HOW DO YOU EAT A DRAFT HORSE?

Spencer gets worried about the people around him and at times he is jumpy, angry and intimidating. I continue to wonder why a horse would behave this way.

Sometimes you just have to try to get inside the head of an animal like him to try to figure him out and help him to become a safe, member of equine society.

I finally came to grips with the fact that I have no idea of what Spencer’s past really was like. I’ve heard things…but have no way of knowing how much of what I’ve heard is fact or fiction. I’m only certain of his last two years before coming here.

We know that he was young stallion who after being loose and living alone in a paddock for 2 years, untouched, was caught after being chased for 3 hours in 90 degree heat and running on a severly abscessing hoof. (This was after several other failed attempts to catch him had taken place during those two years.)

After he gave up and allowed himeself to be haltered, he was hauled to a new location where he was put in with, and brutalized by, another stallion who was protecting his mares who were in the same small field with them. The assault seemed to go on and on with Spencer being cornered many times with no where to run.

In fact, the clash between the two stallions was so horrific neighbors finally called police to the scene. That's how bad it was and that's how bad he looked afterwards. I thought it was awesome that the neighbors intervened on a horse's behalf. The idea for putting him in with that stallion was to teach him a lesson about who was the boss.

Several months later, we adopted him. And I think I finally figured out why he gets so belligerent sometimes. I believe he thinks we might do the same thing that other stallion did to him. And that humans before us did to him. He's anticipating the worst and he's simply protecting himself.

Self preservation! I get that. If fact, I figure, he believes we just want to kill him and eat him!

After all, bottom line, when our horses get worried, isn’t that a common concern of all prey/herd animals? And to add to their concern, I’m pretty sure horses know they taste good.

So after enduring the winter weather for the past few months, I was finally able to do some things with Spencer this weekend. We played the 7 games, we worked on hoof handling, (yes, still working on that) and then I decided to go looking for my clickers. And I found them!



Spencer LOVES treats so he LOVES the clicker! You may recall from an earlier post, when he first came here, he would not take treats from my hand. He would turn his head away when offered food from my hand. He’s been hit, I’m pretty sure, and it took watching Forrest take carrots from me to understand that I wasn’t going to hurt him for taking food from my hand.

When I would offer carrots to Forrest, Spencer would put his nose on the carrot and follow it all the way into Forrest’s mouth. It was the funniest thing to watch and Forrest was like, “What the heck are you doing, Man? Sniffing my carrot? Go sniff your own carrot!” (Amazing how similar their blazes are. So tornado like.)




Then when he realized treats were okay, it was the way he took the treats from me that was worrisome. He’d suddenly reach out with his mouth open, teeth-bared and snap the treat away…before he could get hit, I imagine, but I was careful about my fingers.

So while I was working with the clicker last weekend, I happned to take note of how gentle and gracious he’d become at taking treats from me. He was slow and thoughtful and careful about my fingers. If he felt my fingers against his lips, I could feel him avoid them even if it meant the treat might be dropped. That is why, I believe in hand feeding horses. They need to know “how” to take offerings from human hands because one day a small child might be the one offering from their little hands. There was a day that would have been a dangerous situation with Spencer.

I was so impressed with the changes in him, after I thought about how far we’ve come. He really is starting to remind me of an big old teddy bear. Who still kicks out from time to time and won’t pick up his feet for me to trim yet. But hey, we’re making progress.


Spencer is hanging out in his loafing shed on a rainy afternoon.



I got up on the fence for this shot. A site I don't see very often - his top!



So how do you eat a draft horse?

One bite at a time!

Spencer Day-to-Day

What's Spencer been up to lately? I'm frequently asked that question in emails and it makes my heart swell that so many people care about him.

Well, with the weather being yucky and the days short, and me busy as heck, poor Spencer has been kind of bored. My niece says he reminds her of a woolly mammoth right now, with his fuzzy winter coat on.

But Rich and I have promised ourselves that we are going to start working with him at least every other day to get him safer and cooperative, especially, with his feet.

Last week, I was able to get a gigantic front foot up on my stand long enough to clean it and take 2 nips. WOW! That was exciting! It was our first time!

But then for the past few weeks he's been nursing abscesses. First, he was lame on his left front, and as soon as that foot started feeling better, another abscess in his right foot decided to surface.

I wanted to make him feel better by offering him some bute. I stood next to him with with a syringe full of bute mixed with applesauce, but each time I tried to get him to open up, by putting my fingers into the side of his mouth, he'd smush his lips tight and lift his head way out of my reach.

He's the kind of horse who really seems to understand when you look into his eye and try to reason with him, as weird as that may sound to some, even to me. But it works, so I explained to him that I was trying to help him feel better and needed his cooperation.

His response was to press his big ol' head against my chest, letting me know that he'd like to oblige, but he was feeling bad enough, he just didn't want anything yucky squirted into his mouth. Please.

He's so great at communicating his feelings. I don't get how his past owners couldn't see that in him and were so cruel to him at times causing him to become billigerent and mean.

