Longview Adoption Results!

[desperatehorsewife]

15 adopted! I do believe this is the best adoption in WA or OR in 2 years. LOTS of color there, duns in every pen. A little grulla yearling was left behind, but that was the only 'colored' horse that wasn't taken.

I had a beautiful dun TIP horse waiting for me. Just lovely. I couldn't believe they'd singled him out as being less likely to be adopted, although he had a bit of an aloof behavior (we considered calling him Al Oof!) He had a sign on his pen stating he was a TIP horse and not available, so I tacked up another beneath it telling folks if they were interested to find me. And they did. Had a handful of applications filled out almost immediately yesterday morning, but most wanted to think about it for a day or two and see how his training progressed before paying and signing the care agreement. But as one determined adopter was filling her's out after a long discussion with her hubby another gal came up to say she'd already been approved and she wanted him. So my TIP boy was adopted long before the silent bidding on the others even began.

Then the determined adopter had another conversation with her hubby, and they adopted a lovely 2 year old dun and sent him home with me for training.

Just before leaving, as everything was packed up from the 'office', DD insists we can't leave the black 4 year old mare behind. Dad would like her, or we'd use her at the fair, but she would end up with another strike if we left her. DD is a better enabler than I am when it comes to making me bring home horses, so Ramona & Angie pulled out the paperwork so the mare could come home as a TIP horse for me.

And just then the first TIP adopter showed back up with her sister, who was interested in adopting the black mare! So I ended up with a load of three good sized horses, all adopted, coming home with me last night.

Yes, I've got photos, but you'll need to wait a bit. I'm pooped, but need to get out and do some chores...and get to work training new horses!

[kigerfan]

What a fantastic thing! three wild ones that already have homes! congratulations on that

[kigercat]

YAY YAY YAY... I was so worried about that 4 yr mare. She was very nice and pretty dang calm throughout the whole time...tempted me very much.

Did anyone get that yearling filly that was in the same pen with the dun and grulla they had listed as brown? That girl was very very nice and I almost picked her. But she was no brown... a very very smutty dun with a dorsel at least an inch wide!!!

I got the few pictures I took loaded...only the filly pens as that was where I was glued LOL

I went with a plain ole red filly who was at her 3rd adoption number 8806. Felt so bad for 8965, the other reaslly big sorrel filly that was in with all the tiny black fillys. This was her 3rd adoption too =( But I could only take one.

Anyway she rode home in the trailer like a dream...several times I wondered if she was still back there she was so quiet. Backed up to the barn and had a Chute set up opened the door and she lept out (seriously...lept out and landed about 3 feet already in the barn!!) and then just trotted on down and into her paddock like she'd done it a dozen times before (probably has with the way they sort at the corrals LOL) and then checked out her stall. I had figured she'd stay in the paddock area and avoid the enclosed area for a while not wanting to feel "trapped". But she really seems to like her stall and is quite content in it. She was alert and we all kept laughing to look down and see her standing and just peering at us over the top of the stall wall.

When I left she was munching her hay, had taken a big drink of water and had poopped and peed. I put a cup of alfalfa pellets on top of the hay to start the getting used to grass pellets then grain, and that was a hit. Last night she took several handfuls of grass from my hand and I touched her nose 3 or 4 times in the process =) And she ate a handful of alfalfa hay from my friends hand.

She's a little snorty (to be expected) but not a panicky snorty, a snorty with a quick recovery and check things out reaction and is interested but wary of people. My friend that was there with me is taken with the idea of gentling mustangs now and the filly taking hay from her so soon sealed the deal.. I told her friend I'd come in to the barn tomorrow and she'd be in there petting and hugging her and then I'd have to go get another to gentle =) Hmmmm wonder if the "brown" is still availabe =) LOL

Pics here... I got 8806 the red filly with the blaze and hind sock.
pets.webshots.com/album/573462544oeegis

[DianneC]

What a wonderful day for you both!!! and for the horses as well! I think the TIP program overcomes the main hesitation of people who would like to adopt and is a win, win, win solution for the horses, adopters and trainers all!

