About me!

[Stoneridge]

Thanks Claudia, me too - yep still in the land of the living! I really have to stop taking stupid risks because one of these days my luck will run out and somebody will decide that my nine lives just ran out. God I hate electrics! One of those things in life that you need and love but at the same time hate when you have to deal with them.

T

[Stoneridge]

Another crisis averted.

Please Note: Do NOT under any circumstances try or attempt this, Do NOT even consider giving this a go, I have more than 40 years of hands on training, experience and expertise this is the only reason that I made the immediate choices that I did. – ALWAYS CALL A PROFESSIONAL VETERINARIAN ASAP –

We were entering into our foaling season once again and we had several mares due to foal. One of our mares was a maiden (maiden is never had a foal before). She was quite a special Mare to me as she didn’t have one of the best beginnings in life. That changed when I managed to purchase her.


Ghost was a stunning steel grey with a large white star on her forehead. After waiting, hoping and wondering for the past eleven months the day was drawing nearer. You just never know what you are going to end up with, it could be a colt or a filly and god only knows what colour or markings it may or may not have. Could be a blaze, socks, black, grey, chestnut, palomino or any combination of anything really the list goes on – its very much like a surprise Christmas present in one fun filled little bundle.

Well the day arrived quickly and as we had pre empted the event we had made the prior decision to keep Ghost in our corral with one of the stable doors open for her as she really loved the stable block. This was a really good decision as the corral and stables were right outside my bedroom window so I could also keep a close eye on her. I didn’t need anything to go wrong and if it did then I needed to be there within seconds.

Late one evening she was showing signs of making her delivery. I remember it was a really dark night with hardly any moonlight and quite still, it was a bit chilly and foggy, unusual to say the least for the time of the year. Late in the evening I decided that I would plant myself in the stable with her and close the door as her mannerisms were telling me a lot by this time. A couple of hours past by and it was becoming increasingly apparent that she was having very real problems, something was seriously wrong, it was really late at night and I knew that there would not be any vets around at that time of night. I could have called an emergency vet out but by the time that they arrived at our place I don’t think that we would have a mare or a foal alive to be seen to. I studied her for a little while longer assessing the situation and I could see one of the foals forelegs, there should be two front legs and they should be together but with one just slightly behind the other, the foals head comes quite a bit after that. It dawned on me that come hell or high water my mare and foal need serious help and right now, she was getting really tired and she needed really fast thinking and even faster intervention, I needed to somehow pull the missing leg up parallel with the other one or else we were looking at losing both of them. I had figured that the missing leg was bent and it should be straight, this meant that I had to push the foal back and hope like hell I could make the other leg parallel, this is really risky for both mare and foal, these situations are seriously life and death and I strongly urge people to never ever do this if you don’t know what you are doing and are not an expert, it is also not for the squeamish, faint hearted, procrastinator or the novice to try. It is extremely dangerous and if you have no idea what you are doing you should call a vet immediately. We didn’t have time on our side – we were looking at losing both and as I figured it could be within minutes. I managed to finally unfold the foals leg and within minutes he arrived, a stunning little jet black colt (destined to turn grey later on as generally black foals do) and he was huge as far as foals go, no wonder his mum was having problems. We named and registered him as Stoneridges Knight Spirit, he had a great big star on his forehead and he was very healthy. I phoned our local vet as soon as I could and got them to come out and check the mare and foal over, both were absolutely fine.

My vet administered a general anti-biotic which would cover the mare and foal as a matter of precaution, he also told me that I was correct in what I did as we would have almost certainly lost both in the time that he would have taken just to get to our place. So one more crisis averted and one more reason the next day to rush home from work just to watch another little miracle happily bouncing around and being an absolute playful fool in the paddock as all foals seem to do! Loving life and thoroughly enjoying every single moment of it.

......... Proud mum and baby .........
...............................With an even prouder me behind the camera.........

Ghost with Knight Spirit a few hours old ........................... Ghost with Spirit checking out what a paddock is for the first time.

NB: Sincere apologies for the terrible photos as I took these digital photos from Kodak paper photos in my old album.

