Upon arrival, our eyes went straight to her. At 16.2 hands and a stage of grey that has her mainly white with fleabitten freckles, she was impressive to look at. She was in the small side paddock, alert, but still confused in her surroundings. I walked up to her and began to let my hands get to know her. Her right side neck had a large indentation in the muscle that didn't seem to compromise her in any way, likely a blunt trauma injury like at a start gate, cut off supply and muscle had atrophied. Her feet were grown out long in the toe with no heel.
I put a lead rope on her and led her to the arena. There we were able to get better acquainted in the way that she was most comfortable with, on the move.. Soon she was breathing standing still and had a few moments of moving her ears a little from their rigid forward position. 15 minutes later she would drop her head occasionally, relax her neck, and investigate me.
She was on high-alert for 80% of our first hour together, but even in that mode she remained aware of where my body was at all times. This was huge to me. I didn't mind that she needed me to be confident to trust enough to move forward, turn, or otherwise move when she didn't want to. I also didn't mind that she blew so hard she rattled her nose at everything, I mean everything, because she just let her eyes and ears go to "suspicion" without letting her whole body go into "react".
**Post Script: A year later, we now know she was still on tranquilizers on this day **
I saddled her and had to put the pad on twice. She wiggled it off with incredible fly-removing muscle ripples within moments the first go, and she lipped at my clothes during girthing. She danced around like she was lighter than air, then settled nicely into her job again of moving her body with me while eyes and ears fixated on the strange new world around her
We stopped her there since we were told she had muscle work done the day before and was likely sore. Chris walked her out a little while so I could see how he felt about her, and her about him. She did well with Chris and also when she was near the triplet stroller with 6 little arms stretching out for her.
I discussed options with Rescue. I wanted to try and get on her but would need to wait a few days to do that. I made plans to come back on Tuesday and evaluate her again. My heart was falling in love with her, everything about her seemed too good to be true. I also wanted the very best scenario for her though and I knew my friend could provide the very best for her. After speaking with her, a horse so fresh from the track wasn't the perfect match she was looking for and I was free to get my hopes up about Tuesday.
Tuesday walking to the arena she appeared to be a very different horse. She was a little more confident in her surroundings and felt a little bossy about her space. I tacked her up with a bareback pad after having read somewhere the night before that starting an OTTB with a saddle could trigger an immediate response and a bareback ride did not tend to. If you weighed significantly more than the jockey it wasn't an issue. Whisper carried 120 pounds in every race she ran, I weigh 112, so unless I used a huge western saddle...
I also put her in my Stubben bridle (plain noseband) with an eggbutt snaffle. I am WAY out of practice on putting a bridle on such a tall horse. It was not a pretty sight watching my body contort, but it was a very gentle experience for Whisper, especially careful around her sensitive ears. I will have to re-learn proper cues to ask a large mount to drop it's head or start some Chinese body stretching techniques.
The halter was left on with the leadrope clipped. At that moment, I'm very glad for this fact as she begins to dance. In front of me, she starts to transform into all of the TB's I've seen before her, on track, Jockey's mounting, dancing in circles. Oh man, what have I gotten myself into?
A volunteer offers to leg-up and another offers to hold on to her. Yes please!
I'm up and she was fairly still about that part. I've got the reins and she makes constant contact with the bit. Rolling, chewing, fiddling. I ask the volunteers to check behind me and confirm that the bit is fitting well in her mouth with my bridle adjustments. They chime back that we are go for launch.
I'm scratching her neck in long motions, talking to her. All of my words = move Any rein pressure = move Any leadline pressure = move
A few laps around and it's plain to see that it's not going to be a great idea for me to ride solo today. She was fine, even in her frustration of not being turned out to run while mounted, she still maintained a lady's composure. Like a small child asked to sit in a chair too long who begins to kick, gently with one foot. It isn't normal for her to be still. It isn't normal for her to be anything except running.
I dismount and work rein pressure on the ground. She responds quickly and willingly to my English minded rein habits. After untacking I go over her body again, this time she breathes through it, nibbles my hair, and starts to want to know me. Moment of truth girl, want to try a life with me? I'm ready to try a life with you. She seemed like she trusted me enough to try and we knew Rescue had an open door if she changed her mind.
"Let's go ahead and put her in the trailer"
You'd think an OTTB is a good loader, right? I mean, all the traveling, all the handling, all the shipping. You'd be wrong. She wasn't awful, but 2 hours after we started we had a horse loaded. It was a patient process as we aimed to set long-term memory of a pleasant trailer training session, not "get her on right now and don't worry that you'll instill fear that lasts a lifetime"
We arrive in Murrayville to my Father-In-Law's front pasture. It's an old cow pasture recently fenced for horse use. In that pasture resides one spunky little redhead with another chunk of my heart, Promise. Promise has been in there alone for weeks and is so over it she's beginning to pretend she's a cow and hope they let her hang out with them.
Promise sees us pull in but abandons trailer interest to instead follow my father-in-law along the fenceline as he places large strips of brightly colored duct tape in bands hanging off of the top wire of barbwire fence. Huey feeds her so Promise is pretty sure odds are he may have grain on him at any given moment. I know, comments will fly here. Barbwire stinks. I know. But, truth guys, it is done as safely as possible (very taunt, securely fastened, 4 strands high, often checked, newly re-strung) and this is only along one side of pasture. Good news here is that it's taped for easy visibility (Promise had been in barbwire before so we didn't need to tape it for her), it's anchored by huge black wood posts that are highly visible, and it's backed by Leland Cyprus trees all on one side.
Whisper unloads easily and takes in her new surroundings. After a Rescue full of horses, miniatures, Donkeys, chickens, dogs, goats, etc... the surrounding cow pastures and quiet hills seem tame. I walk her along the outside of the fence line hoping Promise will come up, but she's still busy trailing Huey. Whisper catches sight of a cow syrup feeder and is very sure it eats pretty gray racehorses.
In what has become typical style for her, she freezes but does not jump into a full shy. She blows loud blows. Promise comes up to see her and I wish I had more hands.
Whisper came in the pasture with me on lead, Promise walked up and they touched heads in that perfect Equine heart. Flat forehead to forehead, both necks perfectly arched. They blew into each other's nose. Then turned away from each other and have been buddies every since.
When it was clear that even around food Promise and Whisper had their hierarchy worked out and that Whisper knew where water and shelter were, I set Whisper free.
She spent most of the day on the hill just like that, near Promise, eyes and ears full attention on the cow syrup feeder in the distance (about 150 yards away).
The next morning found them in the same position. Wherever Promise went, Whisper was a few steps behind. I have to give a plug here to Saxon blankets. I know they aren't top of the line, but in the downpours we had the night before, Whisper stayed bone dry under the blanket. When I stuck my hand under it that morning, she was warmer than I was sitting in my house. Good product for sure.
Today I went back out and the girls are doing great. I gave Whisper and Promise both a full grooming and did some measurements with my new weight/height tape. (Promise 14 hands 750 pounds Whisper 16.2 hands 1000 pounds) I discovered that Promise has to be tied for me to get Whisper as she will run Whisper off when I try and get her.
Right now we have Whisper on free-choice round bale Bermuda and about a quart of alfalfa cubes twice daily. She needs to add about 100 pounds and I'm open to feeding advice/helpful hints for feeding an OTTB to gain weight without making her hot. I realize that Bermuda isn't a favorite around here, but Promise is pregnant so it's what we are doing. Both girls are getting plenty of water, have access to a salt mineral block, and haven't shown any signs of digestive trouble to date.
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