# Life is always Changing



## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

After some extended time away, I remembered about this forum and figured I'd join once more. I remember enjoying journaling my horse experiences being able to look back at things later on. Handy to have it posted here so no matter what, I won't lose it since my computer is getting old and likes to crash on me randomly. 

Anyway, I currently have 3 horses. Ren, Rosko, and Loki. 

*Ren*
For those of you who remember me, I first posted Ren here when I got her as a weanling. I had her until she was close to 1.5 years old. She then went to a new home where she was well looked after and worked with. Then, the fall of her 3 year old year, I saw they were trying to sell her. So I looked into getting her back. It didn't work out and I thought she was gone forever. But then in the spring, they reached out to me and told me she hadn't sold and they would be relisting her in a month. A month before she turned 4, I got her back. 

So, now I've had her for the last 8.5 months again now. She's still so much the same as when she was younger. It's so cool to be able to see her all grown up now. She absolutely loves doing liberty work and still comes running when I call her name. I tried to get her started under saddle at the end of July but after 2 rides (they were 5ish mins long at just a walk), she had swelling on the inside of her hind leg which is slightly crooked from the ankle to the coranary band. So I stopped riding in case that was the cause. But really, there are 3 possibilities. 1 - she got kicked by the horse she was in with since she hated Ren. 2 - She got a stone bruise since we were in a new roundpen and it had a few more rocks than the other one. 3 - she simply won't be a riding horse and that was her leg saying no. 

I was going to get an exam done but due to weather and other things, it got postponed until the spring. She's totally sound and happy so it's not a rush. And since she's located 30 minutes away from where I live, I don't have the time to try riding her anyway. So she's just got the winter off. 

















Anyway, that's Ren. In the field with her, I have *Rosko.* 
I got him from an auction towards the end of September so I haven't had him long. I managed to get ahold of his previous owners and this is what I was told about him.

12 years old
started when he was young and then was a cow horse until he was about 5-6 years old.
left alone/neglected for the last few years.
then they got him (he belonged to their uncle) and rode him a handful of times during the summer before putting him through the auction.
never taught to neck rein
never ridden bareback
hard to catch
great to be saddled
likes to try to rub you off in the trees and do little bunny hops with his back end at times.

He's been a fun one to get to know. He's friendly and enjoys attention, but is also always on the watch for things. He does have a saddle sore spot on his withers so that hints to how he was ridden when he was younger. Chiro also said his entire back was out, his hips were off. Shoulders were out, back legs needed some work, and 3 spots on his neck were out. So he's been very sore for quite some time.

I've ridden him a few times since I got him and he's definitely very rusty. He stops a lot whenever in a new area. Only ridden at a walk for a few minutes so far but I think him and I could have some real fun later on. But it's going to be interesting to see how he does at trotting and cantering. He was hard to catch the first week I had him, but with work and some treats, he's realized being caught isn't to bad. 
Worst habit he has, is escaping lol. In 4 days, he escaped 3 times. Then 4 days after, he escaped again. I modified part of the fence in his new pen and since, there has been 0 escapes so I'm optimistic I finally solved that problem lol. 

















And lastly, there's *Loki*. 
This boy is 11 months old. He was born December 3rd and was a surprise. My friend got a mare from auction and we were told she was just fat. Turns out she was pregnant. Thankfully we had a hunch she was pregnant and got her to another friends place nearby who had a large foaling stall and paddock. Got her there and within 2-3 days of her being moved there, Loki was born. It was insanely good timing to have moved her there. 

Loki had to have hands on handling immediately. December was the coldest month we had of -25C at the warmest, and 2 weeks of it dropping to -40 to -50C overnight. So my friend was constantly there, putting electric pads and blankets on him to keep him warm and setting up several heaters in the barn. Due to all the hands on contact, I suggested naming him Loki since I could tell he was going to be a troublemaker and very nosy when he got older. They picked that name and he's certainly lived up to it lol. 

He dropped his testicles at 3 months old and started to try to mount his mom at 4 months old (she had a weird effect on all male horses. Geldings started acting like studs because of her when they'd never acted like that before and she went into heat frequently). So to prevent anything from happening as there was a close call, he was weaned from her. Since the day he was born, I thought it'd be kind of funny/cool if I ended up with him. And at 4 months old, he did indeed become mine lol. 

