Horse Play

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Updated 10-24-11

We bought San Man's mom, Cody, partly because of who she was bred with and partly because she was a well broke old mare. She is 20 now and not going to be having any more babies. We got her to ride because I wasn't an experienced rider and she was a good old mare to practice on. She is lazy with not much git up and go. I have had a lot of experience with horses on the ground though. I've worked with them in zoos and later became a farrier. It is a whole other experience being on the back of one. I still am not great at the riding part but I know how to handle them on the ground and practice showmanship. That teaches you the basics of the ground work. Until you can do that it is best to stay off of a horse. They can be very dangerous if they ever find out that they are bigger than you.

So the Story of San Man''s arrival really begins a bout two months after we brought Cody home. A friend was petting her and noticed a lump on her belly. There was a scab and she picked at it. Then she pulled out a rust nail. Who knows how long it was there or where it came from. We live on an old farm with all sorts of junk coming up out of the ground. I'm always picking things up when I'm walking around. Or she could have had it when we bought her. So we called the vet to come out and check her out. He put her on Regimate to keep her from loosing the baby and Naxel which is an antibiotic. Both of these are expensive and required me to give her shots twice a day. We ended up spending over $500 before he was born.

He was born on the fourth of July 2005 and was a cute little buckskin. We started handling him right away to get him used to us. It helps to o this when the are small and easy to handle. So that when they are big the are already trained. As he grew he developed dun stripes which he got from his mom. He also got the roan gene from her which gives him white hairs mixed in throughout his body.

You can see his dorsal stripe in the picture. It goes all the way down his back from mane to tail. This is one of many dun factors. He also has black tipped ears, stripes on his legs, black webbing on his face and withers. The dun gene is a creme dilution gene. That is what turns a bay into a buckskin. Or a sorrel into a palomino. There are two different creme dilution genes, the dun is a dominate gene. It adds the stripes and dark points. If the horse also carries the black gene then it will be a buckskin dun. If it doesn't then it is called a red dun. They look more like a sorrel. The other creme dilution gene is similar but it creates regular buckskins and palominos. It is co dominant which means if the horse gets the gene from both parents it will be even more diluted in color. Which makes a cremelo or perlino. The dun gene is only dominant so if the horse carries it twice you can't tell. But all of it's babies will carry it.

He was a cryptorchid which means one of his testicles didn't descend. WE waited a few extra months to geld him to see if it would drop. If it would have we could have had the vet come out to castrate him. But since it didn't we had to haul him to a animal hospital that had a surgeon that could perform the procedure. That was a lot more expensive. But if you don't get it done it can cause all sorts of other problems, health wise and behavioral. He would be technically still a stud and act like one. We didn't need that aggravation.

Working and training is fun for both of us. He likes having a job. Some times it get frustrating when I'm asking him to do something new and he isn't sure what it is. Other times he gets full of himself and have to remind him that I'm the boss. Horses constantly test there limits. The hierarchy of the herd shifts as horse get old or sick. They will pick on the weak horse and dominate it. If a once strong horse can no longer defend himself he will lose his rank. It is important for San Man to understand that he isn't in charge. He could seriously injure a person if he was left to be out of control.

He enjoys just running and playing in the pasture. He has a Jolly ball that he picks up and throws and kicks. It is good to keep him stimulated. It keeps him from being bored. Horses are like kids when they are bored they tend to get into trouble. Horses are an accident waiting to happen.

He is a very curious horse that likes to investigate new things. One of those new things was a kitten that came out of the barn into his paddock. He went over to sniff it and it started rubbing against his muzzle. He does this thing where he wiggles his lips when he is about to try to grab something. He started doing that when the cat's tail went across his mouth. I knew what he was about to do but was too far away to stop him. He picked that kitten up by it's tail, luckily just with his lips. That cat was just hanging there upside down and spread eagle as he bobbed his head up and down. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it. I yelled at him to drop it and he did. The cat just sat where he dropped and looked up at him. I guess it wasn't too traumatic for the little guy. It was the funniest thing I've seen him do.