While I have long had intentions to take Sheza up to April Moore of Moore horses for training, April is a great buddy and horse enthusiast and was also kind enough to help me evaluate and torture my brain over my latest Craigslist special save, Rambo Peg-Leg as we affectionately called him by the end of the week. 

Backstory
Rambo came home with me approximately 3 1/2 months ago. I first heard about him from a couple of Sale ads posted various places online, and then got a mutual connection to the old owner through a friend. Hearing that he was auction bound if he didn’t find a home ASAP, I chose him as my next Project and arranged to drive the couple of hours north and haul him home. As far as I knew, this was the horse I was getting, plus or minus some lbs of body weight:

December 4th 2013 Rambo Trotting Sound Video

Upon arrival January 12th, 2014, I found that Rambo was sweet as a bug and couldn’t wait to cram his head in my halter and go home with me. He was, umm, misunderstood at his old home, to put it delicately. He is only about 14.1 hh but big boned and had a winter coat so the photos never truly reflected his actual condition, which was not at all appalling but certainly not the plump fellow my early photos would have you believe.

***He also had a scar next to his right hind stifle and another on his right hip bone, a visibly atrophied right flank, and he swung his right hind leg when he walked in an obvious accommodation, though I won’t call it a limp.***

If you’ve ever played the Craigslist Gambling Game, or rescued a horse in general, you know the risks. Very rarely do people re-home or give away truly healthy and okay horses these days, I don’t care what the hype says. Yes, the market is down and there are great horses to be found for a deal, but there are also *multitudes* of “Deals” that can easily end up being the most expensive “free” horse you’ll ever set your sights on.

Rambo is by no means my first attempt at this Russian Horsey Roulette, and he won’t be my last. In general I put time, research, and money into the horses that I hope will take me places and last a long while, but in the face of that careful preparation there are also those horses like my 18 year old Blaze, scooped off of Craigslist for a deal 5 years ago and the most wonderful little sound-as-a-dollar guy I could ask for, versus my high dollar mare who had everything right on paper but at the same age is retired only pasture sound. I always hope that the horse I bring home can have a wonderful and useful working future, whether with me or someone else, but that isn’t always the case either.

Regardless, on this day that I thought I was picking up this sweet boy with a great trot that I had video proof of, I found myself leading a sweet boy with a Peg Leg, essentially. He never moved like it was painful, and still doesn’t, but there was and is clearly a hitch in that Giddy-up. Still, my commitment was made, and home he came with me.

Rambo says Yes, Take me Home, the day I met him

I had my much trusted horse chiropractor out within the week to check him over, confused/intrigued by the atrophied flank and weird walk, and worried that his stifle was damaged. She checked him all over and couldn’t find anything out of adjustment, and in her opinion both stifles “matched,” as it were. It took another couple of weeks for my very busy vet to make it out for spring shots for everyone, a couple of dentals, and a Rambo check-up. In the meantime I put him on a big half hill/half flat pasture, piled the groceries in front of him, and watched his weight and muscles start to build. As I said he was a bit underweight but not at all severely and with his youth and my good groceries he started packing on pounds and muscle pretty quickly.

right hind flank/stifle scar

 this photo barely shows the outward drag of that right hind toe as he walks

late January, out for walkies, you can see that scar behind his right hind stifle but the muscle is already starting to come in in the flank

Rambo at Moore Horses, April 15th, 2014.

 We worked Rambo in the round pen a couple of different times, taking videos as friends and vet student friends recommended different angles and things to capture. April also had a quick session with him to so see how he did being hopped on, since I had some horror stories of the “riding” that had been done on him before I got him.

hmm…

no big deal!

