All my friends at our barn decided that Leo's name wasn't sophisticated enough for such a gorgeous animal and so we now call him Leopold.
Typically when a new horse arrives, I spend several days introducing the new horse to one or two of our geldings at a time. Occasionally we meet a horse that causes nary a ripple amongst our herd and we turn them out sooner. That was Leopold - clearly not challenging any of our "boys" over the fence and so I made the decision, early Saturday morning, to turn Leopold out to the large field with our "boys". Erika had told me that Leopold had been turned out to pasture with wire fencing so I mistakenly assumed he would be OK.
Naturally, Leopold was excited to run. Our 4 laid back "boys" didn't even bother to run with him; and Dexter, Skeeter and Navar ran with him for a short while before giving up. Leopold however, just kept running all by himself - looking like he was having the time of his life. It was glorious to behold until suddenly Leopold started running straight at the 3 strand barb wire fence. As I stood watching in horror, thinking he was going to jump it, he ran straight through it. It didn't even slow him down and now he was running through our hay field where the gates are wide open to our neighbour's field. I stayed calm and tried to call Leopold to me and just when I thought he was heading my way, doesn't he go through the barb wire fence again to get back into the field with the other horses.
Thankfully, our boys come to a call so I quickly put out several piles of hay and Leopold came in with them. I was sickened by the thought of what I would see when he finally came in as I have seen wire fence injuries and they are, more often than not, horrific. I quickly put Leopold back in the rail paddock with a hay bag and was shocked by what I saw. Aside from a couple of minor scrapes of hair missing on his chest, one superficial scrape on a hind leg, and one tiny little drop of blood on his front leg - he was absolutely fine. First I cried with relief and then I pondered how to tell Gord he would be fixing fence that day.
I had so much to be grateful for that morning, including the fact that our lazy stock horses had given up following Leopold because with all that wire down, it could have been catastrophic.
In hindsight, it may have helped to put hay piles out in the field first and then taken Leopold in hand around the perimeter of the entire field so he had an awareness of the fence line.
Needless to say, Leopold will be staying in the rail paddock for the time being. Not sure if I will ever be comfortable putting him out to the pasture again. It is a lot more work to have him in but he is definitely worth the extra effort.
Tovie, Leopold and Leopold's Angels
Typically when a new horse arrives, I spend several days introducing the new horse to one or two of our geldings at a time. Occasionally we meet a horse that causes nary a ripple amongst our herd and we turn them out sooner. That was Leopold - clearly not challenging any of our "boys" over the fence and so I made the decision, early Saturday morning, to turn Leopold out to the large field with our "boys". Erika had told me that Leopold had been turned out to pasture with wire fencing so I mistakenly assumed he would be OK.
Naturally, Leopold was excited to run. Our 4 laid back "boys" didn't even bother to run with him; and Dexter, Skeeter and Navar ran with him for a short while before giving up. Leopold however, just kept running all by himself - looking like he was having the time of his life. It was glorious to behold until suddenly Leopold started running straight at the 3 strand barb wire fence. As I stood watching in horror, thinking he was going to jump it, he ran straight through it. It didn't even slow him down and now he was running through our hay field where the gates are wide open to our neighbour's field. I stayed calm and tried to call Leopold to me and just when I thought he was heading my way, doesn't he go through the barb wire fence again to get back into the field with the other horses.
Thankfully, our boys come to a call so I quickly put out several piles of hay and Leopold came in with them. I was sickened by the thought of what I would see when he finally came in as I have seen wire fence injuries and they are, more often than not, horrific. I quickly put Leopold back in the rail paddock with a hay bag and was shocked by what I saw. Aside from a couple of minor scrapes of hair missing on his chest, one superficial scrape on a hind leg, and one tiny little drop of blood on his front leg - he was absolutely fine. First I cried with relief and then I pondered how to tell Gord he would be fixing fence that day.
I had so much to be grateful for that morning, including the fact that our lazy stock horses had given up following Leopold because with all that wire down, it could have been catastrophic.
In hindsight, it may have helped to put hay piles out in the field first and then taken Leopold in hand around the perimeter of the entire field so he had an awareness of the fence line.
Needless to say, Leopold will be staying in the rail paddock for the time being. Not sure if I will ever be comfortable putting him out to the pasture again. It is a lot more work to have him in but he is definitely worth the extra effort.
Tovie, Leopold and Leopold's Angels
1 comment:
Tovie thanks for introducing me to Leopold the Great today. He is so desirous to please, and watching him transition at liberty with such ease was beautiful. All the ground work you did with him was met with an eagerness to want to work with you, evident in his movement and signs of relaxation.
You're both special.
Marlene
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