The Fixer Upper Farm, Dallas the Rescue Pony, and The King of All He Surveys

fergusnc
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The Fixer Upper Farm, Dallas the Rescue Pony, and The King of All He Surveys

Postby fergusnc » Mon Aug 14, 2017 2:03 am

Reno and projects continue all around The Fixer Upper Farm with nice progress. In the last 8 months we: finally solved an ongoing water issue in Dallas' stall in The Little Red Barn, releveled the stalls, finished fencing the third of the three pastures, put up an amazing and unexpected amount of hay from our hay fields in the Spring cutting, got a great work horse of a four-wheeler as a sub for a tractor that has been working out great, built/filled/planted the raised veggie garden, tamed a bunch more out of control trees that needed love/understanding/major haircuts, reframed two sections of Dallas' stall that will allow continued progress on the reno of TLRB, trimmed up/pressure washed/stained the privacy dog fence in the really big back yard, pressure washed and sealed the deck, replaced the old white aluminum columns on the front porch with solid cedar posts, expanded the jug handle in the driveway, installed window treatments in the naked-for-a-year-and-a-half house, built a ramp for the dogs, and I think that may be all on that front. ;) Somehow DH and I also pulled off full time jobs, and handled some really involved medical dilemmas with one of our dogs that has demanded pretty much constant analysis and adjustment over the last two months.

I can't remember the last time I rode Fergus, but every day I carve out even a few minutes to work on groundwork or stretching or clicker training with both boys. I have also been dedicated to regular bodywork for both of them, and some of the emotional/mental/physical things I have seen with Dallas are mind-blowing. This is the horse who tried to run over "strangers" who entered his pasture on a few occasions when he first arrived, bolted a handful of times while grazing for no apparent reason---like the devil himself was on his heels---and ran to the point of being a blowing, drenched mess before it was safe to interact with him, was pretty close to head shy, had real issues with picking up his feet and was too animated with his back feet for polite company, had no faith in allowing people to move freely about his body, and was the craftiest user of a strong and short neck that I have ever met. I could type for hours giving examples of the progress, but I will just summarize and say it's huge. He is insanely smart, incredibly curious, and has come to really enjoy interacting and learning. We have had several occasions where had these things happened when I first met him I would've been flattened, yet ended up with him being as self-controlled and aware of me as ol' Fergus who I have had for almost 18 years. Not saying we don't have tons more to do, but I really do have a different pony than the one I brought home from the rescue 16 months ago. For fun I did a DNA test when I did the HYPP test due to obvious QH blood. Let's see who reads to the end to get the answers. 8-)

Somehow my two year old turned 20 years old last month. If you met him you'd see it instantly...he just knows he is special and never doubts that everyone else should see it too. He is just too much, the best, and indescribable all at the same time. Although I hate that I haven't fit in riding time for Fergus in a loooong time, I enjoy every second of having him at home with me. And it's been great seeing him so happy again with the consistency and the horse-first set up that moving home brought with it. Here are some photos from his foggy birthday morning, nothing fancy, just the iPad.

And it seems I have reached my max for photos in this entry, so to be continued below.... :lol:
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fergusnc
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Re: The Fixer Upper Farm, Dallas the Rescue Pony, and The King of All He Surveys

Postby fergusnc » Mon Aug 14, 2017 2:04 am

A couple more of the birthday boy...
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fergusnc
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Re: The Fixer Upper Farm, Dallas the Rescue Pony, and The King of All He Surveys

Postby fergusnc » Mon Aug 14, 2017 2:06 am

And the common result of trying to work alone and pose Dallas the Rescue Pony, the king of being in your pocket now that he knows life is good. :lol:
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fergusnc
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Re: The Fixer Upper Farm, Dallas the Rescue Pony, and The King of All He Surveys

Postby fergusnc » Mon Aug 14, 2017 2:09 am

Two minorly successful shots from a bit of a distance...and the last one from back in the Fall just because I love his face and shows a little different look in case you want to guess the DNA results. 8-)
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fergusnc
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Re: The Fixer Upper Farm, Dallas the Rescue Pony, and The King of All He Surveys

Postby fergusnc » Mon Aug 14, 2017 2:20 am

And from about a year ago before he became my shadow, for a more full body shot as I tell you the DNA results......
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Keeping in mind that paint and apply will not register as a breed option due to the amount of QH in them, nor will Mustang, and that only the top three breeds present are reported, and that no percentage is assigned...just an order of most to least...