This boy is a percheron with a dash of mystery breed in him. His mom was 16 hh but no idea how big sire is so I'm not totally sure how big he's going to get. Last time I measured him (around 8.5 - 9 months old), he was about 14.1 hh. When he turns a year old, I'm going to measure him again. He's nearly the same height as the 14.3 and 15 hh horses he's out with now. I did 2 different string tests on him. Once said he'd mature about 17.2 hh and the other put him closer to 18 hh. So regardless, he's going to be a giant when he's done growing. I've always dreamed of having a super tall horse and a draft so it's pretty cool I've ended up with this guy. 

His personality is quite interesting. He's very nosy and curious about everything. His mom never taught him manners (she'd even go after other horses when they tried to discipline him) so he did start off life with a huge entitlement attitude. It took for one of the geldings to literally take a chunk of hair off his neck the size of my fist for him to finally start respecting other horses boundaries. And with people, you basically have to be ready to "kill him" for him to take you seriously. And no, would never beat him into submission or anything, just trying to give you guys an idea how crazy thick skinned he is and how little he cares about pressure. And if you try to make him do something, he throws tantrums. This mostly happens when trying to get him to move off to lunge/move in a roundpen. As soon as you ask for a trot or canter, he starts turning his butt in and wanting to kick out. 
I've only lunged him a few times to help him know what it is as well as the fact I had to get him moving after he got gelded per vet recommendation. So he's done it maybe 15 times this spring, the longest one lasting 5 mins not excluding the few longer ones for the gelding session. 

Despite that, he's also a huge love bug. He loves to be with people and loves you even more if you give him all the scratches. Treats are a bonus too. I adore him and so glad to have him. 

















And that sums up all the horses I have currently. Figured I'd make the first post describing each horse a bit so if anyone wants to follow along, at least you'll have an idea what they're like. Thanks for reading and I promise the next post will be far more interesting than this, or at least less wordy about each horse lol.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

As the title of this thread implies, life keeps changing. 

I've been able to do a lot of rescue work and take on a few projects the last few years. I did the math yesterday, and in the last 5 years, I've had 20 horses in my care. Typically 2-3 at a time. 13 of these were rescues. The rest were projects, needing a temporary home, or horses I hoped to have forever (this count includes the horses I have currently). Unfortunatey, I won't be able to rescue horses much anymore for the foreseeable future. In the spring/early summer, I'll be going down to just one horse. 

Ren I got back in the hopes of her being my main girl again and going on lots of adventures with her. Unfortunately, when I got her back, they didn't tell me about her leg. I knew about it being slightly crooked when I sold her, but I was under the impression that it was just regular yearling ugly stage of wonky angles. She was the first weanling I ever had so I didn't know then what I know now and no one else I talked with told me it was anything else. So I figured she should be fine and correct when I got her back since she'd be turning 4 and past that stage. Wasn't a nice surprise to find she still had the crookedness. 

It's doubtful she'll ever be much of a riding horse, if at all. So the plan is for her to go to my sister in the spring to be her therapy horse. Otherwise, Ren will be in a field by herself 80% of the time since she's boarded 30 minutes away from where I live and I can only have a buddy for her temporarily. And I can only hang out with her 2, maybe 3 times a week depending on how things go and gas prices. 
If she passes vet exam, then I'll have her bred and have her foal with me instead in the future. But this is a wait and see. She'll be seen by the vet in the spring before she goes to my sister. 

Rosko I can only have temporarily as Ren's buddy. When spring comes, I'll get him going under saddle a bit more, maybe take him to one or two gymkhanas, and then sell him. It'll be sad since he's the most broke horse I've ever owned I think lol. But if something changes in the spring, then I'll possibly see about keeping him. 

Loki lives in my backyard so I see him a lot more frequently and plan to keep him around a long time. He's the first colt I've had that I've gone through the gelding process with and the first one I've seen and worked with since being a few hours old. So he's pretty special. I also plan to try to do a combination of natural horsemanship and clicker training with him. He's a lot more motivated with food lol. I haven't done much clicker training before, so I'm definitely going to do research into it before just jumping in head first to make sure I don't mess up too much at the start lol. 

