed!

I also try to stay out of the shed where my beautiful saddle is sitting rotting away

It was all just an accident. I don't think it really had anything to do with him being just gelded or really with Cassie being in season, I just did something stupid. However, we were certainly not "horse savvy" enough to handle that horse and I paid the price for it. I don't blame the horse at all, only myself.

[Halo]

I don't think it's an "all gelding" thing. He had just been gelded less than a week before we took him. As a matter of fact, he still tried to mount Cassie when we got him home so he didn't realize he was no longer manly lol. I think a lot of his was him being a race horse.

[greencinacheeks]

aww i am sorry to hear that that happend to you..but they are all BEAUTIFUL!!!! and WOW big horse there!!! my friend used to have a mustang one of the 3 horse i have ever ridden...such a nice horse!

[TikusMom]

Wow, Halo! I am soooo very sorry that you've had to go through all of that! Is there any hope of regaining feeling in your hand? I can relate kind of...my carpal tunnel makes my hands go numb frequently, and it is just awful. My right hand (dominant) is worse than my left. It's not so hard for me when I ride because I've always reined with my left hand so that my right hand is free to use if needed.
Punk was absolutely gorgeous! You can really see the fire in his eye in that first photo, which is pretty much the trademark of Thoroughbreds!
The sad thing about race horse training is that trainers are mostly interested in getting these animals to run, and the only ground work that is done is teaching the horse to stand (if you can call it that) long enough to have their tack put on. Respect is usually not on the agenda for the trainers, and this guy was big and he knew it. Horses will use their size and weight to get their way if they think they can get away with it, believe you me! Even stallions with foulest of attitudes will be allowed to reproduce as long as they can run fast.
Never under estimate the power of testosterone, and the longer they're under the influence of it, the harder it is to convince them that they no longer have it! I'm not sure how old he was, but my guess would be somewhere between 3 and 5 from the picture?
Anyway, I love Cassie's sweet, sweet face! She's an absolute doll!

[Halo]

He was 10. He really was a gorgeous horse but not worth all the trouble

The doctors just keep telling me that my nerves haven't healed yet and keep putting me off. The surgery they did is actually the carpal tunnel release surgery (don't ever have it done.... OMG so painful!) and they are also considering releasing the nerve at my elbow as well but after the first surgery, I'm not sure I want to do it. The worst is when I have to type a paper for school or something (like today I have a big pyschology paper due for my final) and before I get done, my entire arm to my shoulder will be numb.

I didn't realize it earlier but you can also see my llamas in the picture of Charlie behind him in the pasture. That was before the babies were born. The three females were all pregnant when we brought them here. One of them is still expecting. My biggest regret is that I won't get to see the baby when it's born. Well I can but it's not the same as having it here.

[TikusMom]

Awww, the llamas are cool! I didn't notice them before...too busy lookin at the horsie! LOL! I wish you would get to have the girls to see the last cria hit the ground. Gosh they're awful cute little critters! My dad breeds them (he lives in northern CA, so I've never seen them in person) and he will send me pics of the little crias. I think they are adoreable and have the LONGEST eye lashes!

I am so sorry about your hands....oh, and just to let you know, I don't think I'll be toying with the surgery thing now! You've convinced me!!! I too have the whole arm numbness thing but it's positional and not all the time. I usually will experience it when I'm driving, or if I'm holding a cup of coffee or something. But again, it's sporadic. Now the aching pain in my hands is constant, and sometimes if I move my hands a certain way I'll get this "zing" like an electric shock. I HATE that! I also have trouble grasping things sometimes and I find I drop things alot which made my job particularly difficult especially when trying to do delicate things like place an IV catheter, or draw blood! Man, getting old SUX! LOL!