  He really is a sweet fellow, and I am glad that his Peg Leg doesn’t seem painful at all, but these videos still frustrate the heck out of me, especially when viewed next to the sound, un-scarred video taken just over a month before I got him. Such, my friends, is the nature of the Craigslist Gambling Game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEfc192-F64&feature=youtube_gdata

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZLwPtInf9o&feature=youtube_gdata

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BTUtCyCSaE&feature=youtube_gdata

He isn’t painful, he honestly seems like he’s got a “peg leg” as it were that affects his way of going sometimes but isn’t Ouchy. It’s a head scratcher to watch. As a 6 yr old project save with all this going on, I am realistic about what I can and cannot put into Rambo, and my conclusion is this. He’ll be pastured a few miles away in a large pasture that I ride by often and can check on. I’ll trim his feet and re evaluate him on the circle every few months and there are quite a few that think the tincture of time and movement may heal him yet. In an ideal world I could throw a lot of money at x-rays and ultra sounds and fancy recovery plans but this is real life and I can offer him a safe big pasture and the possibility of a recovery in time.

Sweet boy, I never regret bringing them home and doing what I can, whatever the outcome.

Sheza filly arrives at school!

 smarty-pants dramatic Sheza quickly decided that whatever April was up to climbing around on that fence was more fun than brainlessly working herself.

 Here is another of April’s horses in training that she rode that day. He is a really cute and smart 8 yr old Morab gelding who came in halter broke (with some attitude) and has only been there for about 2 weeks. I think the relaxed expression says it all.

Happy redheads 🙂

 4 horses, 2 dogs, 2 redheads–tons of fun!

 halfway point, Sheza is starting to go, “woah, this is like..a lot.”

~Day 4, Ropes and Saddles

As it sounds, this day was about working on becoming “rope broke,” and carrying a saddle for the first time. For background, I have handled Sheza extensively all over from day one but not done a lot of specific desensitization work. I girthed the bareback pad on her and ponied her out on her mother from an early age, but hadn’t done so in about the last year.

ohmahgawd what’s THAT!

 I really like standing here, so I’ll just watch and flinch a little 😉

Next time…Moore Horses Bootcamp Heaven: Rambo Edition 

 If I have learned one thing so far in my multi-horse life and household, it’s that no matter how many horses you’ve ridden or how generally reasonable your current horse is, you are never done experimenting with training strategies and tack. Each individual horse presents it’s unique physical and mental challenges, and rising to and taking on those challenges is what truly cements the horse and rider bond in my opinion. I can’t pinpoint when or what exactly changed in my brain, but in the last 5 years I have come to see and understand horses in a much deeper way, though I have ridden and been around them since I was 5 years old and owned one or more since I was 14. I am totally enamored with the beasts in their physical form, and in the mental and spiritual forms they take in my life and heart. I have moved to new places because of them, lost a significant amount of weight to be better for them, and run and ridden farther and longer than ever before, purely for the joy of being with them throughout.

Scrap today, rocking the Sprenger bit

Riding my goofily spooking Rushcreek through our gorgeous springtime neighborhood today I was just so incredibly grateful for this gorgeous place and these amazing horses I am lucky enough to call my own. And–I was experimenting, because remember, we’re never done with that! Said goofy Rushcreek opened up a new level of spunk at the start of Nevada Derby a week ago, and I quickly realized that the very real stopping power of the mechanical hack I was using was not at all going to help in collection or correct performance when his brain was gone, but instead was stopping forward motion only to cause *upward* motion. Yes, my charming gelding reared, and I was once again reminded that ride starts are exciting, even on the coolest customers.

Today’s effort then, was to stretch his legs after a week’s rest from the 50 and because I will be gone for the coming week as well. I rigged Blaze’s Herm Sprenger Dynamic 3 piece snaffle bit onto Scrappy’s simple strip-o-beta headstall, figured out where in his amazingly deep mouth the thing was supposed to sit, and away we went! 

There was a LOT to stare at and snort about, and Scrappy pranced and acted a fool a little so I could really test how he handled in the bit. Thanks bud! 😉

‘hood horses!

‘hood bush noises!

