Read the Success Stories for these former Bits & Bytes Farm
horses.
The newest Success Stories have been moved to their own site: www.OTTBSuccessStories.com
* Horses with asterisk in front of their name were purchased as Prospect Horses directly from the track.
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Phil's Courage and his new mom Christa Mooney of Charlotte, NC.
Phil's Courage and his new mom Christa Mooney of Charlotte, NC.
Phil's Courage at the track. January 2007
"Phil" has made it home to Charlotte, NC. March 2007
Click here to see "Phil's" Prospect Horse For Sale page.
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Our horses > success stories > Phil's CouragePhil's Courage - Sadly offered FOR SALE |
Hi! Here are a few pictures of the kids with Phil. As I told you before, Phil loves Jake's hair, but he also loves hugs and kisses from both of the kids. He continues to be very gentle. I rode him outside of the ring a few times and he did great. Our barn is located in a very wide open area and it is an extremely busy place, with lots of kids so I was cautious in doing so, but he did great and I look forward to a few short trail rides soon. We have been walking over ground poles and really working on turning. Transitions are good, but impulsion continues to be a problem.
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I cantered him for the first time the other day and he did fantastic. We have absolutely no issues with leg contact. In fact I have to carry a crop at times to get him to move forward because my leg alone doesn't always do the trick. He is trained to my voice fairly well though, so when I say "trot" he will usually trot without much leg contact... until he starts to tire. And forget half-halts...I say "walk" or "whoa" and he does just what I ask. Pretty smart if you ask me.
He had his first day out in the rain last weekend. What a riot. I could just tell that he was thinking "What the heck is this?!?!" He ran a bit, then decided to roll. After that he went right back to grazing forgetting all about the rain coming down.
All in all, things continue to go well. We have a show at the barn in May so I am eager to just walk him around to see what he'll do with all the action of the day. I'll let you know how it goes. Take care... PS. I hope everyone can see from the pictures just how gentle the TBs can be. People often get the wrong impression of them. |
Elizabeth,
I love the pictures of Nancy riding Dream Pusher...I love to see people having such a great time with their horses. I do hope to visit your farm at some point. Hopefully sooner rather than later. If I had a trailer I would bring Phil along!
Anyway, I have a couple of questions for you. First, do you have any business cards that I can put in my barn to "advertise" your farm?? We have LOTS of people coming in and out everday and we have shows every other month so I thought it might be good to post some on the bulletin board, if you think that would help.
Also, my other question is this...I viewed the video of Fizzi when you first rode him and he was doing the same thing as Phil...head kind of cocked to the side, zig zagging along, etc. Phil is getting better, but do you have any suggestions as to what I can do that might help? He is reaching for the bit and I am trying to push him from behind into the bit, but the impulsion is not there. I think I will have to start carrying a crop just to remind him that he needs to keep moving forward.
Today he planted his feet and, if he could talk, I think he might have said, "No, I really think I've trotted enough today" = ) I kind of laughed to myself because that actually gave me the courage to take him out of the ring for the first time while riding him. The reason I say that is that our farm is WIDE open...very inviting for a horse that might consider taking off!
What kind of bending exercises do you normally do with these guys and what helps to get them moving off your leg? I think things are going well for us, but any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks a lot and I'll be in touch with that picture soon!
Christa
Elizabeth,
Hi! I just wanted to give you an update on Phil.
So far he has been doing SO well. Some of the issues we had in the beginning were that he was a bit head shy, he HATED to be brushed, and walking through gates totally scared him to death. After just a few short weeks he is no longer head shy at all, he is tolerating being brushed (what a sport!) and the gates are getting easier to navigate. He still hesitates, but with some encouragement he will go through just fine.
He is loving the farm life and, as you can see in the picture, he is turned out in a paddock with electric tape and he does fine with it. I was concerned that he would try to run through the tape, but he doesn't even bother with it. Whenever I go to get him, he always comes right to me eager to be loved on. He has had several baths in the wash stalls and he cross ties for that just great. He now has shoes on the front, but is barefoot in the rear for now.
Longeing is going very well. He totally listens to voice commands now and has no problem going both ways. He also has very nice lead changes! My boy is sooo smart!
Everyone is curious where I got him from and of course, I am happy to tell them! Since he is only 1.5 miles from my house I get to see him every day. If I don't ride, I always brush him and spend time with him. He loves when I bring my son with me because, for some reason, he loves my son's hair! Phil just rubs his muzzle through my son's hair and he'd do it for as long as we'd let him. It seems to relax him, like a baby would rub a blanket against their face. It is hilarious!
We have only been walking and trotting in the ring so far. I have been taking the riding slowly with him...I have no reason to rush and I don't want to overwhelm him. I try to make a goal for each week. We have mainly spent the past week or two just working on extending the trot and turning. Phil really likes going straight! The trainer at the barn (seen in the picture helping me ride Phil for the first time) has been very helpful and with his guidance I am sure Phil will continue to do great! He is a very sweet and loving horse!
I will write again in a month or so with another update!
Christa Mooney
It was amazing how much calmer Phil was today after having a day to be outside in the pasture. Not that he was wild before, but he just seemed happier. Now, I was wondering how to approach the retraining. Is there a good book, website or anything to read about it? Should I begin him on the lunge (without saddle and then with one, maybe?) When do you introduce side reins (I noticed you had them on a horse in one of the pictures). Any thoughts would be appreciated. Hope to hear from you soon.
Christa
Dear Elizabeth,
Well, Phil finally arrived at 2:00 am Saturday morning! I couldn't believe how BIG and beautiful he is. My most recent horse was a 14.3 hand Arabian so Phil seemed especially huge.
We took Phil to his stall and he immediately took a long drink of water and went straight to his hay without missing a beat. I felt confident he would be fine that night. It was funny because we went back to the trailer for about 5 minutes to pay Suzanne for bringing him and when we went back to tuck him in for the night he was completely covered in sawdust!
The next morning I went to see him at about 7:30. He was very happy and relaxed and I finally had time to give him some hugs and kisses on that fuzzy nose. I decided to turn him out in the round pen for the weekend until he got used to the sights, sounds and action at the farm. He danced all the way to the pen so on the way back in I did use the chain over his nose...not because he was out of control, but he is sooo strong! I actually decided to attach two leads. One with a chain and a one with a regular clip. It worked better because if he got quick I could just give a short tug on the chain and then use the other lead the rest of the time.
By Sunday evening I was barely using the chain anymore at all and his ground manners improved tremendously. Of course, as you can see from the picture, I quickly found out that his favorite thing to do is roll!!! It's always the very first thing he does when he goes out. Monica did say that he loves to do it and she was right!
Sunday evening we decided to turn him out with his pasture mate-to-be for a trial run. They did great and to be honest I wonder if I actually have a dressage horse on my hands. What a mover! He strutted his stuff for a while, but settled down and enjoyed being outside for about an hour before it got dark. Today he will have his shoes removed (he lost one in transit).
So far so good and I just love him. He is soooo gentle and loving. My 2 year old daughter and 5 year old son came into the stall with me and he just nuzzled them softly. I will give you another update in a few weeks. I will be contacting you about how to approach this retraining since it's been a while since I had my last off the track horse. For now we are just letting him relax and be a horse for a week.
Thanks for everything! Oh, and Monica (Phil's former owner/trainer)was great...she called twice to check on him and she is sending me some other information about him. It's nice to know that she loved him so much and is so concerned for his well-being. Suzanne (hauler)was also wonderful and she took great care of Phil on his journey to NC!
Christa Mooney