So his grain was laced with applesauce and bute for a few days, which he didn't mind, and the abscesses soon ruptured and he was walking better almost instantly.

The first thing I noticed about Spencer when he came here was that I never saw him laying down. Ever! But the pain in his feet caused him to get off of them often. It was really good to see him laying down actually, even if it was because his feet hurt. I think a horse who can't lay down is just always on guard and always a bit stressed and that's not good for anyone.


(Spencer is taking a load off his painful feet while his gal Pearl, normally nearly white, watches over him.)

So after he was moving better, we decided to get back to working on trimming his feet, when I asked for him to set a foot up on my stand, he said NOPE!

So we are going to forget about trimming and get cooperation and just work with him, which will help with all other aspects of his behavior. This is a horse that needs handled frequently or he easily reverts back to his old ways.



For instance as I was brushing him, when my brush would get near his flank area he'd launch a big old Belgian draft horse kick. Thank goodness, this isn't a typical behavior for most drafts, or there would be lots of draft horse owners' dead bodies found lying near their horses.



Rich, who lost his left hand in an accident, is practicing PNH with Spencer which was great to see. Spencer was really trying for him even though we have to work on Rich's tool handling. (To give a perspective of Spencer's size, Rich is 6' 5". And at times, he enjoys coming off as intimidating as Spencer does!)



When you're working on the tool handling for the first time, it's not easy to handle the rope, stick and string with two hands, let alone one-handed. But when we work together, I can help Rich out with the stick while he deals only with the rope. We'll work it out.

Spencer is a great project horse for Rich. They are both my big guys!

Spencer in Miniature!

One foggy morning, I went outside to feed the horses. I looked out at the herd and I didn't see Spencer. I saw a horse that looked like Spencer, but he seemed smaller than the other horses.











I looked and looked. Were my eye deceiving me? Did I need new glasses? How could this be?





As I got closer, I could see that Spencer was about the size of a Shetland pony. Very cute and easy to manage. I thought of all the benefits of this new size. Less hay! Smaller poop piles!


I could trim his feet without getting killed! Yea!


But I missed the Big Spencer! I was sad and started to cry.

I cried so hard, my eyelids filled with tears until I thought they would burst. I could hear someone in the distance "Open your eyes! Open your eyes!"

So I did! And I realized I was dreaming.

This is Buster. A new pony that I brought home last week against my husband's better judgement of course! I had been looking for one for my granddaughter and I found this little guy on Craig's list. He looked so much like my big guy, I had to have him. He's very sweet and easy for kids to handle even though he's only 4 years old. And he's NOT a rescue! How about that!

I had you going for bit there though...didn't I?

The Thrill is Gone, Baby. And so is the snow!

Spencer is really glad the snow is gone.




















So is Sophie.














The dogs loved it!















Especially Mae!





The snow made Cricket's foundered feet feel better. She liked it.

But we're glad it's gone and it hasn't been raining for a few days. In fact, the sun was out today and that was nice.

Snowy Days

This is Patch! I think you've met him on my blogs before. Well, HE is at the top of my poop list right now.


He's my escape ar-teest.



See the loafing shed and paddock behind him? He frequently checks the door to that paddock with his muzzle, trying to slide it sideways. Once out, he'll even go to the stall door right beside it, and slide that door open to check for any goodies that might be in there, or to let the resident horse out. Currently, Cricket the foundered horse is in there and even with the door open, she's not going anywhere.

I'm forgetful! And go in and out that paddock door often. Sometimes he does get lucky and finds that I've forgotten to latch it. He got lucky the other night just before we went to bed. It was bitterly cold out. Of course.

The dogs were barking their heads off and Rich went out to see what was up. There were a couple donkey's in the front yard headed for the road. All the others where headed down the dead-end (thank goodness) road. The 3 P's - Pearl, Peach, Patch, the two mini mules, Trudy and Mouse, and Harley the moxy mini horse, with Spencer bringing up the rear.

They looked like a little parade of breeds, sort of. I wish I had gotten a picture. It was pretty cute to see little Harley's tiny rump swinging as he clip-clopped down the road next to Spencer's great big rump bumping along.

Rich and I jumped in the gator and went in hot pursuit after the little group of escapees.

When they heard us closing in on them, they turned off the road and went frolicking around in the neighbor's yard whinnying "Whoo hoo!" to each other. There was snow on the ground and they were slipping and sliding, bucking and farting and in general having an "Equines on the loose party!" Except Spencer. He just seemed confused.

But when they realized their escape wouldn't produce any greener grass for them, they turned to the alfalfa in the back of the gator and followed us home.

That was Spencer’s first escape. When he initially came here to live, I had nightmares of him getting out - a giant, agressive stallion, tearing around the neighborhood, kicking and biting all the little children who ran out to greet the big horsy.

Well, it’s finally happened, but he’s no longer a stallion and it was after dark so no kids running around, thankfully. He is still unruly at times, but a friendlier giant than before. He seemed unsure about why they were all traipsing down the road without a human in the around, so he just kind of followed Pearl's lead, the psycho Arab.

