Notes on the Horses

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…. I now present to you, the horses of the barn at Keswick. Well, minus Perry and Dewey, of whom I have no pictures currently. Eventually I will and when I do, they’ll be here. And now, without further ado, the horses!

First is Dakini. She’s referred to by everyone at the barn as “Princess.” She’s a seven year old mare who is owned by a friend of Patience’s, but is at the barn to be trained. She’s usually the first horse ridden in the morning as she’s a challenging horse who needs more attention than most. What I appreciate most about her though, as I don’t ride, are her incredible ground manners. She might not be perfect, but I have to lead her with another horse to and from the pastures as the other horse has eye problems and has always been jumpy anyway. I have yet to experience her misbehaving, even when I am at so vulnerable to her.

I guess the next logical horse to introduce to you is Amethyst. Well, that’s his whole barn name, but most people at the barn just call him Bam. Tristan, his owner, comes every weekday with his mother to ride. He’s a little over 20 years old and has problems with his eyes. From what I’ve heard, it’s like floaters in a human’s eyes, but it seems to be more disconcerting for him than floaters are for a human. I have to say I really like his ground manners too, as he walks calmly with Dakini to and from their turnout every morning and afternoon. He’s kind of pushy, but I just push back and since he’s so good, I win. I’m sure if he tried, he’d walk right over me.

Next is Moo. Moo is owned by Tristan’s mother. He’s the one that is “evil” (I know he’s not really…I just call it that for lack of a better term). I think the deal might be that he’s worried that someone is going to steal his food (he’s a pig). As a result, I’ve learned to clean his stall while he’s turned out or being ridden. When I get him ready to be turned out, I put him in the wash stall, which seems to keep him from getting bothered. He is good when I take him out though. Laureate doesn’t like being turned out by himself, especially in the Far Field, so I have to take them out together (they are always turned out together, just like Dakini and Bam) and he’s not tried to attack me yet. For which I’m grateful.

Laureate (Laurie) is a fairly advanced dressage horse. Anna is generally the one who rides him. He’s really impatient about getting his breakfast. He’s usually the last one that gets his food, but as soon as I walk into the barn in the morning, he starts stomping about his breakfast. And not his hay, which he gets nearly as soon as I get there. He wants his grain, which takes me about 30 minutes to get ready. He is yet another horse I am obliged to say is really well behaved when I lead him. All the horses except for the two babies get led on loose leads, which, in general is a bad thing to do.

Luke is the newest addition to the barn as far as I know. He was really excitable when he first arrived (quite a bit before I did). Tanya, Moo’s owner is still a little nervous around him, which is understandable from the description. All I’ve ever seen of him is a really calm horse. For the first week of work, they were giving him two c.c.s of Ace, but now he goes out without any drugs and doesn’t cause any kind of a ruckus. Patience told us to give him a flake of hay when we turn him out to keep him from worrying about food and that seems to help a lot. I think he’s my favorite horse a the barn.

Flambeau is a horse that Patience owns. She was bred a little over two months ago and Thursday the vet came to do an ultrasound. He gave Patience the news that she was going to have a foal and Patience got really excited. She gets turned out by herself now. She used to be turned out with Laurie, but after she kicked him in the hock, giving him all kinds of trouble, she’s been turned out alone. Since she doesn’t like being turned out alone, though, she gets turned out near other horses. She’s doesn’t have manner problems, but she’s kind of aloof. She’s not a bad horse, but she’s not a horse I would pay money for.

Rion is the last horse I have a picture of right now. He is just starting to be broken under saddle and in this picture, Anna is longing him to get ready to get on him, I think. That day, I left shortly after taking the picture, so I don’t really know what happened. I like him a lot, but he’s really curious. I suppose one would say that’s just the way horses are. But he seems to be more so than the others.