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Fresh meat
May. 23rd, 2005 11:19 amOnce again, there's a new pony at the barn. With no more mystery virus horse deaths in Maryland for a while, Don lifted his moratorium on buying horses. I discovered a young mid-sized pinto gelding at the barn yesterday. Odds are he'll keep the name he already has and be called Wizard.
He's only been there a few days and hasn't been turned out with other horses yet. He's still getting some of the 'new horse' treatment from Hobbes and Zip, the geldings with stalls on either side of him. It's the typical nasty faces and lunging a bit thing a new member of the herd gets. Wizard seems pretty unphased by it. In his stall, at least, he's friendly enough. He actually seemed surprised to get a piece of carrot from me. It took him a moment to snuffle it and do a lip wiggle against it to determine that it was, in fact, a treat my hand was holding in front of his muzzle.
Wizard is mostly white with chestnut patches here and there. One thing I noticed right off was his mane. When I first saw him in his stall, I noted how long and thick it is. Very chincoteague pony-looking. Then he turned to check me out and I was surprised to see that it was exactly the same on both sides. Usually a horse's mane hangs mostly on one side of his neck. Sometimes they'll 'break' somewhere along their neck and a portion will hang on the other side. Wizard has a double mane. It hangs long and thick on both sides of his neck. It's really rather nice looking in my opinion, but I know it'll have to be pulled much shorter for practical reasons.
I got a couple pictures of him in his stall. Even though it's frowned upon, I used the flash, so he'll likely have glowy eyes. I've yet to download the pics from the camera to see how they look.
Wizard turned out to be a bit younger than expected. He'd been advertised as being 7 years old. He's filled-out enough that he can easily pass for 7 when you look at him. Thing is, unless you're putting a bridle on him (he opens up readily for that) it's just about impossible to get him to let you look at his teeth. It took a bit for them to get a gander at them and realize that they weren't the teeth of a 7 year old. Best guess is that Wizard is actually 4. That's not a terrible thing, but it does mean he'll likely take a bit more work before he's a proper school horse. He did dump one of the advanced riders who tried him out here at the barn. A young horse in a new environment, he saw something and spooked a bit while being trotted around the ring. Eh. That'll happen sometimes.
I'll check the pictures on the camera and see if any are good enough to share.
He's only been there a few days and hasn't been turned out with other horses yet. He's still getting some of the 'new horse' treatment from Hobbes and Zip, the geldings with stalls on either side of him. It's the typical nasty faces and lunging a bit thing a new member of the herd gets. Wizard seems pretty unphased by it. In his stall, at least, he's friendly enough. He actually seemed surprised to get a piece of carrot from me. It took him a moment to snuffle it and do a lip wiggle against it to determine that it was, in fact, a treat my hand was holding in front of his muzzle.
Wizard is mostly white with chestnut patches here and there. One thing I noticed right off was his mane. When I first saw him in his stall, I noted how long and thick it is. Very chincoteague pony-looking. Then he turned to check me out and I was surprised to see that it was exactly the same on both sides. Usually a horse's mane hangs mostly on one side of his neck. Sometimes they'll 'break' somewhere along their neck and a portion will hang on the other side. Wizard has a double mane. It hangs long and thick on both sides of his neck. It's really rather nice looking in my opinion, but I know it'll have to be pulled much shorter for practical reasons.
I got a couple pictures of him in his stall. Even though it's frowned upon, I used the flash, so he'll likely have glowy eyes. I've yet to download the pics from the camera to see how they look.
Wizard turned out to be a bit younger than expected. He'd been advertised as being 7 years old. He's filled-out enough that he can easily pass for 7 when you look at him. Thing is, unless you're putting a bridle on him (he opens up readily for that) it's just about impossible to get him to let you look at his teeth. It took a bit for them to get a gander at them and realize that they weren't the teeth of a 7 year old. Best guess is that Wizard is actually 4. That's not a terrible thing, but it does mean he'll likely take a bit more work before he's a proper school horse. He did dump one of the advanced riders who tried him out here at the barn. A young horse in a new environment, he saw something and spooked a bit while being trotted around the ring. Eh. That'll happen sometimes.
I'll check the pictures on the camera and see if any are good enough to share.