T

[Jemster]

What, no pictures? Glad mom and colt are doing well.


Michelle

[Stoneridge]

Yeah I know Jemster, I thought about that while I was writing and I hunted through my digitals but I found nothing, I know I have a 3 hour VHS video but that's no good.

I will try and rectify the situation and come up with a photo. The only way that I know of being able to do that is I will have to take a digital photo of one of the photos in my photo album. I'm hoping there is one in there of Ghost and Spirit. I didn't have a digital camera back then. Rest assured I will hunt for one tonight when I get home from work and take a digital of one if I can find one.

Finger crossed and watch this space. Ghost was my favourite jumper and cross country horse. She could jump like a buck rabbit and she was so friggin fast, difficult to keep up with when I was showing her.

T

[Stoneridge]

Pictures now, I edited my post above.

T

[Stoneridge]

Well folks I've also added a crappy picture of Billy Bedford on page two. Please don't look too hard, he was my first horse truck and not the best of conditions, but he was great and we always had an absolute ball with him.

T

[Stoneridge]

Blaze’ - The horse that broke my back!

I was on the lookout for a really nice competition horse and I couldn’t seem to find just what I was looking for. Or I did find what I wanted but the prices were ridiculous somewhat verging on daylight robbery.

Then one day a friend of mine suggested a stud farm out South Auckland way which was ran by a woman named Amanda. She was quite high up in the equestrian world so I decided to give her a call to see if she had anything available which matched my requirements for age and discipline. She really had nothing that I was interested in except for one which she was selling on behalf of someone else. He sounded quite nice, a grey gelding with impeccable manners on the ground but he was young and wasn’t broken in.

With me being me I thought that I could find someone easy enough that would be willing to break him in for me, I would need someone special to do this as I prefer the gentle, reasoning way of breaking a horse in and not scaring the be-jesus out of them or having them subservient at all. It struck me that having a nice young horse would give me a Rolls Royce instead of a beaten up Mini Clubman in the way of a horse. So with that in mind I decided to go and have a look at least and see what this guy was like.

I arrived out at the farm and was pointed in the direction of where he was, just my luck he happened to be in a paddock that was way in the distance and I couldn’t even make out any fencing, the paddock was huge. I was hoping at this point in time that he would be easy to catch or else I was going home, I draw the line at chasing horses around paddocks to catch them and I never ever leave a halter on a horse in a paddock because I think this is a dangerous practice.

I don’t know how long it took me to get to him but I finally got there and he just stood there like a lamb and let me put a halter on him. I was wondering if I had the correct horse or not so I led him back down to the stable block and asked Amanda if I had the right one, I really didn’t fancy going back if I had the wrong one. Yes it was him alright; she couldn’t tell me much about him apart from what I already knew. He seemed so brilliant and well mannered on the ground that I decided I would buy him and take a chance. He was a gangly looking gelding, not much to look at as he hadn’t filled out but when he did in a few years he would be stunning.

I did some phoning around and managed to get some contacts of people who could break him in for me. The guy that I got in the end had great references so he was my man for the job. A few weeks went by and everything was working out really well. Blaze was making great progress and was a really quick learner. Finally the reins were handed over to me to finish him off and do the fine tuning so to speak.

The guy I had who was breaking him in had voiced a concern or two over the fact that he sometimes bucked and he couldn’t figure out why but it was put down to Blaze being young and frisky.

This should have been a massive red light warning to me, it became apparent that Blaze had issues deep inside his head as the bucking never stopped. He would buck like a bronco full on with his jaw clamped down on the bit, head tucked right down between his front legs, round his back and just let go. Even when he managed to get someone off he would continue bucking for several minutes, all four legs off the ground and twisting like a maniac. I had myriads of tests done on him, had his back checked, teeth and mouth checked, every bone in his body checked, deficiencies and imbalances checked, changed his diet completely several times. I basically ran out of things to have checked on him.

