Welcome! I guess I will start with introductions...My name is Summer and this is my blog about my adventures in re training my first OTTB. His name is Popite Brown, or Moose, as I have decided to call him. This is my first blog so bare with me please. I have read and followed many other horse based blogs and finally decided to try my own. I also thought it would be a good idea to sort of document my progress with Moose. It will be fun to look back weeks, months, maybe even years from now and see how far we have progressed. I got Moose on September 20, 2010 from my awesome farrier and his wife. They gave him to me as a late exchange for a horse I had given them about a year back. At first I was apprehensive...I had never owned a TB let alone a OTTB and what in the world was I gonna do with a horse who was broke only for the track and who was almost 17hh?! I ride Western and barrel race and know that the taller a horse is, generally the harder its going to be for them to get down around a barrel. Still, I agreed to meet him and after that I was hooked! He was so big and powerful and just watching him move in the pasture I could see how naturally athletic he was. Sooo as you can imagine about a week later he was delivered to the barn where I work and board :-) and our journey began...
The following day I got him vet checked and he passed all flexion tests\soundness exams with flying colors! I was thrilled! I also asked the vet about two hard knots he had on his forehead. They almost look like "button buck" antlers. I had never seen them on a horse before. Vet said they were likely just calcium deposits from an old injury in the trailer or starting gate and nothing to be worried about. They were also where Moose got his name. The fact that he was so big and goofy paired with his deep chestnut coloring and antlers....definitely a Moose! He is five years old and his birthday is April 15. Thanks to his lip tattoo I was able to find all his information. He had 9 starts but never won anything. From what I saw in his videos he would break from the starting gate and stay in the lead until the last quarter of the race than fall back. No endurance perhaps? Well as a barrel racer he would only need to run for a good 15 seconds...hopefully less ;-) After his short racing career(he raced as a 3 and 4 year old) he was bought by my vets mother in law who gave him to my farrier. In the time his two previous owners had him he was never ridden. They did a little ground work with him so his manners were good but he had never had a Western saddle on. I have now ridden him about 6 times and only walked and worked on very beginner basics. He has taken to the Western saddle fine so far and is actually normally very quiet and behaved when I ride him. Only once (the only time I have ridden him at night in the arena and with another horse being ridden in there as well) did he become a little anxious and prance about but nothing crazy. I am still deciding on what I wish to do with him. Part of me wants to try him on the barrel pattern even though he is tall as he is also naturally very athletic and works well off his hind end. The other part of me wants to take lessons on him and learn English and perhaps one day even jump him? Either way there is a lot he must learn before I pursue anything in particular. I will see as I ride him and we learn each other what he enjoys and we will go from there.
I also have two Quarter horses who I will talk about pretty often. Beyond Colorado (Riley), who is a 12 year old Palomino gelding and May who is a 7 year old sorrel mare. They are my two barrel horses and my entire world. Also there is Tovah who you will hear about from time to time. She is my ever energetic and enthusiastic, year old German Shepherd.
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