Scared New Pony

My husband and I have a new pony to add to our farm. She is a beautiful little bay mare that is part Mustang and part Colonel Spanish Horse by what we were told. She is branded so I know that she is part Mustang. She is about 14 hands tall and a smaller build pony, but she has been mistreated in the past and she is very untrusting of new people.

Someone my husband knew had the pony for his 17 year old daughter and they were moving and unable to keep her so they spread the word to their farrier and he told us about her. My husband went to get her and said the girl was very sad that she was having to get rid of her horse, so he brought her home. I had only seen her in the trailer until yesterday. I spent some time with her yesterday evening and she is a very gentle pony, but scared. She would not go into the barn when we first got there and gave her feed. However, after a little time talking to her and allowing her to see that we were not there to hurt her, she finally came to us.

My husband was able to take hold of her halter and I put a lead rope on her. She lead beautifully! She knows several commands and she does anything that you ask. She never once acted up after we got the lead rope on her halter. She is not scared of sounds that I can tell other than she acts differently when a male is talking versus a female. I had the rope along her face and everything and she did fine.

When my husband got her, he was told that the horse had came from a rescue center and that she had been abused in the past. As I was working with her, I noticed a spot along her right side back by her rear hip area and stomach that she seems to favor as you are rubbing over it and so I believe that has been injured before and possibly where she had been beaten. It makes me so mad that she is not trusting due to someone hurting her in the past! However, she will begin to trust us and be a good little horse.

People need to realize that when they mistreat a horse or pony that it will be a part of their personality from then on and it will make them very mistrusting of others.It makes the future owners job a much harder one to gain trust. Horses are intelligent animals, which some people do not believe. It is sad that people feel that they are just a dumb animal and it does not matter what you do to them. Horses can be trained without being mistreated.

Good Morning Wednesday

The sun is up, the roosters on the farm here are crowing and it is going to be a beautiful Wednesday! My wish for each of you for the day is to enjoy the day whatever it brings to you. We need an optimistic look to the day and some days that is hard when times are hard and dark, but try thinking of ten things that you enjoy and that will usually brighten the mood.

I am looking forward to today. I will be spending part of the day inside as we are going to Incredible Pizza for a home school education day. For those who do not know what Incredible Pizza is - it is a pizza buffet restaurant geared at kids and they have games, laser tag, go karts, etc. Today, there will be a room or two set up with activities for the home school kids to learn from. It is always a fun day! My daughter and I usually go, but we will be taking my niece with us today. Her and my daughter are only a year apart in age and so they always enjoy the time that they are together.

I think that we will also do a little shopping for 4 H project items. I know we need some supplies for some of the projects and we do not live near a craft and hobby store, but we will be near some today and so I think we will take advantage of that. I know my daughter will need scrapbook paper for her auto/truck project. I also know her child development will need some too. I love 4 H and all it entails, but getting things prepared for it can be a real hassle. She waits to long to start the projects and then she seems rushed to get them done. However, this year she has started several of them and her child development is almost done!

Since it is going to be warm, I am for sure getting outside too. I want to be able to clean my saddle and brush some of the horses today. I am hoping to go do some riding tomorrow too. I also want to clean our tack shed some and try to get it a little more organized before we have to start using it on a daily basis. During the winter, it always seems that nothing gets put back right as someone is always in a hurry to put things away as it is cold.

Hopefully, those who are having nice weather today can enjoy it and for those who are not, just do something nice for yourself- enjoy a cup of hot tea, coffee, or hot cocoa- whatever will make you happy!