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I work at an arab barn so I have a ton of stories (mostly about horses spooking at stupid stuff. XD)

One of my favorite stories is probably this one:

We had an unreasonably wet season earlier this year (especially for Texas) so most of our turnouts had puddles in them, or I had to lead horses through or around water most every day (our stud turnout had a puddle right at the gate from January until like the middle of June or something).

Anyway, all arabians or half-arabs in the barn except for two POAs and one QH. Most of them would just step over the puddle or jump over them, or be reasonable and walk through like a normal horse.

However there was this one mare (no, she was NOT a redhead). Now she and I had a really good relationship in the round pen, in fact, I don’t think she ever gave me any trouble while I was working her. But our relationship when it came to going out to the turnouts was spotty at best, and downright awful whenever there was a puddle involved.

She would freeze. I would ask her to go forward. She would refuse. I would cross and ask again. She would back up. I would push her around at the end of the lead rope for a minute and ask her to cross again. Still nothing. This mare had it down to a science. The puddle was small enough that she could just step over it, but there wasn’t any way we could go around it. She keeps fighting me on it, I keep telling her to go over it, and we just get worked up over pushing each other’s buttons.

Finally I decide to stick her in the only turnout on our side of the puddle. The turnout that is mostly flooded, but we can at least get into it without going through any water.

What does she do as soon as I turn her loose? Goes through the water. Plays in the water. Lays down and rolls in the water. Has an absolute ball in the water. And I roll my eyes, let her play, then pull her back out and let her snort at the puddle we were trying to cross earlier for a few minutes before she figures out it’s the same stuff she was playing in and crosses it.

During breaks throughout college I worked at a trail barn where we took tourists out on trail rides. We had 40+ head of horses (and one mule) that we had to take care of, and a super cheap boss that would tie fences together with baling twine and then wonder why they fell down. They only ever took in free horses or cheap horses from the kill pen auction. To be fair, he did sometimes stumble upon true gems, but this is also how we wound up with a blind gelding that the owner insisted could see, but was very clearly blind, or a horse that was so anti-human he could hardly be haltered. He would turn the horses loose in the herd without quarantine, which was how we got a never-ending strangles breakout one winter. The new horse would also frequently get beaten up a lot the first week or two as it tried to deal with a 40 horse established pecking order. All the new horses were ridden by the guides for evaluation and trained if they needed it. Most of the guides owned their own mounts as well, but I did not, so it was frequently my job to deal with the problem horses to needed spot training or additional saddle time before putting beginners on them.

One such horse was Willow. Willow was one of those hidden gems, but she did need a bit of polishing when we got her. She was a 16hh jet black Tennessee Walker, well trained to rack all day if you wanted her to. Non-fading jet black, even at the end of summer. She had also very recently been nursing a foal and had only ever been ridden in 50-minute increments. When you hit minute 49, regardless of where you were on the property, she was taking you back to the barn. Clearly, this going to be a problem, since we only did hour and hour and a half trail rides. Also, the poor thing was bagged up (no foal at the auction, per the owner) and was in heat literally every week that summer. I don't know how often she had been bred before, but I felt so bad for her that summer.

Anyway, I end up riding Willow for a couple weeks until she figures out how to be a trail horse. She was very enjoyable to ride, up to that 49 minute mark. I start volunteering to take the 1.5 hour rides, to try to get her to realize that work doesn't end at 50 minutes, and we spend the last thirty minute of very ride doing a constant series of half halts. She ignores 90% of them, intent on powering home. Well, one time after it rained, we were going up a trail that I knew usually had a large mud puddle after storms. Trying to get her to pay attention to me, I half halt. She ignores me. I half halt. She ignores. I try to full halt before the mud. She ignores me, charges into the mud hole...and her entire back end slips out from under her. We fall fully flat on our side in the middle of this mud hole. Fortunately, being in the mud means that I'm not crushed and I can shimmy out from under her. I retreat to a safe distance as she flails, trying to get purchase to get up. Fortunately the couple I have on my ride with me is totally chill and understand when I say she's in training, this is why I'm on her and not them, etc.

