[eskielover]

it was 2 weeks ago at the ranch where I am boarding my horses that I arrived there to talk with the farrier & found that my 3 year old filly had chewed down the Joshua tree. It fell & bent the pipe coral fence. The owner of the ranch was a bit irritated that Izzy had done such a thing & told me that my horse was a bad horse....that she has been doing bad things.

Then she let me know that Izzy had been playing with her automatic waterers & broke 2 of them. The fence the lady had previously said my mare had kicked & bent, was now caused by Izzy. I made a comment that if a horse doesn't do well with an automatic waterer, then it would be a good idea to use the plastic water barrels & fill that up with water. Oh, that doesn't work because she sticks her feet in the barrel & plays with it.

I was told by the lady that my horse is a bad horse & that she will probably never get any better. I immediately offered to pay for any damages that Izzy caused with the Joshua tree, but inside, I felt that I would have rather helped pay for fencing around the Joshua tree to save it in the first place. I mean after all, she didn't chew it all down in just one day.....she even said she had been chewing on the tree before. Why don't you try to stop something from happening before it does....especially when you see what is happening????

I had a real problem with Izzy last spring when she would turn her rear at you when you walked into her stall, & make kicking motions. Now that's bad !!!! As soon as I was told about that, I immediately started working with training. That stopped that action immdeiately. Now how is it that my horse isn't going to change as she grows up?

A few days later, I was at the ranch, working with Izzy in the round pen & the lady's min-pin (little dog) came running up to just inside the round pen & started barking & nipping at Izzy's feet while I was running her around the round pen. Under my breath, I told Izzy "it was ok to kick the crap out of the little brat if he didn't leave her alone". The lady was standing at the fence of the turn out pen, talking to other boarders at the ranch. She stood there yelling for her dog to "come" "come" "come" "come" & the dog continued biting at Izzy's legs. I finally couldn't keep it in anymore & said "your dog isn't trained very well". With that, she finally came over & picked up the dog & everybody left. She walked over to me a few minutes later & told me that "you better watch out what you say" & that it was her dog & her ranch. Then, she dumped on me about how dangerous my horses are & that I better pay her the $200 for the fence damage that week.

Let's see, she can tell me that my horse is bad & dangerous without any supporting information, but when I say something truthful about her dog, I better not say anything or watch out????? I couldn't figure out what her problem was anyway....I had been away from the ranch for 2 1/2 months while in KY & just returned the previous week.

My husband had a problem with that little dog the night before when he attacked my american eskimo & my eskie finally had enough of the brat & jumped on top of him. My american eskimo had been with me in KY all the time, so this was the first time he had even encountered the little brat dog. He doesn't attack, but when attacked, he will defend himself.....that is only natural. She told my husband not to bring our dog to the ranch anymore. We hadn't been bringing our dogs for all the time I was gone, & when I got back, we didn't usually bring them to the ranch because of her dog. We both gladly weren't planning on bring him in the future anymore after that experience anyway.....why would we bring our dogs to a ranch to get attacked by her brat dog anyway???? Not only does the dog go after my dogs, but also our legs, biting & growling at us along with the horses. Then she holds the little brat in her arms & tells him "good dog". I mean how stupid can you be to reinforce bad behavior???? But we better not say anything "or watch out".

A couple of days after the incident & I was cleaning out my tack area like I had planned to the previous week before all this happened. She came up to me & asked me if I was planning on moving my horses before the 1st of the month. She had already taken in new boarders since she assumed that because I bought my house in KY that I would be moving soon & had to put together more stalls for the horses. I had told her right after I bought the farm that I would be keeping my horses there until I had the place built in KY & I would give her plenty of notice.....guess she didn't believe me?

After the dog incident, I started to think it would be a good idea to see if my previous trainer would be willing to board Izzy & evaluate her & do some light training since I would like to know what her potential is for being the dressage horse I have been dreaming about since her birth. I guess, I also need reasurred to know that my Izzy isn't really the dangerous horse she said. I see a huge 3 year old that is 17.1 hands high with energy to burn & a mind that won't stop thinking. But that isn't dangerous. So my answer to her was that I didn't have any plans at that time to make a move. (I hadn't talked to my trainer yet to make any arrangements so I actually didn't have any specific plans).

Well, today was a wonderful horse day. I talked to my previous trainer (also the owner of the stallion that is daddy to Izzy). I owed her the wedding scrapbook I did for their wedding 2 years ago (finished it last year) & she owed me the bow maker I loaned her for her wedding decorations. That gave me a good chance to talk to her about Izzy & the possibility of her working with her. I also took over the registration papers for the eskie dog she adopted back from us (she was the breeder of several of my eskies also) when we were being told by animal reg that we had too many dogs. That was my peace offering for having left her horse boarding 2 years ago when her husband (a real jerk) managed to hit one of my huge triggers that was overly sensitive after the trauma I went through with my Mother.

Anyway.....she is very glad to work on training & even greenbreaking Izzy over the next few months until I get my horse buildings settled in KY. I also asked her if it might be possible to bring my other 2 horses there too. She said she would gladly make room for all my babies.....this way, I can also work with my older horse & build him back up so the trip to KY won't be so hard on him. I haven't had a good place to ride him since the move. So next Tuesday, I will be moving all 3 of my horses back to where it's home.

I went out on a trail ride today with a small group at the ranch & had a wonderful time. It sure feels good to be back there. I am stronger now, so don't think that any triggers will effect me as strongly as they did 2 years ago.

It continues to amaze me how the right things keep happening in my life at the right time....even when bad things happen, they happen for the good.....they make me stop & think what I need to do to make it right.

I imagine that the lady might think that I am getting even for what she said to me (or maybe she wanted my horses moved?) & the truth is that there are always consequenses for our actions or words, but my action is for the best interest of my horses, not to get even.....so I am actually glad it happened....otherwise, I might not have taken the right path with my horses.

Debbie