Rescuing Rusty

Ok, time for every drop of information I have on these two. There’s not much. Last fall a skinny little Morgan stud was run through Stanley Brothers in Louisiana. Once Forever Morgans stepped up for him, they started producing more horses that were by him. Didn’t Forever Morgans want to take them too???

The first two, Bert and Ernie, I don’t know what happened with them or if they had papers or found DNA matches. I guess they found homes right away? I found the post, finally, they were both registered. There was also a mare who did not get a DNA match.

Then they dug two more out of the wood work. These two didn’t come with papers and AMHA was not able to find DNA matches for them.  Then the feedlot added lots of charges, and difficulties, and were the reason Forever Morgans said they would no longer be doing any business at all with Stanley Brothers. I don’t blame them at all. But that left them with Harvey and Amarillo.

I should add somewhere here that we are so lucky to have a breed registry that takes DNA samples at registration and is willing to search and help owners identify horses that have been separated from their papers. Other, much larger, breed registries will not even begin to look. I won’t mention names 😉

Amarillo, I can’t find anywhere and don’t remember seeing him before he was listed on the available horses page.  While there is no doubt that Harvey is very Morgan like, with Amarillo it’s hard to say. He and Harvey are so much alike in coloring and, sometimes, looks, their ears and thick full forelocks, that sometimes I have to wonder if the story from the feedlot is true. Maybe they are related. Maybe they are both by the beautiful Tolder. But, Amarillo is big, thick, and sturdy. A complete opposite to the tiny, delicate, fairy like Harvey. He is solid and unconcerned about much of anything. I have hopes that he will work for the children to ride. The lady who has been boarding him says she and her vet guess him to be in his early twenties.

Harvey is much smaller than his pictures make him look. Not a pony, but very refined and elegant. His head is stunning, huge wide-set eyes, long thick forelock, long gracefully arched neck. In his pictures he’s a dark bay. In person I almost can’t tell him and Amarillo apart! They are almost exactly the same color, another reason I wonder if they couldn’t be related. Even if other aspects and ages say differently. For him the age guess was seven or eight.

I have not looked closely at either of them. Other than standing quietly and getting them to eat from my hand I am letting them be. No starting clicker training over the fence does not count as bothering them, it goes with hand feeding them. 😉 Nothing like trying to catch them and look at teeth and bug them.

The trip went without a hitch. They spent the night at the house of a very generous Forever Morgans supporter who offered her place near St. Joseph Missouri so they’d have somewhere to get out and stretch a little. Once here there was one small problem. GPS does not know where we live. It always sends people off in the other direction. I tried to give directions but didn’t do a good job. We ended up meeting her in town to lead them back this way.

I think it’s a good omen. We met them at the same gas station we met my parents at when they brought Princess Onna out.

Back at the house we unloaded the horses. Amarillo was in back. He walked out as calm and quiet as could be. Then immediately dropped his head and went to grazing as she went to get Harvey. He was completely unconcerned. In the pictures online he’s a very brown buckskin. In the pictures she sent me from the trip I couldn’t tell which was which. In person I still couldn’t tell. Amarillo was very pretty, big and thick. Easy to handle and very well behaved.

Harvey I had been hearing about ever since they left Alabama. He kept taking his halter off. Finally he broke it. He was wearing a spare she had and was far more concerned than Harvey. He was calling loudly from inside the trailer. Once out I didn’t have time to look. we turned and headed to the corral. Unhaltered they immediately went to munching weeds.

I don’t know which rout they took but not the one through Kansas.

We watched them eat while we stood and watched discussing horses in general. These two in particular. My two came running up to the gate calling out their welcomes. I had them locked  away from the newcomers, a pen in between. Better safe than sorry. These two should be healthy but they’re coming from a long ways away. I am rather fond of Coyote and Rusty.

With more time to look I was surprised to see just how tiny and delicate Harvey was. His gorgeously well defined head was deer like in it’s shape and alertness. In his pictures he was a dark bay. Bleached out in the summer sun he is nearly the same buckskin color as Amarillo. His dark forelock is thick spilling over his large widely spaced eyes.

Neither one of them wanted anything to do with us. She spent some time telling me how they could only be caught with grain. That is so not a problem for me. I planned to get out there with some treats as soon as I could. Once she was off, on her way back home I grabbed my treat bag and went back out. I got a chance to listen to Anna Blake and stand still breathing. My horses catch me so fast I have no time to do anything but grab them and get going. With these two stood quietly and waited. They were understandably unsure. I was a strange person in a strange place after a long tiring trip.

In no time at all they came over sniffing cautiously. Amarillo braved me first. He wanted some food. He ate willingly out of my hand. Harvey, not so much. He was busy sniffing around on the ground looking for anything Amarillo dropped. Silly pony. Finally he figured it out and they took turns eating in a very mannerly… manner. We even got our first little bit of clicker training done!

I left a pile of hay next to the water. They didn’t want to walk through the mud in the gate to get to it. I turned and left carrying the food. They followed, a few steps then turned back. I went back too and fed them some more, then turned away. When Harvey followed a step I clicked him and gave him a handful. A few more steps, another handful. He wadded happily through the mud and found the hay. Amarillo followed along behind. Tomorrow hopefully we’ll start with a little targeting with some protected contact. I plan to do it right this time instead of starting in the middle like with Rusty.