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Happy Fall ya'll :o)
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Lady's first baby, and the leader of The Girls
Meet Rina...
A purebred Arabian. She came here at the age of 3 months with her mother, Lady. Purchased from an Arabian horse farm that was downsizing their herd, Rina was the original "wild child". The farm had lost its trainer (she was going to have a baby) and they had been unable to find a replacement. Because of this, their regular training schedule was way behind ~ the new foals were virtually untouched outside of some initial handling and (thankfully) a leather foal halter with the little dangling catch me if you can strap (ha, ha). It took three of us over an hour to get her in the trailer; it was a regular rodeo in spite of the fact that Mom loaded right up and stood inside calling her encouragement. For a little more to read of Rina's story after her arrival, check the Equine Epiphanies section on the home page.
With the exception of an awe inspiring hissy fit at weaning time, Rina is now a very well-adjusted 4 year old. While she still has plenty of fire, it's now channeled more toward beauty in motion than belligerence (although she did manage to hang on to some of that stubborn :o) She has established herself as the leader of the girls (the Arabians are in the "yard" and are separate from the Moo Crew in the pasture) in spite of the fact that she is next to the youngest of the four.
A purebred Arabian. She came here at the age of 3 months with her mother, Lady. Purchased from an Arabian horse farm that was downsizing their herd, Rina was the original "wild child". The farm had lost its trainer (she was going to have a baby) and they had been unable to find a replacement. Because of this, their regular training schedule was way behind ~ the new foals were virtually untouched outside of some initial handling and (thankfully) a leather foal halter with the little dangling catch me if you can strap (ha, ha). It took three of us over an hour to get her in the trailer; it was a regular rodeo in spite of the fact that Mom loaded right up and stood inside calling her encouragement. For a little more to read of Rina's story after her arrival, check the Equine Epiphanies section on the home page.
With the exception of an awe inspiring hissy fit at weaning time, Rina is now a very well-adjusted 4 year old. While she still has plenty of fire, it's now channeled more toward beauty in motion than belligerence (although she did manage to hang on to some of that stubborn :o) She has established herself as the leader of the girls (the Arabians are in the "yard" and are separate from the Moo Crew in the pasture) in spite of the fact that she is next to the youngest of the four.
What has she taught us?
- That patience (a must when working with horses) can be very worthwhile; sometimes the greater the patience required means the bigger the reward. All horses learn differently, and just because one doesn't immediately acquiesce doesn't mean they're being difficult or stubborn (maybe it's because they just want an extra minute or two to think it through :o)
- That the "hot" label assigned to the Arabian breed as a whole is a load of hooey (fire does NOT automatically equal spastic equine - ha) and it is more likely to do with how the horse was handled more than anything else.
- That Arabians require FAR less pressure than other breeds when working in the round pen...our first couple of attempts got a teensy bit hairy until I figured out what MY problem was. Lesson #439 was; don't go from an overly laid back (ahem, pigheaded) Quarter Horse to an Purebred Arabian without pausing to regroup and reflect on your pupil first ~ It will not go well. Sort of like going from a moped to a Maserati. In a word? D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S :o)
Favorite Rina Anecdote ~ An Air of Indignation
Horses are extremely curious creatures, a fact that gets them into constant trouble. One afternoon my husband, daughter, and I were working on the electric fence behind the house - sectioning off a high school training area. We had a couple of tools laying nearby, a big bucket full of T-Post insulators, and a roll of wire which was tucked under the fence out of "harm's" way (harm = horses in this instance, and not them so much as the tools :o)
The girls were standing a short distance away, watching us work (you know, acting in a supervisory capacity - the only thing missing was the coffee). After a short while had passed, Rina couldn't stand the suspense and longer and came to investigate. She checked all the tools one at a time and then moved to the bucket to check out its contents.
I don't know if you've ever seen a T-Post insulator, but these were the long ones (they're about 5" long and have a scrolled "C" shape on one end which wraps around the post, and 2 little nubs on the other end for the wire. Rina poked her nose down in the bucket and was sniffing around to see what was what in there; since there wasn't anything in it that could hurt her, I was only halfway paying attention to what she was doing. All of a sudden I hear this HUGE snort (which reverberated all over the inside of that big bucket), and Rina's head pops back up with a bright yellow insulator dangling from one nostril. Another snort and a quick head toss sent the insulator flying, but it was the disgruntled expression on her face more than anything that had all 3 of us rolling in the grass with laughter (my poor baby!) She looked at us (still laughing like loons) as though we were unbelievably rude to laugh at her, and with tail twitching in indignation she turned and trotted back to the others (who were still watching from a "safe" distance) with her nose in the air.
Horses are extremely curious creatures, a fact that gets them into constant trouble. One afternoon my husband, daughter, and I were working on the electric fence behind the house - sectioning off a high school training area. We had a couple of tools laying nearby, a big bucket full of T-Post insulators, and a roll of wire which was tucked under the fence out of "harm's" way (harm = horses in this instance, and not them so much as the tools :o)
The girls were standing a short distance away, watching us work (you know, acting in a supervisory capacity - the only thing missing was the coffee). After a short while had passed, Rina couldn't stand the suspense and longer and came to investigate. She checked all the tools one at a time and then moved to the bucket to check out its contents.
I don't know if you've ever seen a T-Post insulator, but these were the long ones (they're about 5" long and have a scrolled "C" shape on one end which wraps around the post, and 2 little nubs on the other end for the wire. Rina poked her nose down in the bucket and was sniffing around to see what was what in there; since there wasn't anything in it that could hurt her, I was only halfway paying attention to what she was doing. All of a sudden I hear this HUGE snort (which reverberated all over the inside of that big bucket), and Rina's head pops back up with a bright yellow insulator dangling from one nostril. Another snort and a quick head toss sent the insulator flying, but it was the disgruntled expression on her face more than anything that had all 3 of us rolling in the grass with laughter (my poor baby!) She looked at us (still laughing like loons) as though we were unbelievably rude to laugh at her, and with tail twitching in indignation she turned and trotted back to the others (who were still watching from a "safe" distance) with her nose in the air.
Pictures: Rina getting a big squishy hug from Cassandra, basking in the sunshine, coming down the hill for supper, Rina with little sister Taya, talking to someone in the pasture, Rina standing at "the scene of the crime" (see anecdote above :o), and the bottom picture shows Rina and Lady when we first met.
