Birds

One lovely morning I was being led back to the barn by my human mom. When we got to the bridge we have to cross, everything was going well when I got the biggest fright of my life - so far!  A huge bird, a turkey buzzard, flew up from under the bridge and right in front of us.  Both me and my mom were scared out of our lives and stopped in our tracks.  It took us a while to recover and for me to walk over the bridge.  I had problems every day after that going any where near that bridge.  It took a lot of encouragement from my mom to go over the bridge again, I can tell you.

After having breakfast my mom would brush me all over, to get me used to being touched everywhere and would pick up my feet to clean them out. She would also hammer on the bottom of my feet to get me used to what the farrier will do to me.

One of my first visitors was the farrier.  He is someone who looks after horses feet.  He trims them with nippers and, if a horse needs shoes put on, he hammers them on with nails.  My farriers name is Ralph.  He is very nice to me and the other horses.  He is very patient when we try to pull our feet away from him and tries hard not to hurt us.  Every time he comes to the barn, even if I dont need my feet trimmed, he picks up all my feet.  He says it is good practise for me.  My mom holds me with a lead rope in the aisle, but one day I will be clipped to the cross ties - when I can stand quietly that is!!

My human mom teaches adult and children to ride, using the other horses at the barn, so I always have visitors to talk to me and stroke me.  I get very impatient if they dont come and visit me and bang the door. Of course I get into trouble when I do that from my mom.  Everyone thinks I am very cute, because I am smaller than the other horses, but not the ponies of course. They will not get any taller, but I will.

Here I am being a little bit naughty with my human mom!

Every Day Life

After all that excitement of being chased by my brother, life calmed down and I got used to the daily routine at my new home, Corner House Farm and my new family. 

I would go out to the field with Lucas every evening and eat the lovely grass and get to play around.  I would meet people walking down the lane next to our field and watch cars and trucks go by.  There is a stream that runs through my field hidden in the woods, so it is cool when it is hot.  I love to run in the stream and splash around, it is so much fun.

In the mornings Lucas gets his breakfast and I get to walk on the road back to the barn.  I am getting braver and braver with all the things on the sides of the road and even the different colours of the road surface.  My human mom is very pleased with me when I follow her without stopping, but occasionally I stop suddenly and almost pull her over backwards.  She doesn’t shout at me, but talks to me quietly to encourage me to walk on.

I spend the day in the barn, where I have a good long snooze, having been out all night.  I love to lie down on my nice deep bed.  The other horses are able to come into the barn and we talk over the wall to each other. I am getting to know them, Handsome, Wally, Prissy and Blackie.  I wonder if I will go out in their field in the future?

Each day my human mom comes and brushes me and makes me pick up my feet so she can clean them out.  That is hard, standing on three feet instead of four!  Sometimes I stretch round and try to bite her when she is bending over.  I get into trouble when I do that.

We do leading exercises in the big field some days.  I get to explore the field and the arena and round pen.  One day I will be ridden in all these places, but for now I get led around.  There is a shed with open ends where the tractor sits and I had to be brave when my mom led me through there.  It is a small space and not very tall.  She says it is all to do with trust and I must trust her that she will not hurt me or allows anything else to hurt me.  

My First Day Out

The next morning everyone, expect Lucas, came in for breakfast.  This was to be the first day I would go out with the other horses in the fields.  I was a little excited.  I was to go out with Lucas and my brother – yay!

Lucas was already in his field and so after breakfast my human mom led me out of the barn, down the driveway past the house she lives in, onto the lane and to the field to meet Lucas.  One of her students came with us to help.  She walked behind me to help push me on when I was scared of something. 

There were lots of things to look at on the way, but I managed to be brave and made it to the field.  My mom led me into the field to meet Lucas.  He was very kind to me and after sniffing me, we walked off into the field to eat grass.  I liked it in the field with Lucas.  My mom and her student watched us for a while, to make sure we were ok together and then walked away.

After a while I could hear a horse walking on the road towards my field.  Lucas and I ran up to the fence to see who it was.  It turns out it was my mom and her student with my brother, Aviator.  They were bringing him round to let out into the field with me and Lucas.  He and Lucas were field mates. 

Here is Aviator and me with my mom.

Mom walked into the field with Aviator, holding on to his lead rope, so that we could sniff each other and make sure we would be friendly.  Everything went well, so after a little bit my mom let Aviator free. I thought this was great.  I would get to play with my brother.  Unfortunately my brother had other ideas!  I don’t think he liked me and started to chase me.  I ran as fast as I could around the field, but Aviator kept coming after me.  Every time I stopped for a breather, he would charge at me again, so I had to run again.  My mom tried to stop Avi but couldn’t catch him, so I tried to escape by running back to the gate, but I couldn’t stop in the mud and ran through the gate on to the road!!

