The Horses Part IV
Scout and Perkins
The new horses have mostly been here long enough now to have settled in. They all had a rotten first winter up here with various health problems and the chiropractor has been through twice and had to treat and retreat some of them. Being low in the pecking order they have all been bossed off bluffs and into scrub or fences. I can just about tell which horse is which now and they are fat enough to be worth photographing so here goes.
Scout [ Roly ]
Scout was found in private ownership in Kaikoura. Rod and Lorna drove down to Halswell to pick up chestnut Speedy and on the way home stopped in Kaikoura to meet and collect Scout. He was very fat and very bossy and somewhat lacking in the manners department and exploded off the float like a shiny Sherman Tank! The herd quite quickly put him in his place, at the bottom, and once in his correct position in the hierarchy he settled in.He is not a nervous horse and it is the nervous ones that have a really tough time. He was easy to back and has been problem free and has just sort of evolved into being ridden by the Volunteers plus taking a few good riding customers. In the last two months he has had more vertebra put back in place, been wormed again and is currently enjoying the first flush of lovely green Spring grass so he has fattened up delightfully.
Perkins - [ Perky ]
Perkins came from a trainer locally and, quite by accident, I was offered Perky while Rod was away, but only if I picked him up at once. The horse float was in the shed, I just needed someone to tow it for me. Good friend Angel came to the rescue with her family and we brought Perky home. When we checked him out on Harness Racing NZ we discovered, to our great surprise, that he was Scout's full brother, a year older. When Rod arrived home we appeared to have two peas in a pod, and they obviously knew each other although they had been split up since their youth. He has had a very hard second winter up the hill. The chiropractor has treated him twice this year and recently the vet put a stomach tube down and gave him a worm "bomb" which has worked spectacularly well, along with a bumper Spring grass growth. He is fat and happy and he and Scout live together. and are very placid and relaxed now.
Davey [ Gimmetheball ]
Everybody else has one photo but Davey looks so nice now he has put on weight, and this is his best friend Rachael who is solely responsible for him being so relaxed and happy these days, so she should be in the frame. Davey came from on the way to Havelock, in private ownership, living on very poor grazing on a dairy farm. He was horribly scrawny and desperately in need of love and attention. Davey has also had a bad winter with the snow, plus managing to get a foot long cut on his neck, which dripped the weight off him, as it got re-infected. The Spring grass flush has turned him into the nice little Standardbred he SHOULD be.
Jaccka - [ JacckaSparky ]
Jaccka came from one of the local trainers we have had umpteen nice horses from over the years, so he had been beautifully handled and is very user friendly with people. He is another horse that fell foul of the snow in August and lost a lot of weight, so we weren't rushing to back him. Now he is up and cracking and starting out nicely on his new career of being ridden. He is best friends with Davey. This is Tina on him in the Exercise Yard
Della - [ Delmas Lass ]
Della came up here over a year ago supposedly owned by a young lad who was going to pay rent for her being here and obviously look after her. To cut a long story short we eventually found out that the horse didn't belong to him and managed to track down her real owner who was very happy for us to have her, the young lad having being noticable by his abscence. We have had a lovely Swiss girl staying for two weeks and she has been riding her every day and she is truly a nice natured horse. She was backed after Christmas and went very well. Since that time the chiropractor has been through and put back two vertebra and one hip. If she could be quiet to ride with all that wrong - what will she be like now?
Holly - [ Iwannago ]
Holly arrived at the same time as Della, also up here to have grazing costs paid and to be looked after by her owner. Unfortunately this never happened and the poor wee mare was sadly neglected by her owner who was travelling around a lot. This year the owner finally visited, still unable to pay the backlog of rent and Holly became ours. Young Christina, the Swiss girl, backed her and rode her every day for two weeks. This was going very well until Holly started putting her ears back and being very surly and, on checking, we discovered she has put a vertebra out in her back. She is turned out on next door's property to await the chiropractor's next visit.
Topper - [ Radiant Topaz ]
Topper came from our American friend Nancy in the North Island. Not being fast enough racing he was due for the chop, and Nancy rescued him and sent him to us. He is a beautiful English Thoroughbred, VERY aristocratic but very nice when you get to know him. He, also, dripped weight in the snow storm and I had to hard feed him for months to put the weight back on. The turning point was when the vet put a stomach tube down and gave him the worm Bomb like some of the others. Since I have stopped hard feeding him and abandoned him to survive on this year's plentiful grass he has lost a little weight but he is holding his own. Swiss Christina has enjoyed riding him out these last two weeks. As you can see he likes to present his best profile to the camera. In seventeen years he is the only horse to have got the better of Toss, the Boss and I had to separate them to preserve poor old Toss's life and limb.
Beeby - [ Be Be Gun ]
Beeby arrived at the same time as Topper. He was thin when he arrived, was apparantly thin while on the track and has only just started to put on weight and therefore be ridable so Christina's services have been called into play again. Beeby is happy being ridden out and about but hates being ridden in a paddock and makes his feelings very clear! Time will settle him down and hopefully memories of the track and his past life will fade. having been backed and started these last two weeks he is now turned out again to think about it all and to put on more weight.
Bowie - [ Mr Bowie ]
Bowie is our worst rescue case. He is a beautiful, very nice natured Thoroughbred who has fallen on hard times. Although still owned by his original trainer in the North Island he was leased out and then given away and contracted a very bad case of rye grass staggers during which time he injured his leg severely. We managed to get him at the end of January and have been stuffing him with good food ever since and spraying his leg wound with cod liver oil. These two photos were taken the day after he arrived here.
These two photos are taken two weeks after Bowie arrived. You can see how much the leg wound has shrunk and he is looking a little fatter. Today, Wednesday 14th March he is looking even better and we have hopes that he will overcome his problems with time and love
