Post by honeyfish on Oct 6, 2007 14:11:52 GMT -5
Well, after much sadness in losing my Benthread on CBER, I've decided to start a new one in his honor.
Ben was a rescue off the lot by generous Clayton and family back in I believe July 2005. I saw his feedlot photos and made the trip up to Elma on the pretense that my boyfriend and I needed a trip to Olympia (for some reason. All invented so I could have an excuse to go up and see the older arab gelding with the split hoof).
His brand marks him as AHR*305005 Baskovia, foaled 1984, son of Segovia x Brass Button with Serafix, El Sirocco and Cal-O-Bask in his pedigree. I didn't know any of that at the time, of course.
His feedlot photo:
It wasn't exactly love at first sight (I was so nervous I hadn't eaten all day), but I had a feeling he was something special. He received excellent care at Clayton's, a vet exam and some trimming. He had managed to scratch his cornea on some blackberry bushes and needed to wear a flymask all the time to keep it out of the light. He trucked me around like a champ, despite not being able to see out of one eye:
As we were leaving, Clayton said, "Don't you want to see his face?" I realized with a start I hadn't even seen his eyes...which were very dull at that time. I don't think he had much hope of the good life. Plus, Issa was kicking the crap out of him and they had to be separated.
I decided I wanted to go ahead with the adoption. I paid someone a ridiculous amount of money to trailer him down here so I could have him settled before school started...and our life together began at the stable I learned to ride at when I was 10.
It is easy to see how thin and depressed he was in these photos from his first week home in September of 2005.
Our first ride together at his new home. His eye is still bothering him although per the vet it is healing nicely:
His first winter with me hit him hard. He grew a shaggy coat probably due to his poor body condition, although it was shiny. We continued with slowly bringing him back up to a more normal amount of muscle and weight. He was 21 1/2 years old here (October 2005).
He is beginning to lose the "ewe neck" although he is still very thin under the fine, fluffy fur.
For a while during the winter he began to look worse rather than better. Probably the poor condition, stress in the change of scenery and work, and shaggy coat added to this appearance. However, he has actually gained weight from when he arrived:
These photos from late October show his general lack of condition and notable lack of suspension/extension in the gaits (complete with child labor):
However, there is some light starting to come back into his eyes:
There is a bit of a gap in photos. I believe this is December 2005. His weight, condition and gaits have improved dramatically. I step up the reconditioning with the help of my trainer, and we introduce some very small cross rails to keep his brain interested. To my surprise, he actually seems to really enjoy them!
(December 17 2005)
I can only find one photo of him in March 2006 and it's in black and white for some reason...
And in April 2006, we went to our first low-key schooling show at the barn (no traveling needed!):
Naturally he had never seen a non-x type jump before...excuse my extremely poor jumping form, I didn't expect him to launch so high! I should have been better prepared. ;D
We had a blast, and I was so proud of him.
In April 2006 he really began to blossom.
In May he looked and felt even better.
I knew there was a fabulous trot in there somewhere!
In late June I moved him to another boarding facility where I could be free from any obligations I had at the only barn I had ever known. They wanted to use him for giving lessons (and thus make more money off of us); I felt that wasn't in his best interest or in mine. And since he was my horse, we made the move to PEC.
I was very poor, still in college, and wanted him to have every comfort available...so I chose good hay and senior grain and a stall at the end of the isle over a good saddle and bridle. No kidding. We rode in nothing but a halter for the first few weeks, since I didn't have any money for a saddle. I had always used the barn's tack, and when I moved him, I had nothing but the halter and boots I had bought him.
It became apparent readily that while he missed the friends he had made at Longacres, he was a much happier horse in his new home.
After a while I could afford a cheap bridle and bareback pad. That is all we had for a few months until I saved up enough money to buy my Crosby (about the only saddle I could find that fit him properly).
He was really starting to look good. His muscling was coming back and his weight was slowly but surly returning. He has always been a finicky eater though, so the weight gain took a very long time.