The thing was that no one knew when he would let go. I could get on him straight away and nothing, go for an awesome ride for quite a long time and nothing, be halfway through a ride and then look out. Other days it was as soon as I got on him or at the end of a ride. His unpredictability made him very dangerous, one day a friend and I had just saddled up, mounted the horses and were about to set off on one of our rides then all hell broke loose. Blaze just went right off his rocker, I had never experienced him bucking like this before, I sensed a kind of evil and purpose this time that I had never had with him before, I stayed on for only five seriously full on bronco bucks and something went in my back, he had actually broken a piece off of my spine and I ended up pulling gravel out of my kneecaps. This was getting really dangerous and I figured that I was now completely out of my league. I had a few friends that volunteered to try and help with him, one of them Blaze managed to twist her pelvis and break two of her ribs, others he just got rid of immediately.

Enough was enough and I made the final decision to advertise him as a paddock mate for another horse as sometimes horses like Blaze with his excellent ground manners can be very sought after. A young girl came out to see him and fell in love with him, I emphasized the fact that he must never ever be ridden and I had all of my paddock friends there telling this young girl the same thing. I told her what he was capable of and the damage that he had caused. This girl told me that was fine as she didn’t want to ride him; she wanted a paddock mate for her riding horse. She decided to take him and I made sure she understood that under no circumstances to ever consider riding him. Well…. Guess what, she had Blaze for several weeks and kept in contact with me, they were doing great and she was enjoying him until one day on the phone she told me that she had been riding him. “For crying out loud, did I have to tattoo her with the words, do not ride him” I tried to reason with her but she was adamant that he was just everything she ever wanted and was very sensible and sane.

The next phone call I got from her several weeks later was that she had been in hospital seriously hurt, not only did he buck her off but he had decided to finish her off by attacking her with both barrels of his back hooves while she was in the corral with him. I was devastated; to this day I still cannot believe or understand why my warnings were unheeded. Not only from myself but from all of my friends who had experienced Blaze’s wrath first hand. In hindsight I should have done the right thing and had him destroyed, it was because he was young that I had decided against this to begin with but I wish I had of. Another strong lesson learned. Would I do that again? Nope, never! I now pay dearly for my own incompetence and stupidity every day of my life.


Me on Blaze, last stages of being broken in.

Once again apologies for the terrible photo, another one I took off of a photo in my album.

T

[bftlovesRDA]

What a story! You were very fortunate to not be hurt even more seriously than you were hurt. Thanks for retelling that episode in your life.

[Stoneridge]

The Horse I never wanted.

I got a phone call early one Saturday morning from a friend who wanted to purchase a pony for her daughter and she asked me if I would go with them to have a look at a pony which they had found to see if in my opinion it was suitable for her daughter or not as her daughter at the time was twelve years old.

I was working my weekends at RDA at the time, that’s ‘Riding for the Disabled Association’ in New Zealand which is a non-profit association made up of solely volunteers and donations. Since it was horses and people it was right up my alley and something which I figured I could give back to the community. My friend and her daughter were also volunteers there.

They picked me up from home and we set off to go and see this pony. It was a beautiful summer’s day and we were all eager to see what this pony was really like. He sounded great on the phone but you never know until you get there and check them out first hand. It is truly amazing how many little things which are important that are left out by people when they are selling something especially where horses are concerned. God knows I’ve experienced this a lot in my lifetime.

Why aren’t people truthful? Seriously what does anyone gain from lying, missing out relevant points and bending the truth to suit themselves especially when someone could get seriously hurt. Sorry I’m ranting but I vehemently abhor and loathe lying of any kind.

Ok back to my story. Sorry folks.

We arrived at the paddock but we had obviously beat the owners there so we walked around for a bit looking at the horses that were there. There was a Lady there with a scruffy looking horse that she was making a feeble attempt to brush mud off of it. The Lady looked liked a gypsy to me and didn’t seem the type to be a horsewoman. We engaged in a bit of small talk and she intimated to me that she was getting rid of the horse that she was brushing as horses were not really her scene. The horse was quite a sorry sight, not well kept at all and although I felt sadness for the neglect of the horse I wasn’t looking for one myself. I was quite happy horseless at this point in time.

