Initial Plans, and Reality

So let's talk about my hopes and plans, and some realities. Reality #1) Draft horses have a tendancy to step on toes. Elsa was trained by her breeder. She was halter trained and leads like a charm. She came curious instead of flighty. She is and was great, espeically for only being a year old and my first horse. I have big plans for this girl including pleasure riding/driving, showing, and breeding. I plan to break her to drive as a 2 year old, to ride as a 3 year old, and also possibly bred for her first foal as a 3 year old. I would like to start showing her as soon as I could, but I simply don't have a trailer big enough for her to tot her around to shows in.

But when Elsa first arrived, I was so lost as to what was normal for her and what wasn't, that I probably allowed a bit of bad behavior to arrise. We'd realize soon that Elsa had issues with personal space and lipping/bitting. Mostly caused by ourselves for not properly reprimanding her. Reality #2) Even the best raised horses tend to come with a vice.

There is a reason I say that when the time comes for me to buy a stud of my own, I won't buy one over 2. Now, I'm not sure I'd want to buy one even over a year old. They come with vices. The thing is, the breeder won't tell you for 1 of 2 reasons. 1) They don't want you to know so they can make a sale. 2) (and much more likely) They don't see it as a vice. What they might not see as a problem or have any issues with could be a deal breaker for me. And I think this second one is what happened with Elsa (not a stud...). Elsa was food possessive. Not agressive, but possessive. Now she has like 30+ acres all to herself, she doesn't really need grain, but I like throwing in a small suppliment. And considering the bag says for growing horses to be fed 1.5% of body weight a day (equaling 15lbs/day for a 1000lb horse), I don't think a single scoop was doing a whole lot. However when I would walk out to feed Elsa, she would seriosuly crowd me and would bob and weave around me trying to shove her way, or sneak her way, past me to shove her head into the bucket and eat the grain. Ths might be cute with a pony, but for a horse that could get up close to 2000lbs, not so much.

You see, the reason this is such a huge deal for me, is because my oldest daughter (2 years old at the time) likes to help with some chores, one being feeding the animals. With as big as Elsa is, and as tiny as a 2 year old is, I couldn't let her help with a chore I should be fostering in her (she'll be doing it a lot here in the coming years). And I know that this is not something I caused in this filly, I know it's an issue she came with. I'll talk about this more on a later post and explain how we fixed it. Reality #3) Plans don't always play out.

A neighbor was supposed to bring a gelding of her's over to be pasture buddies with Elsa. We don't have any other horses, and I really hate the idea of spending money on buying another horse I'm not interested in just to have a friend for my $4000 horse. I would love to get another horse, another Shire, or maybe a Drum, or even a Gypsy, but after Elsa we were in no place to buy another horse again and since then we've been paying off debt (refer to my last past) and even looking for a place of our own to buy. So another horse could easily be another couple of years away. Anyways, the gelding the woman was bringing over was her daughter's (or something) and apparently they got in an arguement and the gelding never came. So Elsa went from living with a herd to living alone. I think a bit of her excitability would go away if she had another horse with her, but I've been happy to step in and try to make up as much of that contact as I can. In the beginning Elsa wouldn't come when called, although if you got within a certain distance of her, she'd follow you to the moon and back. Now she happily comes galloping across the pasture to greet you. This could be from her just growing to like me, or just craving the companionship. I won't know until we get another horse.

Reality #4) Drafts are not "dead heads"

I think Elsa is on the more hyperactive end of draft horse temperaments, but she is a prime example that drafts are not "dead heads". Elsa gets easily excited and is more than willing for a good romp through the field. She likes to play. She goes out there and kicks up her heels and plays chase with you. Sometimes while following you she gets a wild hair up her butt and she takes off running past you (in the field).

Along with this is the fact that this means they aren't "born broke". Well maybe a few are, but Elsa sure isn't one of them. That doesn't mean she's high strung like other horses, or that she doesn't show promise. All it means is that I wouldn't just trust her in unfamiliar situations. She'll need a bit of training and exposure to get her used to taking new things in stride.