[desperatehorsewife]

Kigercat, your filly will settle right in. She was a nice, nice girl and was up sniffing me yesterday morning before the crowds showed up.

The brown (dark dun) filly was left as was the tall bay next to her. They were both nice. The bay was exceptionally friendly and it was a hard decision between her and the black mare for us. Guess it was good that we selected the mare!

I may ask for one of those two to be brought back up for the gentling demos & adoption at the fair in August. Gotta move some of these current yearlings first, though! Y'all come out to Arlington on July 25

[stlkigers]

What an awesome job at the adoption....And T; tell DD way to go.....Gotta love a new generation of awesome enablers! Can't wait to see the pics.....

Kigercat: Beautiful mare you got yourself there....Can't wait to hear her new name and how she progresses with you...Please keep us updated.....

Congrats to all the new owners!

Angela

[kigercat]

Well I think she has a name...been trying out Phoenix on her. Lots of "deep symbolism" in the name for me with everything that has gone on this year. And I think she's one of those reds that will glow in the sun like a firebird. She seems to be responding to it so if it sticks over the next couple days, Phoenix she is.

I spent about 5 hours at the barn with her today, and this Filly has a HUGE personality. If she were human she would absolutely have to be a comedian or actress. When you aren't watching her where she can see you she just pretty much is nonchalantly eating her hay and resting...typical horse stuff. But the minute she has an audience she turns on the show.

So far today she has learned to toss and kick a jolly ball around to get the people at the barn laughing.
She learned that Berry Good horse treats really are Very good. Although at first she would take one then taste the "human hand taint" and curl her lip. We'd laugh so she would do it again and again with each treat. Once we stopped laughing at her she stopped curling the lip.
She took a handful of pellets and again...lip curl...take a few, lip curl.
I picked a bucket of grass and went in and was feeding it to her and slowly she would inch her way around me oh so casually hoping I wouldn't notice trying to get to where the bucket was and steal the grass...I'd move the bucket to the other side and we'd repeat the whole thing.....several times.
I made a "toy' for her out of a big empty cat litter jug with a handful of rocks in it...she watched me very intently the whole time...She was also very interested in the plastic wrapper I cut off it and was crinkling at her, held it out and she sniffed at it, crinkled it and she just looked at it. I tied her new toy to one of the bars and she was right up there checking it out. She gave a little spoke the first time she touched it and it moved (about a 2 foot backwards jump) then went back up and started nosing it around and bumping it and rubbing her head on it. She saw the old rope on the panel and started working on the knot, teeth slipped and her nose hit the "toy" and made it really jump. Spooked again, glared at the toy and marched up and started biting at it. I don't think the toy will have a very long life.
She is very very smart and I think I'm going to have to find ways to keep her very active mind occupied. She's already working on the chain latches I have her paddock area doors closed with!
She has learned that the "magic blue bucket" gets all sorts of good treats in it. And I think I made a HUGE mistake putting her stall area right across from the bins with the grain, alfalfa pellets and treats. She has very quickly deduced that when those lids open something yummy comes out and either gets fed to her by hand (treats) or a handful of grass pellets gets dropped in the magic blue bucket if she puts her head in and then looks at me in a woebegotten way. And when I was getting her dinner portion she was right there ears forward waiting for her dinner....you'd think she'd been living the papmered life since birth LOL
I also think she's going to be a water bucket dumper grrrr. When I was feeding her the grass she'd go over and paw at the water bucket and I'd go NO! Bad horsie! and she'd stop, look at me then stomp her foot IN the water and make a big splash. If she could laugh out loud she would be.

By the time I left both my friend, sister and I had all fed her Berry Goods, softly pet her nose with a finger, she'd eaten grass from me both sitting and standing in her paddock with her and I was able to start at the nose and rub up to her forhead two times =) She had sniffed me pretty much from head to toe when I was outside the paddock. She's still much more comfortable with people outside the fence, but she is in no panic to put distance between us when I go in to clean the stall or have the grass...just a tad more cautious.