Ah oh, I didn’t know what to do then.  The only place I knew was the barn and the other horses, so I trotted down the road and around the corner back up towards the barn.  My mom came running after me, once she made sure Lucas and Aviator couldn’t get out of their field, and even her student tried to stop me with her car.  

I stopped running when I got to barn gate and stood a trembled.  I was very scared and very out of breath.  My mom came up to me slowly, so I wouldn’t get scared and run away again, and got hold of my halter.  She talked to me softly again and stroked me to try and calm me down.  I was hot and sweaty by now and still shaking.  She led me back into the barn and into my stall.  She made sure I had some hay and water and brushed me to help cool me off.  I was very glad to be back in the safety of my stall.  Once I was ok my mom left to go and fix the gate.

From that day on I only went out in the field at night with Lucas.  I would come in in the morning and Aviator would go out.  That way I would not get chased, but got to eat lovey grass with my friend. 

Snooze Time

I love to lie down and will lie down at every 

chance I get, where ever I am!!  Some one said it is good for horses to lie down because it helps to rest their legs.  My legs are very rested :)

I had a good long snooze that first day I arrived.  When I woke up I looked around at all the other horses in the barn.  There were big horses and little ponies.  They seemed friendly, from a distance.  I wondered what they would be like in the field and who I would go out with.  

My new human mom came into my new stall and spoke to me softly and stroked me.  I think she wanted to make sure I was ok.  I was nervous, as I had only met her when I got off the trailer. Whilst she was talking to me she told me the names of all the horses in the barn.  

Next to me was Handsome, on the opposite side was Wally and Blackie, and then to my left was Lucas, Prissy and Aviator.  It turned out that Aviator was my brother!  How amazing is that, my only brother is here too.  I hope we have lots of fun together.

After dinner my human mom took me for a walk around the field and let me eat some grass.  I was nervous again, but she talked to me and made me feel a little brave.

                                                                                  

 Here is a photo of me when I arrived.

That night I spent it in the barn but everyone else went out into their fields.  I didnt mind being on my own.  I was tired and all I wanted to do was sleep.  This time I lay flat out.  (Sometimes this scares people, because they think I have died!  They work it out when they hear me snore - hehe.)

Introduction

Captain De Bec

The Trails and Tribulations of a young horse.

I would like to introduce myself.  I am a Knabstrupper/ Oldenburg gelding living in the USA.   (A quick explanation of a Knabstrupper – it is a rare breed of horse from Denmark, usually with some black or brown spots on a white base, but I am special and have no spots at all!!)  This photo is of me as a foal - gorgeous arent I?

I was born on November 15, 2010. It wasn't too cold considering it was November but I would've liked to have been born in June or July to enjoy the sun on my back for many hours.  

My mom's name is Cherry and my dad's name is Atlantis.  I was born in Virginia, my mom was born in Germany and so was my dad, but now he lives in Alabama and she lives in Virginia and I live in Pennsylvania.  We are quite a travelled lot I think.

 

This is a picture of my Dad – good looking isn’t he?

                                                  

                                               

And this is my Mom - I love her.

I enjoyed my first year of life, just playing around in the fields each day, eating grass and hay and playing with a friend or two - and then everything changed!  

My human mom, at that time, came to visit and changed my life.  She took me away from my mother and put me in another field with a friend to play with.  

Some other things happen to me at that time too. A man called a vet came to visit and did things to my mouth, my neck and to my bottom and I was a bit surprised, I have to tell you.  I didnt feel good at all for a few days. 

About a month after this happened things changed again.  A very big truck and trailer, that could hold 6 horses, arrived at the farm early in the morning.  My human mom had been around for a few days brushing me and talking to me about going on a journey.  I didn’t really know what she meant by that, but by the end of that day I did! 

I followed my mom up to and onto the big trailer, she gave me some treats and then shut the doors.  It got darker and I was a little worried about what was happening and then the trailer moved. What a shock!  I had to spend the next 6 hours trying to stand still as the trailer moved about. 

When it finally stopped and the doors were opened I was in a strange place with no one around that I knew.  It was very scary.  I just stood at the doorway staring out, I neighed and somebody answered me, so I neighed again.  It was great to hear another horse, but I didn’t know who it was or where they were.  (The other horses were in the barn and I couldn’t see them.)

I built up the courage and jumped out of the trailer and looked around.  I could see fields and fences and a barn, but I couldnt see any horses.  

The man who had driven the truck and trailer handed my lead rope to a lady I didnt know.  

She talked quietly to me and stroked me and then led me to a gate which led into the field.  I didnt know where I was going so I stopped and wouldnt go through, so the lady led me to another gate, which was very big.  I went though this one and then she led me into the barn.

The barn was cool and had six horses in it.  They were all very interested in me, but I was very tired and scared and just wanted to lie down and sleep. The lady led me into a nice big stall with nice soft bedding, hay and water.  I took a long drink, sniffed the horse next to me and then lay down for a long snooze.

More of my story to follow. :)