Rich’s comment was, “Oh good, two skitsos (sp) running around loose together. That’s great.” He sees the positive side of most situations like that:0)

Well, that was then. Today, everyone is safe and sound and enclosed.

(Pearl and Spencer are a couple now.)

This is Spencer’s feeding station. He is fed separately from the other horses normally because he has different nutritional requirements (he eats a hell of a lot more than the others) and he is a bully at feeding time.



This is a good plan for him also because he is very claustrophobic and has issues with going through narrow passage ways. If he has to go between two objects (the squeeze game for Parellites) he freaks out a bit and moves very fast and sometimes slides or trips over his hind feet.

(This is the paddock doorway that Spencer has to come through to get to his food and the one they all left through on that exciting evening.)

He’s a big uncoordinated boy. Is that a draft thing? He’s not real nimble on his feet when he has to move quickly. Forrest is half Clydesdale and he actually moves with the skills of a talented quarter horse, but then his not as big boned as Spencer either.

Anyway, we’ve been having fun in the Winter Wonderland, we call, the Rainier Hoof Recovery Center!

Quiet Times

Spencer, just hanging out.


Not much to report with Spencer these days. I’ve been super busy and our grandkids were visiting over Thanksgiving weekend. (Did you notice the mini mule tucked under Spencer's neck in the photo? That's Minnie Mouse. There is a story about her on my website. She's quite a gal! She came here over a year ago with similar personality issues that Spencer has! An after shot of Mouse is on the homepage.)

Spencer has had a few human visitors and has tried to nip each one. One lady was smart and offered him a couple treats and he thought she was okay after that.

Since I haven’t had time to play with him much lately, he reverted back a bit to that nippy boy with the bad attitude that he came here with. I swear, you really have to stay with these horses that come with emotional baggage. Just when you feel like you’re making huge progress, they let you know that their past experiences are always just under the surface.

Still, I know we’ve made progress!

I had to get after him a couple times for agression, and I lost ground in the trust department for a few days. This is a horse who is very sensitive, yet kind of a bully. He gets sad, he pouts, holds a grudge, his emotions are so incredibly human-like. I guess it's true for all animals though, if you pay attention and notice them. But most especially dogs and horses probably because they live so close to us. Bird people say the same about them, and I've seen it with my sister's birds.

Anyway, as soon as we spend more time with each other again, I’ll take pictures and keep you posted.

Just feeding him these days and keeping weight on that ginormous ribcage has been challenging. I have to feed him so much more than the others it’s just amazing. He’s like feeding 3 or 4 normal sized horses.

Oh, Rich finally got around to fixing the fence rail that Spencer kicked out a while back because of this!


Boomer got his big ol' head is stuck in the fence! He's lucky I found him a soon as I did because his fuzzy little butt was exposed for any of the other horses to take a crack at...excuse the pun.

Boomer likes to stick his head were it doesn’t belong. If we put fence panels up he constantly rearranges them which drives me nuts!

More soon! I promise! Thanks for staying with us.

Pat

The Spencinator On Video

I apologize for not posting anything about the Spenster in awhile. I get busy and get behind on the blogs. Not too much exciting news to report. He's been spending some leisure time lately, just hanging out with the other horses and feeling more comfortable with his "normal-horse" life. Oddly, he and Forrest (the one horse who is nearly his same size) are not getting along all that well lately, but they are pastured together with almost all the other equines now. The two of them got into a big hindleg confrontation which seemed to end in mutual respect for each other. Amazing to see two such big horses battling it out. It didn't last but a half minute, but the noise was deafening! I wish I would have had my camera! But I was screaming at them to STOP! STOP! STOP! Like I was going to put a stop to those two big boys going at it. It's something they had to get through and now they are being civil to each other. Spencer is so sweet and cordial to the other smaller geldings. He allows them to move him out of his food without a ruckus, unless he's really hungry. He's a bit of a chauvinist with the mares though. Mares don't get the same tender courtesy as the geldings. Go figure. Anyway, I took a couple videos a few days ago when I was out in the pasture goofing around with the camera. Do you remember that Spencer ran untouched in a field for 2 years because no one could catch him? I didn't mean to be a smartass in this video, but I guess I kind of am. I'm such a dork in this, but I still had to show you. I just can't help wondering why he was so challenging in the past. You can hear my hubby and our neighbor, Jim, working on the fences. They've been doing an awesome job.

Yes, his front foot was bothering him when I took this. I think he has another abscess brewing. But I'm still not making much headway with hoof handling. I figure if we work on it a bit every few days (that's all the time I get for him) and while we work on other things, the hooves and the trust that goes with allowing me to work on his hooves will come together. For now, he's maintaining his feet on his own as he always has. If his hooves ever were trimmed in the past, as I were told they were on a regular basis, he had to have been forced into cooperating, because he offers no cooperation willingly. So either most of what happened in his past was completely fabricated, or I don't want to guess what they put this guy through to get him to cooperate. On another note! Do you remember how I couldn't get near him while he ate his food? He would try to bite and kick me. Check this out? This boy is an eating machine! You can see, I'm still a bit jumpy around him at times. But he's getting SO MUCH BETTER!