Oceans Finer, newly named Chance, is a thoroughbred gelding recovering from a really rough few months. Chance, (who won his last race as a racehorse), along with 3 other horses were sold by their owner/breeder at a slaughter sale in Louisiana. These horses along with others were purchased by a killer buyer. After several days they made their way to the holding pens of Eagle Pass on the Texas Mexico border to await their entry into Mexico for slaughter processing. With the intervention of many hard working dedicated volunteers who worked tirelessly raising money and making plans to rescue Chance he and the other thoroughbreds there were purchased and relocated to safety.
Chance seemed to be suffering from some aggression issues after all of the traumatic experiences he had endured. He frequently pinned his ears at the people trying to take care of him causing much concern. Lynn Parks, the woman in charge of finding Chance a new life, called me asking if we could help. Chance was moved to Remember Me Rescue for therapy and training.
Chance bit two people the first week he was here. When I arrived home later in the week we began working with him and to my surprise with no problems. One day I led Chance up to the fence to meet some folks and he pinned his ears at them when they tried to pet him. I began working him through some paces and brought him back to the fence. He was good that time. He was a very unpredictable horse to say the least.
After several days in a row of working with Chance with no issues I gave him a day off. The following day as I walked into the pasture to get him he started walking towards me, his big ears flopping and a kind look in his eye. Suddenly he charged me with no warning. Luckily I had a lead rope in my hand and swung it at him and he retreated.
Back to the drawing board. After I caught Chance I took him to the round pen and began a new more intense training regiment. Chance was desensitized to tarps, pool noodles and taught to walk up and down our mounted patrol training steps. He is also being ridden several times a week and on days he is not ridden he is worked in the round pen. We still do not let volunteers approach him without supervision but I feel like we have made big progress in teaching him he is not as tough and scary as he thought he was. Because of his previous aggression issues Chance will not be suitable as a family horse but needs a real job and a real leader to help him work through his issues.
(Training Obstacle Sponsored by Maggie Moss)
ADOPTION PENDING
Chance has a pending adoption with a young man who is an accomplished horsemen. He will have a challenging job and be ridden frequently by his new owner if the adoption is a success. I wanted to thank everyone who participated the rescue of this really neat horse. He has come so far and looks like it is going to be a success. A big special thank you to Michelle Fields who has donated her time to ride Chance and start him on his path to a new career. Thanks to Lynn and all who helped her by researching and raising the money needed to rescue Chance from Eagle Pass.
No comments:
Post a Comment