 ‘hood cows!

 lots of gorgeous flowers out right now

 ❤ love where I live ❤

 marching back up the driveway through the auto gate to the dog greeting committee

 Scrappy watched his mash soak eagerly while I gave him a warm bath AND, and, and–I washed his tail with blueing shampoo! For perhaps the first time since I’ve owned him, *ahem*  Aww, so purty, for at least 2 minutes. Yeah, he isn’t this color anymore already..

 getting all grown up and fit looking, I must say!  😀

\

 Location: Oroville, Ca

This well built young gelding has been backed but not actually ridden. He hasn’t offered any poor behavior being worked from the ground and has a great trot. Available through Butte County Animal Control with no adoption fee.

CONTACT:  Butte CO AC @ 530-891-2907 ID# A058993 

OR 

dmchapek@hotmail.com 530-532-7553

 We got 10 hot (80*F) hilly miles in at Lake Oroville today, and Blaze was decidedly more demure and less inclined to holler afterwards. I walked about a mile of the downhill and tailed about a mile up, and aside from my jarred lower back from Blaze’s ever lofty trot, I’m feeling great after the 50 and some more.

 taking a breather after tailing uphill

 trailertrailertrailer

 poor tragic exhausted thing 😉

In other news, Sheza turns 3 next Monday and she and Rambo and I are headed for Humboldt county area to a great friend’s for some training. Stay tuned for some seriously fun photos and maybe even videos, as my filly and 6 yr old do some growing up. I will be staying to participate in the early process of Sheza’s training and bringing Rambo along as well and I can’t wait!!

Sheza yesterday

 Scrappy, Georgia my camp Chihuahua,  and I hit the road early Friday morning with a rig full of waterproofed items, which turned out to be wise, as this was my view not 10 miles from home:

 I had confidently plugged some apparently random address into my GPS early on and about 3/4 of the way to the ride it suddenly occurred to me that I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going. This was my first Nevada ride and beyond being “somewhere near Reno kinda” I wasn’t totally clear on my destination. Fortunately I had past Reno local Funder just a phone call away and she quickly sent me the correct GPS address (totally not the one I had), which I was thrilled to plug into my GPS until said apparatus answered me immediately back with “6 hours and 31 minutes until your destination.” I tried not to crash my truck in Reno traffic while figuring out how this could be possible, no really, HOW COULD THIS BE POSSIBLE??!?!  

Just before total meltdown one last frantic glance at the GPS showed the tiny bicycle icon was lit up.

Huh. Hmm. Well, let’s Push “car.”

“51 minutes until your destination.”

Alllrighty then.

Ride camp! 😀

 It was alternately blustery and alarming chilly and just warm and still enough to bring a sweat to your brow in ride camp, depending on the rapidly moving cloud cover. There weren’t very many rigs there yet but a friend was and spotted my not-at-all subtle truck immediately and directed me to a perfect camping spot:

 That’s a peaceful picture above, isn’t it? It nearly wasn’t so. When setting up I pulled my neatly folded tarp out of my truck bed to spread it out and pitch the tent on…and discovered ants. Lots and lots of ants. There was a lot of spraying, refolding, smooshing, brushing, some GPS-bicycle-incident worthy cursing, and well, it came all right in the end and the ants never did visit my bedroll, luckily.

Enough about my trials, what really matters is that Scrappy gets food, and lots of it, at all times. The first mash of many, then:

 “Yes, human, yes, deliver it now!”

 There were so many great buddies at this ride and some new friends that I had only met on Facebook previously. The endurance community sure is a lot of fun and I found the atmosphere as welcoming as the Nevada riders promised.

J’s Chiefy looking good

Something that was cemented in my brain this weekend is Scrappy’s intense sense of self preservation. I already knew that he would effortlessly roll back or smoothly pop 5 feet to the right if he felt personal space bubbles between horses were about to be violated, but he was a whole other level of cautious at the ride. The first time he saw the mules below, well, this is what he did:

 Now I have a neighborhood donkey at home and I know horses like to have odd staring issues with things, but for whatever reason Scrappy was sure these mules were not safe characters and would pointedly take me some 20 feet wide around their trailer every time we passed.