The owner of the pony finally turned up and my girlfriends’ daughter had a ride on him, my feelings were that the pony was far too strong for her and it was not a good partnership. The pony really didn’t want to do anything that she asked of him and he had no problem making sure that he didn’t do anything that was asked of him either.

As we were about to leave the Lady who had the sorry looking park hack (a horse 15.2hh) came over and asked me if I wanted to have a ride on her horse. I told her that I really didn’t want to as her horse was pretty much everything that I wouldn’t want and I wasn’t looking for a horse in any case. She was a mare which I’m not keen on, dark bay/black in colour and a standard bred as well. Absolutely everything that I would never look at, I did like her name though it was Jade, which is also a very pretty gemstone of unique symbolic energy, it also comes in varying colours, commonly green but also comes in black. Anyway this lady was really bugging me to have a quick ride, so I finally gave in and said ok.


When I just purchased Jade

My ride was ok but Jade was young and really had no balance or concept of which leg to be leading with, her sides seemed quite dead and her mouth was as hard as rock, somebody had really abused or been extremely rough with her as a youngster because she should not be like this at all, in other words a lot of tedious and hard work, throw in some long hours and you might get a half decent horse out of the mix.

Well being the sucker that I am, all of a sudden those horrifying words leapt out of my mouth and I asked how much given the condition that she was in and the fact that the Lady didn’t want her. The price was negligible so I bought her but god only knows why, I hired a horse float and commandeered my brother with his landrover to collect her the following weekend. She floated reasonably well once we finally coaxed her into the float and only a few minor hiccups along the way but nothing that we couldn’t handle.

We arrived back at RDA and unloaded her, the very first comment I received was from a nasty woman who also worked there named Sue. She took one look at Jade and informed me that she had never seen a more ugly horse that had so much promising potential to amount to nothing more than dog food. Very nice! I took her comments on board and figured that I would show her if it was the last thing that I ever did.

Over the coming months I can recall frequently returning home from the paddock in tears proclaiming to whoever would listen to me that someone needed to get rid of that horse for me. I was beginning to really dislike her, every opportunity that Jade got she would try and get me off of her back under trees, if I so much as tried to put a cover on her she would break her halter and take off down the paddocks clearing all of the fences along the way. I was getting really stressed because she had shocking rain scald with open weeping sores on her and she needed medicating and covering. She also showed signs of being whipped in the face as she had marks and lines that shouldn’t have been there and if you tried to touch her head she would almost knock you out.

Time march on and I persevered with her, the months flew by and Jade’s antics of attempting to kill me decreased, she was starting to trust me and I reciprocated. She was beginning to look amazing and she was very popular with everyone, except for Sue. I even got to the point where I was participating at RDA with her because she was so trustworthy. One of the disabled kids called Anna always insisted that she have Jade and myself for her disabled therapy sessions. Anna eventually did her pony club certificate on her own with Jade as her mount. I couldn’t have been prouder of Jade and that all my hard work had finally paid off.


Clipped out for winter.

Jade and I became very much an inseparable team, we had something special together as she trusted me in every conceivable way and in return trusted her with my life on more than one occasion. We spent so much time together that you would swear that we knew what each other was thinking or about to do. Every horse person that I knew of in my area at the time always wanted to have a ride on Jade or take her jumping around the local pony club. The local girls were always saying to me “I wish my horse was like Jade”


Our first professional show together

As for Sue, much to her ultimate disgust Jade and I went one step further and progressed into serious showing, winning dozens of Ribbons and Champion Sashes.


Show day over

Jade and I had approx 10 most absolutely wonderful years together and to this very day she still holds a very special place in my heart. (R.I.P. Jade)
I’m so thankful that nobody ever listened to me or took me seriously way back when I first got her.


Purple Sash is Champion Horse, Red Ribbons are 3 x firsts and Green Ribbon is 1 x fourth place.

T

[Stoneridge]

Thanks B. And thank you for the kind comments.
Keep commenting folks and I will keep writing - it lets me know that you're still interested.

T