DEXTER - 2005 dark bay/white pinto gelding

[nhsavvy]

any news on Dexter? Is he adopted or still available? Kinda putting my feelers out for a client...she has a nice place just outside of Monroe (not far from SAFE!) looking for an easy going gelding thats not 'boring'. She is experienced, want's something easy. She is a working mom - better than weekend rider, but needs an uncomplicated horse to ride. Has done the young horse thing, the problem horse thing, and ready for just an easy enjoyable family horse to take her down the trail.

[schwung]

He's out on a trial foster to adopt situation and I am pretty sure he will be adopted at the end of the month.

[schwung]

Dexter's adoption unfortunately did not work out. Dexter seems to have developed some very concerning bad habits at his last two foster/adoptive homes. He is continuing to test fences and is showing aggression towards other horses, and he has also started being very naughty on the ground - nipping, rearing and striking. This is of course very surprising and disturbing to us at SAFE as he was always a gentleman when he was with us. I suspect that the fence issues came about when he learned at his first adoptive home that he could get out of fences, and the behavior problems came about at his second foster home that were really novice about handling horses and he must have been allowed to get away with naughty behavior that has now gotten out of control. Unfortunately it was not something his pending adopter was able to deal with, so he was once again returned to SAFE on Saturday. We will be working with him and trying to figure out what is going on with him before offering him again for adoption.

[shekaberry]

Very surprising, he was such an affable fellow before he left. Hopefully he will be easy to get back in line. Goes to show how easy it is for green horses and babies to turn into monsters if they get away with things.

[schwung]

So I've had a little bit of time to handle and observe Dexter and while I have not seen any of the bad behavior on the ground (he's been quite compliant still), I have seen some of the behavior concerns with regards to fences and other horses. I think the issue here is a horse that is young, and was gelded late (at age 3, we were told), who has no social skills at all, and has learned he can get through fencing if he tries hard enough. I first turned him out with a couple of mares (Zan and Calamity) and while he was not aggressive to them he did get very possessive of them and liked to herd them around. I added Goliath and Annie to the mix one day and Lucky and my yearling gelding Truman another day and he got very concerned about them getting close to "his" mares and spent a lot of time running the two paints away from the other geldings.

The next day I tried him by himself in one of my front pastures next to my three horses (two mares and a gelding). He was fine for a while and then started pacing the fenceline and finally breaking through it to get in with my horses. To his credit, we are talking about just a single strand of hot wire that is not very hot right now. Once he got in though he immediately started herding the mares around in a similar fashion. He was put back in his pasture and he did the same trick twice, so he was put back in a paddock, and THAT was the point in which he went kind of nuts and started threatening to climb/tear down the gate to get back with the others (he earned a night in a stall for that one).

The next day I tried him with Lexi. Lexi immediately HATED him and spent some time chasing him off when he got near her, but her presence was enough to keep Dexter quiet and he didn't even think about testing a fence that day. Last night I had him in a paddock two paddocks away from Lucky and for some reason his very presence there was driving Lucky mad and he kept rushing the fenceline towards him. There is something about his behavior or lack of social skills that pisses some horses off. Today I have him in the front pasture with just the wood fences with Lexi again and he is remaining quiet.

I still haven't seen him do anything REALLY aggressive towards another horse, just a lot of running around, herding them, obsessing over other horses. I think, like Baxter, he is just studdy and may need to be pastured separately, or with a dominant horse. He does need secure fencing that his hot if he is going to be turned out separate from other horses.

I will say this, he looks like a million bucks. Need to get new pictures!

[bsnlark]

send him down here. Buckwheat will either put him in his place or go chasing him around knashing her jaws at him

Its a scarey ( not ) site. Actually it is pretty funny to watch. She chased both Ishmael and Mort when they first got here. They would run away... I keep telling her, its not a pretty face

[lyn51]

I agree with the above, he looks beautiful. He does have some boundary issues on the ground. I thought he was pushy, but found that it just took a tap on his nose with a knot at the end of a lead rope to convince him to leave me alone while I cleaned his pasture.

[Whitewolf821]

Buckwheat (aka Lucy from I Love Lucy, in my book) would get him in shape! She's a total sweetheart to people as long as they have food but she definitely wouldn't let him get away with anything!

[bsnlark]

Too bad im in SW WA..... 6 ft no climb fence, barn access and water the platform in the middle is gone

This was for Mort.... ;D

[trillium]

I agree that a no nonsense mare would probably put him in his place. I used that trick with Dancer when she learned she could get away with anything in the world when she was with Teddie.

Has he been checked to make sure all his boy parts were removed? Maybe a testosterone level check would be in order.

Peggy, your place looks great. It looks like you have been driving in circles around Morph's paddock. That tractor sure comes in handy I bet. I know we love ours.

[bsnlark]

Peggy, your place looks great. It looks like you have been driving in circles around Morph's paddock. That tractor sure comes in handy I bet. I know we love ours.

Laurie, its my substitute for a real riding horse

Dexter was my dads middle name Ive always liked this pony from the first time I saw him.................but my heart belongs to Sonny If I could I'd take him in a heartbeat !!!

[Sara]

I took dexter for a spin today. Although quiet green and very quiet- he's not lazy. He did give me quite the workout though. I look forward to working with him again soon.

[bsnlark]

Jul 17, 2010 21:33:54 GMT -5 Sara said:

I took dexter for a spin today. Although quiet green and very quiet- he's not lazy. He did give me quite the workout though. I look forward to working with him again soon.

can u be more specific on ' very quiet' and 'quite the workout'

thxs

[Sara]

Sure! Dex is a super sweet, easy to handle (in my experience) guy. He has really filled out these days. He let me catch him, lead quietly, tied quietly, tacked up quietly, stood nicely for mounting (but walked off when I got on him). He even was a good boy when baby sampson was being nosy and disruptive in the paddock next to the arena, when dusty was screaming his head off, when Tara got loose and went tearing back to the pasture at a gallop, with other riders entering and exiting the ring...and so on. There is lots to like about this boy!

He is a "work out" to ride just because he's pretty green. My sense is that he has had some training, probably more along the lines of riding trails and things like that- and I bet he's pretty solid in that situation (this is just a GUESS on my part). I would guess that he's done next to *no* arena work so he just doesn't know much about the kind of work you do in an arena: ie steady gaits, turning, etc. He did pick up all 3 gaits with out much fuss- including the canter (except his right lead - more on that later).

He can have cute, forward, gaits but you have to encourage him to keep going. He's not balky, or lazy, he just needs support from his rider still. I was riding him in a lesson so we were doing lots of circles and beginning leg yields and things of that nature- all of which are a whole body work out on him, for now. Although, I will say, that in a trail situation one would probalby not see the same kind of greenness you see in the arena with him.

But the real workout came in in trying to get him to take his correct lead left at the canter. He is very "right sided", even at the trot, and had a really, really, really hard time picking up that left canter. We did eventually get it but I don't think I'll personally try until I can work through it with Andrea (the trainer).

Here is a picture of us working on that tough left side.

[bsnlark]

thank you Sara !

wen he is ready to foster away from Jaime, after he gets thru his training, I would love to have here with me....Trails are me !!
live very very close to Battle Ground Lake ST Park....
but thats a whole world away at this point....

I went for my first real ride abt 2 weeks ago at the park, loved it. It was on my friends Paso Fino Stallion, she raises them...He was wonderful, but I like the slower walk, trot, and then lets gooooo.
gave me back some confidence, and its like riding a bike, I still had my seat, and we were bareback !
( I got dumped to many times by Slyder, and lost all that confidence , so this was wonderful )

Peggy