Keeping an eye on those things, just in case

 Saturday morning before the ride I happened to witness the mules trying to absolutely murder each other, pinned ears and flying heels, the whole 9, and Scrappy’s caution made total sense. The other funny tell was the vet-in line, which was rather long at first and got fairly messy thanks to a few rude/oblivious owners. Scrappy had an ear and eye on one of the horses before they ever got anywhere near us, when I was chatting and just watching the ones around us. I noticed Scrap watching farther out and so watched the horse and sure enough, they got nearer, clearing the line basically with random piss poor behavior. I think I’ll stick with this guy, we seem to have each other’s backs, though Scrappy may have argued that point a various times on those 3 loops Saturday.  😉

Not only did this ride camp have a free hot shower, it also had an arena for turn out! Luxury. Scrappy had a roll and followed me around and only trotted if I clapped at him, seemingly quite steady and content as ever. (little did I know!)

 Ahhh

 With camp set up and greeting everyone Friday afternoon’s always seem to fly by and before I knew it it was starting to get darker and colder and I hadn’t really addressed my spare boot issue. I hadn’t done a 50 on Scrappy yet, nor in the Frank Baines English saddle, and it doesn’t have a lot of D rings for attaching stuff. In fact all I could attach was a stowaway deluxe pommel pack, which luckily does hold a lot of crap but not a lot of crap plus 2 spare boots. Without any grand ideas on how to attach 2 spares, I decided to gamble that if the boots failed there would be enough time/sand to go appropriately in at a safe speed and get more at checks, since they were all in camp. But since I was gambling on only the 4 boots on his hooves, I figured I should at least change the straps for the first time, like ever.

playing with pretty boots

Vet in was done with a 48 pulse and all As and quite a *nice* trot out, thank you very much!!

 I got #541 chalked on the Scrappy booty, resettled him in, got my saddle pack well sorted, went to find friends–and suddenly it was snowing as the evening drew in!

 Friday night ride meeting

 5 am walkies

 I managed to choke down a tiny amount of oatmeal and tea, feeling nauseous and excited as usual on ride morning, and was tacked and ready but lurking a bit away from the start at 7 am. A friend snagged a photo for us, thanks B!

 Much to my surprise upon setting out on this very chilly ride, Scrappy was not the loose reined 6 mph jogger I had so talked up. This Scrappy was more like a 7 mph prancer with the occasional head toss and wacky sideways dressage move, and it was quite something. Definitely not on the scale of true bad behavior, but totally hilarious and out of character for my generally very relaxed guy. Then again, he is a fit 9 yr old horse who hadn’t been ridden in 2 weeks and was starting a 28 degree ride morning where he could see other horses for miles. Certainly conditions for some peppiness, even for ole Scrap!

Look it’s Mel! This was about all I saw of her until ride dinner that night, she’s a bit faster 😉

 looking back down on ride camp

 looking forward at the ridge we are climbing. Oh yeah, it started with a big hill, can you tell?

 Scrappy continued his peppy behavior for about the first 13 miles, including a very poised but dramatic rear executed in front of a gal riding by who knows him well. She exclaimed in shock as she trotted by, “Hi-ho Silver!! That’s not Scrappy!!”  And that pretty well became the theme of the day.

 Aside from this nice handful of miles pictured below that we rode with K and Cody, Scrappy was alternately snotty we weren’t going fast enough, despairing that I had taken us out alone to die in the desert alone, and the most fun ever–to trot towards ride camp. The wide open scenery meant that we really could see other riders are various points in the trails, often miles away, as well as ride camp looming just over yonder and so much easier accessed by cutting ACROSS Country than following the stupid windy trails, if you asked Scrappy. Still, I can’t say I didn’t have a great time with him, the whole thrill of the endurance experience are those excessive roller coaster highs and lows I think. I absolutely had some moments of questioning my choice of hobbies, probably called Scrappy a name or two, but all in all had a fabulous time on a truly tough little gelding that I am proud to partner.

riding with K and Cody

 got rocks?

