Truthfully, had you shown me the retired folks pasture a year ago, I wouldn't have ever considered putting my horse out somewhere so wild looking. Having now seen firsthand so many of the bad things can happen to a horse out on endless immaculate grass pasture like she has been on for the past seven months (serious obesity, total loss of solar concavity, event lines.... she's a blade of grass away from a metabolic disaster), I can't wait to get her out somewhere that vaguely resembles where a feral horse in the southwest might actually roam. (Minus like, the cacti.) Rocks, hills, trees, scrub, and a herd? Sounds good to me.
Project tail revival: complete! It looked horrible but apparently it just needed a serious scrubdown... it's been a few weeks since her last bath. I thought more of it had been ripped out... thankfully not!
Gogo spent her first night at the new place turned out in an adjoining paddock that shared a fenceline so she could meet her herdmates over the fence. Yesterday afternoon, I brought her out to meet the rest of the herd. Seeing as she has a bad reputation of being a completely heinous unsocialized alpha mare, I wasn't sure how it would go.
And.... that was about it. The paint gelding and Gogo double-barreled at each other once or twice, and then Gogo relented and took off. From that moment on, the paint was obsessed with her and would NOT leave her alone. He even chased the other horses across the fenceline away from her, so keen was he to win her affections. The rest of the horses went back to their own business, and she in turn ignored them completely as well, save for one crusty old chestnut gelding who thought he'd let her know from a distance that he had no intention of being her friend:
In the span of 5 minutes, Gogo met everyone, found the shelter, found the water, and found the haypile, which she settled at, the paint gelding at her side.
Completely passably social, and completely anticlimactic. Good mare.
Looks pretty wild and awesome to me!
Proving her heart of gold and guts of steel at the 2009 American Eventing Championships
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69.7%, Reserve Champion first time at First Level!
Encore H.T. 2008 - Gogo's first real event!
21 comments:
Alright Gogo. Looks like it's going to work well.
Ah I love it when horses can be wild and happy in a huge wild paddock! I'm sure Gogo will love it! Hope you both settle in soon.
Looks great! She's a lucky horse to land in so many great living situations - but then, that's more your hard work than luck, isn't it. :-)
Gogo the WILD MUSTANG!
LMAO, I LOVE how she looks like a stallion with the neck all arched and whatnot. Shes like the fancy princess in the lonestar outback. Lol, she looks pretty happy though :) Glad you got all moved!
I think it looks like heaven for a horse! Who wouldn't want to besties with GoGo?
Well, if I were a pony I think I'd enjoy the wildness of Gogo's new home. Lots to do and explore!
Best of luck at the new place. Gogo's tail is amazing.
I'm from Crowley. It's funny, all this time I've been reading your blog I never expected you to be in the area I've grown up in. :D Not that I would recognize Gogo even if I was driving by whatever your new barn is (I'm not familiar with barns around here, oddly enough, I rode at the same one for years, and then switched, and those are really the only two I know).
Oh, she'll love it! So happy for yall :)
that looks like an awesome place for a horse to live, way more interesting than a grassy square!
Looks like horsey paradise to me!
glad you got moved all safely and well.
I love watching horses all meet up for the first time, they prance and dance so beautifully without us on them!!
I have been lucky enough to find a natural field for my pony too, although she is getting a bit plump as its a huge field.
She looks happy. And I can see why you were worried about her tail. It is by far the best real tail I have ever seen.
Gogo looks like horsezilla compared to all of those little quarter ponies! Apparently, everything is bigger in Texas... Except for the horses.
She looks great!! I think she'll be very happy out there in her nice big pasture with all her admirers. That chestnut will come around soon, I'm sure.
Lovely place and loving seeing Gogo and the new gang :-)
Awesome terrain. I bet it'll do her some good! I wish I could provide a pasture turnout like that, that has to be awesome for her.
I highly suspect my Quarab gelding has a metabolic disorder, so my trimmer (yes, he's barefoot :-) advised to take him completely off of grain, and he is soon being moved to a dry lot rather than the grass paddock he shares with an equally obese pony. He has actually gotten to the point where he is showing sings of mild laminitis, which I never in a million years I thought could happen to him seeing as I try to give him as natural a lifestyle as possible up here in CT (I'm sure you know how difficult that can be).
If taking away the excess sugar in his diet doesn't help with his recent soundness issues, I think I will try him on a chromium/ magnesium supplement like Quiessence, which is supposed to help with cresty necked type horses who are prone to founder. Maybe this would help Gogo, too? If you try it please let me know if it works.
Glad to see she likes her new home.
That is so awesome! Gogo is going to absolutely love it there. :) And those pictures were great. Gorgeous neck Gogo and still love the hawk. :)
Heeey, don't knock the cacti! One of mine has developed a particular fondness for prickly pear. Sadly, he's only mildly talented at nibbling around the spines - I keep a pair of tweezers in my grooming kit to pick them out of his nose. Silly pony!
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