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My summer project!

Chickshunt2

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2007
Messages
220
Location
North Dakota
Hi All,
Like most of you my summer has been a busy one! This is the year that Dream turned 4...and being so this is the summer that Dream learned the cold hard truth to life..he is a horse...not a 24/7 lawn mower..granted he does that job well. I thought it was time he learned to do more so in April he left for 4 months with the trainer to be broke to ride. Here are some pics of him.
dreamriding004.jpg

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In case your wondering Dream is a 18 H percheron and I have raised him from a weanie..He came home a great horse, that is a blast to ride. I will be using him this fall to move the cows home, so I'll get to really see what he's made of....My only thought/worry is just how do you get a calf to stop/turn if it can walk right under the horses belly???...lol

This is my other summer project....Everyone meet...Olenas Dun With Doc..A.K.A Honey...She is/was a rescue.(shes MINE now..hehe) The pics I'm going to post of her in the begining are from BEFORE she was in my care! She had a skin fungus, a very heavy worm load, and fluid in her lungs and to make matters worse she had very little handling.
Mousespring08.jpg

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Her winter coat hides just how bad she really was....she was nothing but skin and bones...her cost was so matted and full of goo that she almost made ya gag if you got to close to her....she just smelt that bad!

Pics after 30 days of good feed and lovings, her neck in this pic shows a bit about how thin she was. she started looking 100% better as she shed that yucky winter coat.
Honey6-4-08008.jpg

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After 60 days...She is 8 days away from her 1st b-day in these pics.
honey60days032.jpg

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honey60days026.jpg
Feeling a bit better!

A pic from this past Aug....She just had a bath and the pink stuff is swat..she had an old scar that healed raised with like a skin flap or tag removed from her wither area and yes those are pink rings around her eyes...just to help keep the flys a bay...
honeyaug020.jpg

We are still working on her wormy belly! but she is coming along nicely.
Here is a link to her lines.
http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/olenas+dun+with+doc
She has decent working lines for my area + you can't be to picky when it comes to a FREE rescue horse....lol
I'm hoping that she will enjoy ranch work, sorting,penning and maybe even some cutting...but we have a ways to go before we get there....but she shows some promise...
Honey spys a cow!
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She sizes em up....
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Changes her mind for something a little more her size..lol
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She starts moving the calf...
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after about 30 seconds of this the calf is not so sure this is fun and trys to bolt away...she ran right with him, got in front of him, turned him and then pushed him a bit more before the fun ran out of the game and she let him go....Darn cam batt. died after the last pic so I missed it all..on film anyways.
 
I like your black horse Chickshunt2,looking forward to pictures of you and him workin cattle,that filly looks like a differnt horse after you got her fed and medicated,lucky she found you,I dont think she would have lasted alot longer in that shape..................good luck
 
I must say, really nice colt and an amazing turn around. I love seeing those before and after pics. Really nice filly. Good ,luck with your project.
 
Thanks for rescueing that little girl...she'll be just fine with all the TLC that she's getting now...Hope the black horse works out for ya..he's a beauty too..thanks
 
chicks, good job on your baby,looks real good in comparison.Nice percheron too,might use him to do some gathering,probably stop one on a rope pretty good also, but i might change him out at the corral for any cutting work.Looks like some fresian in there?Looks like you have some nice winter projects.
 
Thanks Everyone I'm pretty happy with both of them. I really can hardly wait to get the filly started but with Dream just home from training he will get the riding this year and next. I think I'll start her lightly in her 3rd year and then send her out to a cutting/reining/ranch horse type trainer in her 4th year. I'm in no hurry and as you can tell I like my horses to be fully grown and not pushed their legs mean more to me then a ribbon,buckle or some prize money. The only reason Dream went to the trainers before he was 5 " when a draft stops growing" is because I knew he would not be pushed hard this year. Next year life will again change for him and he will learn what real work is. I think he will also be sent off to learn to drive as I think he will look smashing pulling a cart. He has a very ooooh, look at me and likes to prance and show off if he thinks someone is watching him. You can really see the light horses that were bred to heavies to make the percheron breed in him. He has a very showy arab look about his gaits, he just screams look at me! He reminds me of a model on a runway..work it..now turn...thats great oh yes prance, snap them legs up....and yet I can put a child on him and he barely lifts his hooves high enough to clear the ground and walks as if he has a load of glass eggs on him.

Nice percheron too,might use him to do some gathering,probably stop one on a rope pretty good also, but I might change him out at the corral for any cutting work.Looks like some fresian in there?
I"m betting if I knew how to rope he could make one heck of a roping horse. He weighs in at around 1900 lbs so I'm thinking he could stop some biggins...other then having the cow/calf/etc. see that huge open hole under his belly I would stay on him to cut...he moves a heck of a lot faster than one would think and I have seen that big ol horse stop and spin on a dime just as good as any QH...It truly is a scary thing to see tho...he looks like a run away freight train and sounds about like one when he really gets moving( you can feel the ground shake when I work him in the round pen) and my trainer put a great stop on him..so good that we joked about putting plates on him and get him to slide...we rethought this after thinking about the ruts he would cut in to the arena.lol..he is 100% Canadian bred percheron no fresian in him as he is papered. He does have wonderfully long feathers, that most years I shave the underside of them off " they are long enough to hide the shaved part of his fetlock". Here ND we get some nasty snow/ice and I swear that when that hair gets full of ice he walks around with 5 lbs of ice on each leg. I also keep the underside shaved in the spring/summer just because of the mud. I don't need a raging case of scratches on my hands. I try to keep my horses healthy and happy as best I can and yet let them be horses...outside 24/7 with a nice large run in off the back of the barn, in the winter hay in front of them 24/7. I only "baby" them when they need it. If ones sick and needs a stall ok, if ones old and needs a blanket so he can be outside with the others ok.

Look at those Good Looking Sound Feet and Legs
He has some very solid legs and hooves...my farrier hates him in a good way. He tells me every time he is here that he can not believe just how hard his hoof is he says it's like trying to use the nippers on a piece of iron.
He has legs thats for sure the top of his front cannon bone right below the knee measures about 11 inches around & about 13 1/2 inches in the rear. His fetlock in the front is 15 inches around & 16 1/4 inches in the rear. His hooves in front are 9" heel to toe X 9 1/2" side wall to side wall. And these maybe a bit on the small side seeing that they are over a year and half old measurements and he has grown since taking them! I had thought about keeping him a stud when I got him and in some ways I'm very sad that I did not, I think he would cross nicely with light horses to make some nice heavy hunter type horses...or better know as american warmbloods. He has a great personality that he had even as a stud at 2 1/2. He has always been a laid back very relaxed thinking type of horse...I often wonder if he would have kept that attitude if I would have kept him a stud. But with his being gelded it does make finding places to board much easier, it makes riding in mixed company no big deal and I'm still not sure I really want a stud around, they just need to be handled with " stud gloves" at all times you can't let your guard down ever, even with the nicest, best mannered stud in the world it's just an disaster waiting to happen when you do.
 

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