Well into Summer 2006 now, and looking very shiny and healthy:
August 2006 we made our first trek up Mt Pisgah:
Then for some reason I have no pictures of him all winter. I think I lost my camera or something...I can't remember. But it was rainy, dark, and gloomy like most winters. He held his weight well and hardly grew anything but some winter fuzz.
We pick up again in Spring 2007.
It became increasingly more apparent that he was lonely. Enter: the boss.
Yes, yes, I know, I know, everyone is cringing now since an obviously close-to-founding pony is on spring grass...let me qualify this picture by saying they were allowed 10 minutes a day out on the grass. And I took these pictures after my farrier told me "no sign of founder". AND I took these just as I thought she was starting to look good...yikes. You can only imagine.
"The boss" came to me because the family who had taken her in realized she was too much of a handful. She has some issues. And she looks terrible. So she came to live at the barn and be Ben's companion. They warmed to each other instantly...probably because my crotchety old man was so desperate for company.
Fortunately by late spring she was starting to come around, too, after a serious weight loss program and some exercise. And holy crap--SHE'S BLACK!
Her conformation is atrocious, so don't even go there.
By late summer she was a total knockout and most of the people at the barn didn't even recognize her:
And if I may say so..."Bin" isn't looking half bad himself:
Here he is goofing off with the boss, in his blanket--my vain attempt to keep the river silt off him right after his hour long bath (it didn't work very well at all):
Then in August 2007 the third and final addition to the herd makes her debut: Keelan's Chevelle, a rather wacky-legged 2 year old supposed quarter horse from the auction. She didn't go through the sale until 9:00 at night because she was a late entry, no-catalog, and it was me, Keelan, the kill buyer and the horse traders. I will never go to an auction again. It was terrible.
However, I think he picked out a good one. She's steady and quiet as can be, but she's built like a dump truck with wheels not bolted on all the way.
Keelan and the crooked-legged baby:
Some of these shots show her crooked front legs (very back at the knee):
And the most recent picture of "clean" Ben I have, shown here late this Summer at the age of 23, living like a king in his freshly painted stall, which he has already begun to destroy by rubbing his nose on it and pooping on the walls:
More to come!
Ben was a rescue off the lot by generous Clayton and family back in I believe July 2005. I saw his feedlot photos and made the trip up to Elma on the pretense that my boyfriend and I needed a trip to Olympia (for some reason. All invented so I could have an excuse to go up and see the older arab gelding with the split hoof).
His brand marks him as AHR*305005 Baskovia, foaled 1984, son of Segovia x Brass Button with Serafix, El Sirocco and Cal-O-Bask in his pedigree. I didn't know any of that at the time, of course.
His feedlot photo:
It wasn't exactly love at first sight (I was so nervous I hadn't eaten all day), but I had a feeling he was something special. He received excellent care at Clayton's, a vet exam and some trimming. He had managed to scratch his cornea on some blackberry bushes and needed to wear a flymask all the time to keep it out of the light. He trucked me around like a champ, despite not being able to see out of one eye:
As we were leaving, Clayton said, "Don't you want to see his face?" I realized with a start I hadn't even seen his eyes...which were very dull at that time. I don't think he had much hope of the good life. Plus, Issa was kicking the crap out of him and they had to be separated.
I decided I wanted to go ahead with the adoption. I paid someone a ridiculous amount of money to trailer him down here so I could have him settled before school started...and our life together began at the stable I learned to ride at when I was 10.
It is easy to see how thin and depressed he was in these photos from his first week home in September of 2005.
Our first ride together at his new home. His eye is still bothering him although per the vet it is healing nicely:
His first winter with me hit him hard. He grew a shaggy coat probably due to his poor body condition, although it was shiny. We continued with slowly bringing him back up to a more normal amount of muscle and weight. He was 21 1/2 years old here (October 2005).
He is beginning to lose the "ewe neck" although he is still very thin under the fine, fluffy fur.