Dallas is....QH, Hanoverian, and Venezuelan Criollo. :D 8-) :shock:

I will say that with all the bodywork and calmer life, I started commenting on how he moves like a mini warmblood about 80% of the time, a cute hunter pony 10% of the time, a straight up, hardcore ranch horse 5% of the time, and a mustang being hunted about 5% of the time...so I wasn't far off. When he came to me, he moved like a shut down lesson horse mixed with a panicked feral pony, with very very occasional minutes of brilliance. It's been so cool to see!
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Re: The Fixer Upper Farm, Dallas the Rescue Pony, and The King of All He Surveys

Postby StraightForward » Mon Aug 14, 2017 2:36 am

Great update and pics. I am tired just reading your list of projects. It sounds like the farm will not be a fixer upper for too much longer. ;) Dallas must feel like he won the lottery landing with you!
Keep calm and canter on.

fergusnc
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Re: The Fixer Upper Farm, Dallas the Rescue Pony, and The King of All He Surveys

Postby fergusnc » Mon Aug 14, 2017 12:30 pm

Thanks SF! The projects have gotten to be of shorter duration, which gives us hope. Looking forward to the heavy work load of "just" maintenance around here some day. :D

Dallas is the best pony, just a complete hoot. No question he had demons and kept them locked away when just living his life in a field and for no-pressure interactions at the rescue, and though he seemed "easy" up there, I am so glad no one adopted him in the four years before me as most likely he would have been returned as he started to show some history that they didn't sign up for. He hasn't been easy, but he wants to be. And he loooooves clicker training! First time I have tried it with a horse and it's been great for him. We are working on bathing now. He was terrified, even of having a sponge bath. We worked through the sponge baths first, and then moved onto the hose. He is still loose and I am outside the fence to give him more confidence, but if I set the hose on mist and click it to permanent "on" I can spray pretty much everywhere I can reach and he doesn't move. He even likes to nuzzle the water now with his lips. Next step will be the "shower" setting as my efforts with that setting earlier this week of spraying beside him went OK until a bit splashed his foot and he bolted in a panic.

The bodywork person says he is at the top of challenging horses that also teach her so much about techniques. And she has so much advanced training and experience that says a lot. If you're open to the really hippy dippy emotional aspects of the process, you'd be blown away by some of the results. I never had experience with that side of it with Fergus....just straight physical issues. But with Dallas, the things I have felt and "heard" really caught me off guard, especially because I had never felt or heard like that before. At first it was gut wrenching, feeling how he felt, but boy oh boy has he moved on and let go! It's cool to see him with the vet, chiro and farrier too...all of them have commented on the change in how easy it is to do their jobs, and he actually greets them and welcomes them now, whereas before he was just trying to figure out how to tolerate at best, escape at worst.

I get the sense he had "training" at times, but not in kind ways. Probably the "stand there and take it" approach with a lot of twitching, resulting in some shutting down and tuning out. For those of you open to the non-hokey potential of story like this, I also think he understood loving humans, but not sure if it was before or only at the rescue. He was very quick with his hind end as a defense, and it improved over the first year from being a reflex reaction to giving some warning first. A few months ago I was in his stall and the butt started to swing around in a moment of his nervousness. Something told me not to reprimand. I put my hands up in a surrender position, took a step back, and saw him start thinking. Then I reached forward and pet his butt, ignoring any bad intent and just talking to him about good butt scratches. The next day I initiated petting his butt and I could see his wheels turning and he had a very thoughtful look on his face. I swear I "heard" him in my head...."I know you're not her, but I guess it's OK anyway"...and he backed up and positioned his butt cheeks into my hands like he knew what a serious butt scratching was. I think he had a girl. :( And now, he asks for butt scratches daily and we have worked on how to ask politely and carefully, and he is learning to bing me his butt when I ask for it.

Kyra's Mom
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Re: The Fixer Upper Farm, Dallas the Rescue Pony, and The King of All He Surveys

Postby Kyra's Mom » Mon Aug 14, 2017 2:01 pm

:mrgreen:

Nice work---Farm and critters.

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Re: The Fixer Upper Farm, Dallas the Rescue Pony, and The King of All He Surveys

Postby piedmontfields » Tue Aug 15, 2017 4:27 pm

What an awesome update to your evolving story!

fergusnc
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Re: The Fixer Upper Farm, Dallas the Rescue Pony, and The King of All He Surveys

Postby fergusnc » Thu Aug 17, 2017 6:09 pm

Thanks all. Life is good. :-)


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