Beaugart aka ‘Bogie’ is a young arab X NSH that came to Resting Heart Farm last winter.  From the start he has been difficult for me to read….hard to catch, head shy, evasive….sometimes anxious, sometimes curious, sometimes over-reactive.   He is a rescue and I don’t know alot about his history, but I can see he has some old wounds on his legs, and asymmetric eyes, so there has been some trauma.  The question is….does the old trauma create his current state of mind or did his innate way of dealing with life make him more likely to have accidents.  Doesn’t really matter, I guess…I have to deal with the horse that is here right now.  And where we are right now is, well, complicated.  Last summer, I was working pretty successfully with Bogie, or so I thought.  I wrote about it here.   Over the winter, our partnership started to deteriorate.  He became impossible to catch without chasing him into a stall and cornering him.  I can hear you all, rolling your eyes, in exasperation thinking…. ‘TELL …

So many of you know of my most recent rescue, Beaugart.  He is a 5 yo Arab x NSH and has been with me for about 6 months.  He was skinny and scared of everything when he came to the farm.  As with all my rescues, health and socialization come first.  Beaugart has spent the past few months with a small herd with plenty of room to roam, play and move his body.  There have been very few demands made on him from me and I have spent the time building rapport, by being a consistent presence in  his daily life.  Trust took a long time.  He really had no interest in anything I did, nor could he stand me approaching him directly.  But one day, not long ago, I found him nibbling on my elbow from behind me while I did my chores!  At last, some curiousity! The next day, he allowed me to approach and scratch his itchy spots (it is black fly season), curling his lips with pleasure.   That was the …

Introducing a new horse to a stable herd is always an undertaking.  It takes nerves of steel and an optimistic attitude. Ideally, a new horse would be exposed to the new herd over a fence line for a while, then have some turnout with a low-ranking herd member…so they have a buddy.  Then they enter the herd proper.  There is always some squealing and some running around.  They all have to sort out who is the leader and who follows. Beaugart does not like being kept in a stall.  I like that about a horse and I understand it.  I knew I needed to get him outside and soon.  Being winter, I have limited options…its hard to move fences in January, lol!  So my only option is to integrate him into the herd relatively quickly. My vet was out today and looked him over.  Besides being underweight and slightly dehydrated, she thought there were no serious issues and thought some outdoor exercise would do him good.  She did not recommend adding him to the herd …

Beaugart is a 5 yo Arab x national show horse (1/2 arab, 1/2 standardbred)….reads mostly arabian;)    He’s registered and well bred.   Unfortunately, he, his herdmates and his owner fell on hard times this year and all have been doing poorly.  I became aware of the situation only a few days ago, made some room in the barn and drove down to rescue one of these horses today.  I came home with Beaugart. He loaded right on the trailer and as soon as he discovered that there was hay in there, he had no intention of getting out.  I took off his halter and switched it out for one of my own while he happily munched away.   His simple delight at his very own pile of hay made me smile instantly.   I let him settle in the trailer while I perused the remaining horses…stallions, mares, youngsters and babies.  I struggled with the urge to take them all home. I give alot of credit to the local law enforcement as well as Patricia Morris, a  local …