Posted by Debbie Sorrick on 5/29/2002, 7:01 am --Previous Message--
: I am so happy!! My mare, Madame Majestical
: Justice, is having a foal!! She is an
: anglo-arab and was bred to aa appy. I know
: the combination is quite strange but I
: just want a wonderful baby that can carry
: on it parents achievements (state
: championships in reining and barrel
: racing). Well anyways what do you think
: about the combination? How do you think
: the baby will turn out?
:
Hi! Doesn't matter what ANYONE thinks of the combo, it is what you do with the horse after it is born and how you decide to train it that counts. Let me tell you about a mixed up, pathetic almost dog food horse. In 1965 my dad and I attended a local animal auction, horses,cows,pigs,sheep,chickens,feed,junk back then there was no regulations and if you had it for sell they got a commission and it got sold. These 2 guys pulled in with a skinny sorrel gelding in the back of a pick-up with 4 2x4's in the truck bed holes and wire between them to hold the fella in. When they backed up to the loading ramp they were about 7 inches shy of the loading ramp edge...it was ok to unload their tomatoes and produce in the back but when they went to back the gelding off his hind legs slipped down through the opening. He tore off all the hair and most of the meat from the fronts of his hind legs. They couldn't lift him so they pulled the truck forward out from under him and he fell out onto the ground. He weighed about 700 lbs. He was 13 months old. He fell onto the ground and couldn't stand up at all. My father gave in when I wouldn;t leave and I was crying with the geldings head in my lap. We had went up to buy a calf to raise for beef. We gave the man all the money we had . my dad had $52.00 and I had 27 cents. We wrapped him in gunny sacks and tied his legs up to his body and several men there lifted him back into the bed of our pick-up. We took him home and I began caring for the best horse I ever owned. It took 3 days for him to stand up. I cold water treated him 5 times a day and used some old goopy black ointment a local vet brought back from a Navaho indian reservation.
That horse recovered and never had a blemish on his legs. HIS sire was a very valuable Arabian stallion that was getting $1,000 stud fee in 1965.
It was one of the hightest on the east coast. This stallion jumped out of a 6 foot high solid walled paddock and traveled 4 miles down a highway to get into a barn (he kicked through a solid wood wall) to get to a mare and cover her. She was 14 years old and 1/2 Morgan and 1/2 Tennessee Walker. Talk about a strange combo!
I named my horse Sandy Sailor for his father's wandering ways and his color (I didn't know what a sorrel was back then). When he was 2 1/2 I started riding him. I didn't own a saddle or bridle so I just climbed up on his back with a scatter rug I snuck out of my mother's kitchen to keep my shorts clean and so I wouldn't get so itchy from the hair. I learned to guide him with my knees and hands held out to the sides of his head. I braided a halter from the hay baling twines and braided a pair of reins to go with it. I started with walk, trot, canter (when he wanted) and alot of running, zig-zagging and attempted tree climbing. The next summer I worked and earned money for riding lessons. In the next 3 years I started showing Sandy. I would borrow tack from some of the other kids at the shows to use and would help with their horses between classes. For Christmas my parents got me an english close contact saddle and bridle. We did everything in that set-up for l5 years. We won over 100 ribbons over the years at all the local shows - I would actually ride him to the shows, enter in them and ride him home afterwards in the dark with a flashlight..1 show was almost 20 miles from our farm..it didn't matter we just left earlier to get there. I rode him in equitation classes, jumping classes, hunter classes, fun classes, dress-up classes, barrel racing, pole bending, keyhole (his specialty) and reining and trail classes. He could jump flat footed over any 6' fence high and he quite ofter jumped of the ditch in the back field we used to drain off excess water from the ponds...it was 10'8' wide. I jumped him over the roof of an Volkswagon beetle at a show once by accident..a little girl ran out into the entrance to the ring as we were starting our run for the keyhole and he dodged to miss her and the car was parked illegally opposite the gate against the barn.....it was the car or the girl and Sandy jumped the car, I was just along for the ride. We got to go back around and restart for the keyhole and we took 1st. place. Sandy was 15 hands 2 inches at the whithers and filled out about 1100 lbs. He had the high head and energy of his arabian father, the long barrel and stamina of his morgan grandmother and he could pace or stride like his tennesse walker grand father. When he was pole bending we would walk behind afterwards and check his prints. He would do flying changes and have single prints on each side of the poles. He had a 22' stride in a run and quite often he would outrun my fathers throughbred stallion that was straight from the track. He was the best all round horse I have every owned. We have 19 on our farm now and since 1965 we have had a string of over 40 throughbreds, several ponies, quarterhorses, morgans, paints and some standardbreds. Sandy has been the standard by which I have measured every horse for versatality,stamina, heart and adaptibility. Some have come close but none as good....wait for your little mixed breed and listen to what your heart tells you about it and then take its training from there. I wish you the very best of luck and hope you have as many great moments and memories and I shared with my Sandy Sailor. Sandy was put down at the age of 36. It was the winter we had all the ice storms. He went out of the barn and tried to carry-on and kick up his heels to play in the snow and he fell and tore his inner thigh muscles in the rear legs. We slinged him and exercised and tried for almost 2 months but the vet couldn't get them to re-attach and hold to heal. When he started to get sores and suffer stomache pain I gave him his last antibiotic treatment, fed him his grain and watered him and then had the vet give him the shot. We bathed him, wrapped him and my dad made him a coffin and buried him with the backhoe in the middle paddock. Today there is a bench for sitting to play with the foals and we have a hayfeeder sitting on top to mark this special location. He is in the middle of all our new baby foals. He was always the best baby-sitter and never got snippy with any of the little ones.
Yes, he was from a truly hodge-podge background and started out with so many things against him but to me he was the ultimate horse...I hope you can follow and have a great combo of your own. Best wishes. debbie sorrick of the triple j farm
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