 K and Cody pulled ahead here, but we are pointed toward ride camp if you can’t tell by the perkyperky ears

 loving life

 The miles of sandy single track outside of camp were indeed fun to trot along, once I convinced Scrappy to follow them and not just plow straight through the sage brush to camp.

 ride camp, almost back for our 1 hr hold at 25 miles

We headed back out on loop 2 alone, much to Scrappy’s chagrin. He goes into major sleep mode at vet checks and it sometimes feels a little like animal abuse taking him from his sleep or food! I know he is perfectly capable of getting back to it but he sure does try to fool you. We plodded steadily along with only about 3 U-turn attempts and 2 dirty glances that clearly conveyed he knew I had brought him out here to die alone.

There was some rather deep sand that we skidded down together on foot, and I was pleased at how my metal ankle held up for the few miles I did on foot throughout the day. Seeing how that fared was yet another test of this 50 miles, with 75 miles looming just 6 weeks away in the next leg of the Crown.

Scrappy was rolling his eyes hard on the Thumbs up portion when I was taking this selfie, but *I* was enjoying myself 😉

There came a time on loop 2 when, at last, the trail came around to point in the correct direction, according to Scrappy. Camp was not in sight, but the compass was aligned, clearly. The ears perked. The head lifted. The 2.5 mph death march picked up to that 6 mph jog I had foolishly bragged about way back when, then, on the firmer footing, we were jamming easily at 9 mph and he was feeling strong, forward, not at all mostly dead. Imagine that.

deep sand doesn’t deter Scrappy, nope nope, CAMP is on horizon!

“See human, I brought you back safely after you got us lost out there pointlessly”

Our 15 minute hold was brief as only 15 minute holds can be and after a quick pit stop it was time to head out on that last short loop. You may imagine how Scrappy felt about that.

Here the benefit of the open trail actually kicked in. Leaving camp was clearly a horrible idea on my part in Scrappy’s mind but there were horses out there trotting around in plain sight still, so maybe there was more food out there, or something worth perking your ears and jogging steadily at.

This last loop was absolutely Rushcreek business mode, we alternated between a very steady shuffle jog and a walk, at his discretion, and without too much fuss since the loop was just out around the sandy areas near camp and not truly heading out and away. I can’t swear to it but I’d guess we finished about 5:40 pm and probably near 60th place out of 70-something finishing riders. That gives us a 9 hour moving time, or a bit more. Honestly it didn’t feel that long, and I didn’t really take into account how truly difficult the trail was until after the fact, when rehashing the hills, and rocks, and more rocks, and another big hill, and some deep sand, and then a few more rocks..

Our final vet out was good, 56 pulse and As with the exception of a bit of soreness on his back where my seat bones were. This is new. I am thinking two things:

 1)I’ve always considered riding with a crupper since he is so nice and round and flat and the saddle does move a bit, and that was a hilly ride..introduce crupper time?

2) he was traveling high headed and hollow from excitement and the hackamore didn’t do anything for that so, possible cause of back soreness– AND, address headgear for frisky ride starts?? Experiment with bits?

mission complete! 

I was really grateful that the ride camp had a free shower and after settling Scrappy in I headed straight for it. I pretty well missed ride dinner because of it but it was so worth it, I got to reset my temperature and, and, and–I never got a migraine after the ride!!! This is huge! I generally go down with migraine/heat stroke/something within an hour of finishing a ride, even an LD, unless I do things magically perfect. After focus on diet and hydration I am now fairly certain it’s centered around my core temperature and supplements, so at this ride while I didn’t do great on eating a lot, I *did* take lots of magnesium and get that crucial temperature reset shower after the ride and Viola, no headache.

The neighbors generator went on at 5 am about 50 feet from my head on Sunday morning so I was up and packed and hitting the road with the sunrise.

There was nearly no one on the drive, I had a quick and painless paperwork check at the Nevada-CA border, and soon we were nearly home to our green California pastures!

I was too slow with my camera to get a picture of a *clean* Scrappy after the ride and haul home, but here he is after rolling like a madman and then racing back across his field for his mash:

That’s why we call him the Scrappy-doo 🙂