I'm thinking of getting him lightly started at 2.5 years old. 5-15 minute rides mostly at a walk with occassional trots and maybe canter a time or two. Just do this 2-3 times a week or every other week during the summer. Then give him the winter off again. And when it's time to get him going a bit more consistently, he'll be 3.5 years old. Basically 20-40 minute rides 3-5 times a week. Just trail rides and getting the basics down. And that winter will be mostly off with the occassional ride here and there. Then progress to do doing more when he's 4.5 in the spring with starting to do some longer rides and start experimenting with seeing what he enjoys doing (at pretty low levels. Like trotting barrels, doing small jumps, attempt some other things and just see what he likes the most). It's actually kind of handy having his birthday being in December for all that. Every time spring rolls around, he's not just turning 3 or 4. He's already half way through his 3rd or 4th year when work starts again.

To finish off this post, here are a few pics from this summer.


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

SummerBliss said:


> He dropped his testicles at 3 months old and started to try to mount his mom at 4 months old (she had a weird effect on all male horses. Geldings started acting like studs because of her when they'd never acted like that before and she went into heat frequently). So to prevent anything from happening as there was a close call, he was weaned from her. Since the day he was born, I thought it'd be kind of funny/cool if I ended up with him. And at 4 months old, he did indeed become mine lol.


At that age he is only playing. All males are technically dropped when born unless the testicles are trapped. If they're (one or both) trapped in the abdomen then likely what's trapped won't come down. If they're (one or both) trapped in the canal then they may or may not drop. Sometimes hormone therapy will loosen the rings up enough for them to drop. Otherwise they are kept pulled up close to the canal in a pocket of space where they are hard to feel and not visible. They grow with the colt and aren't very big at this point. They certainly are not producing sperm at that point. They don't typically start producing sperm until a year most over that and closer to 14 months. The sperm have to be mature to fertilize an egg and that is closer to 18 months. Yes, there are the oddball pregnancies resulting from a young colt (1yr ish) but not 4 months. At that point they're like toddlers playing.


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## knightrider (Jun 27, 2014)

Nice to see you back on the Forum! I hope you keep updating. I enjoyed catching up with you.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Welcome back! It looks like you are in the Great North?


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

@QtrBel 
I'm aware of this, but due to the effect his mom had on all the other males around plus Loki almost succeeding with actually fully mounting her, my friend thought it best to wean them then to prevent any accidents incase he somehow happened to be the exception to the rule and also to prevent any sort of habits from starting. She would rather be safe than sorry. He was also taking a lot out of his mom with how quickly he was growing that her health was beginning to decline. So there were several factors that went into weaning him early. I appreciate your concern though  

@knightrider 
Hey, good to see you again  and thanks. I plan to do my best to keep going with updating. I really want to capture the milestones I make with my youngest so that's one of my motivations for coming back. 

@tinyliny 
Nice to see you again too! And indeed I am. Northern BC, Canada actually.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

*Entry 2*

Today's a pretty small update. 
Went out to help guard the gate while my friend/landlord dropped off a bale into the feeder. She has a herd of 12 out there which is both horses and cows (mostly horses). Loki is out there as well and it actually took me a moment to spot him since he's now starting to blend in with the others. He's looking like a full grown horse at a glance. Only when you take a moment to really look do you see him with all his awkwardness lol. 
I got in some cuddles with him while my friend moved around with the tractor and bale. Something about him just brings my heart joy and peace. I've been starting to think he's my next heart horse. I haven't had many of them and I usually don't realize they're one until I'm saying goodbye. But the way I feel with Loki is so different than how I feel around any other horse. So I'm quite certain he's the one to be with me for many years as long as I'm able to have.


Also, this winter, I'm going to dive into the world of learning other types of training. I like to learn new things so I can always do what I can to get better and help each horse I meet the best I can. First one I'm thinking of is R+/clicker training. Trying to find videos to learn the basics of it is more challenging than I expected. There are some courses but they're expensive and I like to try something a bit first before fully committing. I already tend to mix some of it in naturally anyway, but I want to figure out to do it more purposefully and how it's used to do all the different training including starting horses under saddle. Once I figure it out, then I'm going to figure how or if I want to alter my current training methods to something that works better before. 

I honestly love learning all the different ways of training horses and finding the different things that work best for me and for each horse. My method is never 100% the same as I like to adapt it to each horse. But it's still limiting if I don't try to learn more things. So I am to learn more. And that's what this winter will be geared towards. Learning. 

