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[RC] Renaming A horse: A True Story - paulKat is right about letting the horse rename itself. About 30 years ago, I went to see a horse that was for sale. He was 1/2 Arabian and !/2 Saddlebred. Just under 16 hands tall, Beautiful light dabble grey, Five years old and built broad like a quarter horse, but with the Arabian quickness and grace. They were city folks and scared to death of him, as he had learned a few tricks to make their rides short in duration. When they came to halter him, he would rise on his hind legs. When they tried to get him in a pen, he would run them over. At 16 hands and probably over 1100 pounds this left an impression on them. (physically and mentally.) When they would finally get him saddled, he would pull hard on them for about a mile until he got to a T in the road. There he would rear up, spin around and gallop home. He would stop at the gate to let them off, so he could be unsaddled, given grain and turned out. The people said they loved him, but just couldn't figure out why he did that.. Go figure. So I watched him roaring around the pen. (To catch him, they put out grain, made us all go into the house, while one snuck out the back door, crawled through a ditch, snuck around the bar and closed the gate.) As he flew around, I thought he was as`beautiful and spirited a horse as I had ever seen. "What's his name?", I asked, prepared for something royal and proud. "Why we call him Buttermilk", was the response. "Buttermilk!!!????Why in the world would you give a horse like this a name like Buttermilk?" I sputtered in shock. "Well if you look carefully, when he sheds out in the summer , he has a little place on his right shoulder that looks like somebody spilled buttermilk on him" What the heck? I told my wife that Buttermilk was not that horses name and no wonder he acted up every time they called him that. We would have to re-name him. They had loaded him into a trailer one time in his life. It took four or five men several hours to do so. They planned to have a stock trailer and men gathered for me to take him home. I said that since I only lived about 6 miles away by gravel and dirt roads , we would just ride him home. Despite all his antics, I had met his eye and saw that he was honest, just spoiled rotten. After 5-6 miles I told them, I should be able to get him under control, or we could just do another loop. The next morning I came over saddled him up and took off. Instead of letting him run away with me, I kept him to a brisk trot. When we got to the T in the road, I urged him into a run. We flew through the turn headed for my farm. Whenever he would slaken his speed, I would keep him running. Finally, he determined that he was time to do his rearing and spinning trick and head back home. Just as he slowed to a stop, I jerked his head to the side and made him spin in circles until I was dizzy as heck. I settled him facing the way to my home and started him off again at a slow trot. We had gone about 1/4 mle and I felt him tensing up to try again, and without waiting for it, spun him around and around until we were both really dizzy. Then we walked. After a nice quiet couple of mles, we were bonding and getting close to home, and I noticed my saddle was off to the side a bit. So I planted a foot firmly in the stirrup and threw my weight to bring it centered again. The next thing I knew, I was falling off to the right and then hit the road hard. This being pre-endurance, my saddle was a big heavy western rig with a horn. I hammered into the dry hard roadbed, flat on my back, and then the saddle hit me with the horn striking my chest dead center. It took my breath away, ( and left a heck of a bruise), and I blacked out for a second. Then I was aware that the back of my head was resting against the rear of his cocked front hoof. My feet were still in the stirrups, and the saddle had slid around and was held on to him by the breast collar. He had stopped dead in his tracks, and just looked down at me in shock. Of course when I fell I dropped the reins. He never stirred while I got out of the stirrups and out from under the saddle. I clambered out from underneath him. Limped around. Undid the breast collar, and threw the saddle into the ditch. The girth had broken during our spinning, and we had been riding free for over a mile. We looked at each other and I said to him " Well you silly %#@, You just had your best chance to kill me and didn't. We are going to be stuck together a long time." The next few days, we got to know each other and he turned into a great horse. I still refused to rename him. My wife and kids kept coming up with names, but I just called him "boy". After a while I noticed that people who saw him remarked on how well he traveled. After I had been with him for about a week, we were riding alongside the US highway, and a car pulled over to watch us go past. They turned around and watched us again and waved us to a stop. A lady asked if he was part Arabian, and i saifd yes. She said her husband, a large man, wanted a National Show horse and would pay top dollar for him. I said he wa not for sale. She kept upping her bid to $3,000. (It was in the early 80's We were poor farmers, and had given $665.00 for him, his dam, a saddle and all the headgear for both horses.) I told her that $50,000 wouldn't buy him. She said it was a shame as he was sure a traveler. I thanked her for helping he choose his new name. Robert E. Lee rode a big grey horse named Traveler during the Civil War. He was much admired for his heart and disposition. So Buttermilk became Traveler, and gave me 20 great years before passing on.He ran loose on over 200 acres with other horses and cattle, but whenever I called his new name, he never failed to come running. This was before I even knew that Endurance Riding existed. We would ride 11 miles down a dirt road into town to get a soda, and then canter most of the way back home. He was always indeed a Traveler, never a Buttermilk. Paul N. Sidio Fortunate enough to have shared time with four great horses so far, and maybe one more who is turning out to be so. Spokane MO =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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