Willow thrashes for a minute or two. Then lets out a big sigh and just looks at me, asking for help. Fortunately, the rope on my saddle is on the top side of her, and I'm able to loop it around her, and drag her just enough to get her to the side of the puddle where there's solid ground. We are both perfectly coated with mud on our right sides. We look like something out of a cartoon. There is a literal horse and human imprint in the mud that stays there for three weeks. She never ignored another half halt from me again.

My grandpa has a loyal guard dog named Zip. He's a Lab mixed with a German Sheperd. He wasn't trained, he's just loyal enough to protect us. We tried to have small dogs as well, but they're too vicious for us. This one dog tried to attack my grandpa, but Zip got between Grandpa and the dog. That small dog stopped trying and went into the house.

Zip knows he can't chase the horses even when they're loose... Because he's loyal. He chased people who tried to steal from us like this one time. He was sitting in his chair and these kids thought to take our pumpkins to go mail boxing. He heard their loud car pulling up into our circle drive I guess when he jumped up to do his thing, his chair SLAMMED into the house. My grandparents were sitting down at the dinner table, eating supper as this went down. Zippy chased them pretty far from the house. The pumpkins they tried to steal, was sitting halfway in the yard.

Zip would get possums, moles, coons, etc. so, When he got one, we'll say "Take it to pat" (or grandma) He would leave it on the porch. Zip and Blade (our other current dog) would 'take care of it' to feed themselves. But he doesn't seem to do that anymore. I'm squeemish but I'm raised on deer meat so I'm not a vegertarian or vegan. I'll drink strawberry milk to get my calcium, but when I seen a pigeon sitting over Peanut's feed bucket, I wanted it to move so the horse won't catch anything since medicene for horses is expensive like caring for the possum disease is $150 a month. but I thought I wounded the bird so I paniced realizing I have to get it. Note: I'm squeemish against blood and other stuff. I tried to have Zip get it but he wouldn't. That bird hopped out of the way from the horses. I just had my dad get the bird... That bird was fine but that was the last time I seen that pigeon.

Zip really hates being cuddled but he lets me hold his paws and hug him.

I'm so sorry if I freaked anyone out.

These are the ones I like. Lol

https://hj2.huntandjump.com/adv_search.php?runsearch=1&status=any&ageg=3&agel=10&agee=&erag=&eral=&erae=&heightg=&heightl=&heighte=&boneg=&bonel=&bonee=&f_basic=none&f_adv=level&f_limit=25&stallion=1&mare=1&bty=1&lined=lined&foundation=1&name=&name_lm=like&color=&color_lm=like&owner=28036&owner_lm=like&breeder=&breeder_lm=like&sire=&sire_lm=like&dam=&dam_lm=like&barn=&barn_lm=like&pasture=&past_lm=like&tattoo=&tat_lm=like&tat_and=and&club=&bc_lm=like&bc_and=and&e1=&e2=&a1=&a4=&a2=&a3=&f1=&f2=&p1=&p2=&s1=&s2=&s3=&c1=&c2=&c3=&d1=&d3=&d2=&d4=&g1=&g2=&ch1=&ch2=&z1=&z2=&sa2=&sa1=&mu2=&mu1=&chn2=&chn1=&tig1=&tig2=&tig3=&kit1=&kit2=&kit3=&kit4=&kit5=&kit6=&kit10=&kit11=&kit12=&kit7=&kit8=&kit9=&sp1=&sp2=&sp3=&spM=&pax31=&pax32=&rb1=&rb2=&o1=&o2=&l1=&l2=1&ice1=&icei=&ice2=&ice3=&ice4=&ice5=&ice6=&ice7=&ice8=&ice9=&ice10=&ice11=&ice12=&ice13=&ice14=&ice15=&nexn=&nexx=&nexr=&nexg=&nexb=&nexw=&rainr=&rainwt=&rainpl=&raint=&rainna=&brindle1=1&brindle2=1&wf4=1&wf5=1&wf6=1

Would you tell which horses are avaliable?

Thank you so much!

I like this colt.

4832434

Here are examples of fillies I like. I've been trying to get some lighter bone into my BS herd, so that's one of the things I'm looking at.

4840603

4840594

4840678

4510139

Also, I don't have Splash M, but I wouldn't be adverse to picking up a couple of them as show ponies instead of intact breeders. They are cute.

This link

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