If anyone reading this knows of any good places to get familiar with some R+ training, I'd love to know about it  Hope you all had a great day/night.


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

You can download the Equine Clicker 101 podcast hosted by Shawna Karrasch. It’s free and sequential. Go back and start with episode 1. She explains the concepts, then gives instructions for you to practice what she covered with your horse while she walks through step by step.




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Equine Clicker 101 | Horse Radio Network







www.horseradionetwork.com


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

*Entry 3*

Went out to visit Ren and Rosko today. I can only see them about 2 times a week during the winter since they're 30 mins away from where I live. I set up a water heater for them today and during the process, pestered frequently by Ren. Rosko would seek out attention if it wasn't for Ren chasing him away. She gets jealous if I pay attention to any other horse that isn't her and if I let her, she will always stay between me and the other horse to prevent them from coming over. 

I also started working with Ren and teaching her to associate the word "yes" with treats. But also teaching her she has to move her head away before I'll say the word and the treat will be given at arms length. She has a habit of mugging since my grandma was spoiling her for a whole until I asked her to stop since it caused issues with Ren thinking she's entitled all the time to them and mugging and being a little lippy. 
By the end of our little session, she was eagerly putting her head to the side or down to the ground. It was neat to watch her put the pieces together and she's definitely learnt that the word yes means a treat is coming lol. I'm going to try to make a target to bring out with me next time. 

I tried to do this a bit with Rosko but he apparently isn't a fan of carrots. He tried a small piece a few times but in the end, started to refuse them. Cookies he likes though so I'll have to bring those next time.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

*Entry 4*

Today is December 3rd, which means it’s Lokis birthday!
He is officially 1 year old and I’m so excited about this. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt so genuinely attached and bonded with a horse that today is just so much more special than what most people can understand. I can’t even describe properly how I feel about Loki. I just know that as soon as I see him, I instantly smile. When I’m around him, I just want to hug and cuddle him all the time. He soothes my soul. When he is goofy or even throwing a baby tantrum, it makes me laugh. 
I honestly can’t imagine ever not having him. This could also partially be because I’ve known him since he was 4 hours old

So, today I will be taking Christmas pictures of him to celebrate his birthday. I’m also going to buy a few different types of treats and just spoil him with them. I also bought him a brand new red halter as well. To finish off the day, I will be measuring him to see how tall he is now. I know he’s pretty big since the other day, his withers lined up with my chin lol.

I honestly can’t wait for him to grow up enough that we can start going on riding adventures together. I’m hoping to start teaching him how to ground drive and be ponied this coming summer but there’s just something different and special about actually getting to the riding portion. 

tomorrow I’ll stop by and post the pics so you guys can share in the excitement with me 😊
until then, here’s one of me with him as a foal.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

*Entry 5 *

Went out and took pics of my friends horses as well of Loki. I was honestly impressed with my boy. I thought for sure he’d be at least slightly put off by the giant wreath I put on him but he couldn’t care less lol. He’s such an awesome to mess with since he handles new things so well.

Next week sometime I’ll be taking these kinds of pics of Ren and Rosko which will definitely be much more of an event. Mostly cause Ren likes to be goofy lol.


















































Bonus pics at the end of Loki at 2 weeks old with Santa hat VS him at a year old with a Santa hat 🥰


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

*6 *

Went out to the horses the other day to hang out with Loki and check in to make sure he still remembered some of the training we did through the summer/fall. 
Not surprising he remembered everything just fine. He's always been good to tie since day too though I still only do a loop around the post so if he does have a baby moment, he won't hurt himself but there will still be some resistance. Either way, he stays there nicely when he realizes he's tied. 

One area we have to work on again though, is his feet. He was good for me handling 3 of them, but one of them he decided that maybe laying down was the way to go instead lol. He only tried it once and since it didn't work, he just went back to behaving. I find most youngsters go through a stage where they have to try the laying down trick when feet are being handled lol. 

I also went on a spontaneous bareback ride on one of the draft cross horses and it was a really good moment for Loki to see me higher up. He was very curious about what I was doing on one of his buddies and followed us around a bit. This spring I'm hoping to do some ponying with him too.


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