For a while during the winter he began to look worse rather than better. Probably the poor condition, stress in the change of scenery and work, and shaggy coat added to this appearance. However, he has actually gained weight from when he arrived:
These photos from late October show his general lack of condition and notable lack of suspension/extension in the gaits (complete with child labor):
However, there is some light starting to come back into his eyes:
There is a bit of a gap in photos. I believe this is December 2005. His weight, condition and gaits have improved dramatically. I step up the reconditioning with the help of my trainer, and we introduce some very small cross rails to keep his brain interested. To my surprise, he actually seems to really enjoy them!
(December 17 2005)
I can only find one photo of him in March 2006 and it's in black and white for some reason...
And in April 2006, we went to our first low-key schooling show at the barn (no traveling needed!):
Naturally he had never seen a non-x type jump before...excuse my extremely poor jumping form, I didn't expect him to launch so high! I should have been better prepared. ;D
We had a blast, and I was so proud of him.
In April 2006 he really began to blossom.
In May he looked and felt even better.
I knew there was a fabulous trot in there somewhere!
In late June I moved him to another boarding facility where I could be free from any obligations I had at the only barn I had ever known. They wanted to use him for giving lessons (and thus make more money off of us); I felt that wasn't in his best interest or in mine. And since he was my horse, we made the move to PEC.
I was very poor, still in college, and wanted him to have every comfort available...so I chose good hay and senior grain and a stall at the end of the isle over a good saddle and bridle. No kidding. We rode in nothing but a halter for the first few weeks, since I didn't have any money for a saddle. I had always used the barn's tack, and when I moved him, I had nothing but the halter and boots I had bought him.
It became apparent readily that while he missed the friends he had made at Longacres, he was a much happier horse in his new home.
After a while I could afford a cheap bridle and bareback pad. That is all we had for a few months until I saved up enough money to buy my Crosby (about the only saddle I could find that fit him properly).
He was really starting to look good. His muscling was coming back and his weight was slowly but surly returning. He has always been a finicky eater though, so the weight gain took a very long time.
Well into Summer 2006 now, and looking very shiny and healthy:
August 2006 we made our first trek up Mt Pisgah:
Then for some reason I have no pictures of him all winter. I think I lost my camera or something...I can't remember. But it was rainy, dark, and gloomy like most winters. He held his weight well and hardly grew anything but some winter fuzz.
We pick up again in Spring 2007.
It became increasingly more apparent that he was lonely. Enter: the boss.
Yes, yes, I know, I know, everyone is cringing now since an obviously close-to-founding pony is on spring grass...let me qualify this picture by saying they were allowed 10 minutes a day out on the grass. And I took these pictures after my farrier told me "no sign of founder". AND I took these just as I thought she was starting to look good...yikes. You can only imagine.
"The boss" came to me because the family who had taken her in realized she was too much of a handful. She has some issues. And she looks terrible. So she came to live at the barn and be Ben's companion. They warmed to each other instantly...probably because my crotchety old man was so desperate for company.
Fortunately by late spring she was starting to come around, too, after a serious weight loss program and some exercise. And holy crap--SHE'S BLACK!
Her conformation is atrocious, so don't even go there.
By late summer she was a total knockout and most of the people at the barn didn't even recognize her:
And if I may say so..."Bin" isn't looking half bad himself:
Here he is goofing off with the boss, in his blanket--my vain attempt to keep the river silt off him right after his hour long bath (it didn't work very well at all):
Then in August 2007 the third and final addition to the herd makes her debut: Keelan's Chevelle, a rather wacky-legged 2 year old supposed quarter horse from the auction. She didn't go through the sale until 9:00 at night because she was a late entry, no-catalog, and it was me, Keelan, the kill buyer and the horse traders. I will never go to an auction again. It was terrible.
However, I think he picked out a good one. She's steady and quiet as can be, but she's built like a dump truck with wheels not bolted on all the way.
Keelan and the crooked-legged baby:
Some of these shots show her crooked front legs (very back at the knee):
And the most recent picture of "clean" Ben I have, shown here late this Summer at the age of 23, living like a king in his freshly painted stall, which he has already begun to destroy by rubbing his nose on it and pooping on the walls:
More to come!