Oh something else that I've not seen any of my horses do before. When I gave her her hay I split it up so part in her stall and part in her paddock. I put out her hay piles and gave her her grass pellet ration (with some grain she already is eating) and she easts a few bites from one pile, moseys over to the pellets/grain and enjoys a few bites, wanders to the hay in the stall eats there a bit checks out the Llamas, wanders back to the pellets for a bite then the hay. Craziest thing I've ever watched LOL. I don't think any of my other horses would leave the pellets and grain for hay till every morsel had been devoured. Oh and once I stopped watching she took a break and was just hanging in the back of the paddock....then I came back and she wandered back to the grain. She is a total riot!

[DianneC]

Sounds like you have a first class personality on your hands there Kigercat The name certainly fits her, she is such a beautiful color in the BLM photos and looks like she moves really well too. Congrats!

[kigerfan]

I love the name! and I think it fits her fabulously I'm betting we are going to see numerous posts on this girl

[stormyranch]

Kigercat, what HMA is Phoenix from? She sounds and looks so much like Princess! She is beautiful. ;D How old is she?
You guys are great to adopt these 3 strikes horses.
Congrats on your T.I.P. horses being adopted already Tracey.

[kigercat]

Hmmm with all the raving I coulda sworn I posted her HMA LOL
She's a Coyote Lake girl. I think all the Longview horses were Coyote Lake or Sheepshead. And all were very nice horses. A few had a little bit of a longish back, but not really all that bad. Overall not a fugly one in the bunch!

[desperatehorsewife]

Photobucket is down for maintenance, so lets see if I can post the link from my blog...

Nope, doesn't want to work. Guess you'll just have to go and see the TIP gelding here: mustangdiaries.blogspot.com and here: mustangu.blogspot.com/

He's absolutely stunning. Not ready to be touched yet, but he reached out and ate from my hand today, and when I turned my back he snuck up and rubbed his lip all over to...tenderizing, I'm sure, before the big bite! ;D No, actually he's one of the sweetest, most polite horses I've ever had here. He's respectful of my space, lets me know when I've pushed too far by lifting a leg, and has not once pinned his ears back while I'm in the pen with him. Almost wishing I didn't have to send him away.

[stormyranch]

Very nice boy Tracey! I liked the bay fillies on your blog. Glad I wasn't there or I would have brought tooo many home.

[desperatehorsewife]

Thanks Lisa. The photo doesn't do him justice. This is Dakota, the dun TIP gelding.



He is beyond sweet. Still not willing to come in and be rubbed, but he's leading and will eat hay from my hand. A very polite boy with a pair of the kindest eyes I think I've seen.

All the duns were adopted. These pertty babies were left behind:



2 yr bay gelding. Had an attitude problem until the separated him and ran him in with my big dun.



DD took a real hankering to this pretty yearling. Tall, maybe 14.1 or 2, and very curious. As I sat by the pens early Sat morning, she came up and wiggled her lip in my hair.



Listed as a yearling, she had her two year molar bumps showing. Also listed as brown but had a very distinct stripe indicating sooty dun. Nicely built girl, not overly tall, but an open and inquisitive face. Someone really missed out here.

[kigercat]

as does that nice sheepshead sorrel who was at her 3rd adoption...if ONLY I could take 2 more LOL
Trying to find a way to squeeze in at least one more =)

Tracy, what is the Aug fair you mentioned to have the Bay or Grulla brought back for as demo horses? Do you gentle them and then get them adopted out? You should take a good look at the big Sheepshead sorrel filly (8965). www.blm.gov/adoptahorse/horse.php?horse_id=2932
Very similar to the one I got but bigger...also seemed very interested in people. She came and took hay from me at the adoption, not terribly spooky and I'm pretty sure this is the one Patti told me was her 3rd adoption. She'd make someone a sweet horse.