Reg'd AQHA Gelding For Sale

Gentleman Gene

AQHA # 5168750

For Sale

Smart, athletic gelding currently standing approximately 15.2 hh. Was at trainers from February - March 2009.  View his excellent pedigree.  This gelding would excel at barrel racing, roping, cattle events and has the movement to make a show horse.

Placed 3rd Halter Geldings at his first local show (out of 17).

Needs an experienced handler.

Asking $1000.00 - make me an offer!

Email: a007ridr @ gmail.com 

(When typing the email don't put any spaces - spaces here prevents spam!)

Will provide phone number via private email.

Now What?

While this might be slightly twisted, I was hoping Buddy's dual personality and wild bucking sprees were the result of a physical ailment.  When I returned from Calgary, I eagerly went out to "test" him.  And the little bugger didn't show any (zip, zero, nada) signs of distress.  According to the tests - he does not have a belly ache, he does not have any "outs" or ouchy spots.

But the fart did threaten to knock my head off when I straightened his sheet.  Sigh.  You know, because I've never done that before (yes I'm being sarcastic).  There I am, in my fashionable black rubbers leaping through the slime as he agiley swings his tucked up arse into my space.  Lovely.  It's moments like those that I contemplate my sanity.

It appears, his issues are more related to the fact that he has two swirls on his forehead.  I didn't know but cowboy logic says that that means the horse is crazy.  (Straight from the cowboy's mouth.)  

I must admit I really hate being wrong.  Normally I have impeccable horse taste.  I have been told I have a good "eye", meaning I'm a pretty good judge of horseflesh.  But this one - I broke my norm - and appear to be paying for it.  I saw him trotting so nicely through his pen, discovered how cheap he was - and viola - was the proud new owner of a horse.  Call me impulsive.  

He has some faults (in my opinion) that would normally make me veer away from purchasing a horse like him.  First off - he has visible white around his eyes, and my grandpa told me horses with white in their eyes are spooky.  Secondly, he has Impressive breeding, which I normally avoid simply because the cowboys don't like it, as they believe they don't make good working horses.  Thirdly, he was running wild as a two year old.  However, he has lovely free movement and is ridiculously athletic.  Plus, he wasn't supposed to grow into the giant he's enroute to becoming.  

Ideally, Buddy would be long gone by now, but here I am stuck with him (and hating every minute!)  What to do...  What to do...

Oops!

Once again I was on the road today.  Tessa, Joe and I were off to collect up Whiskey.  You see, the stallion's owner had called to say that my mare had only showed one day of heat and then her and the stallion (Hook) settled in like a pair of old geldings.  This created an undue amount of anxiety as the vet had ultrasounded, found nothing and gave me an estimate of when she'd be coming in.  Which would have been last week.

Brad had kindly offered to keep her and just kick her and Hook out into one of the quarters but I thought I'd best check in with the vet.  According to the vet there is two possibilities.  One - she's open.  Two - she's preggers but the fetus was hiding when we checked on the second day.  Yikes.  Here's hoping it's option two and we don't have to make another trek to Brownfield.

I'll find out next Thursday whether she's open or knocked up.  Fingers crossed!

Holding Our Own

In the Herding World there are trials that have the creme de la creme of dogs and handlers show up.  Here in Alberta, one of those trials is the World Stock Dog Championship held in conjunction with the Calgary Stampede.  Tessa and I took the leap from our small fry world into the land of the big fish.  We went to the Stampede to compete.  

This trial is an arena trial which means all the herding is done inside an indoor arena.  There is some debate as to what is more difficult - the arena or field trial - I've concluded in order to do either well you and your dog have to have a certain skill level.  With Tessa being a better arena dog I thought we'd be able to compete, hold our own and not completely look like fools.  And I was right!

I know I had a blast and I think Tessa did too.  For me, the whole purpose of competing at this trial was to gain experience.  Which I did.  Tessa did too.  I loved being surrounded by people from all over.  There were dogs from as far away as Texas, Minnesota, Ontario.  I loved meeting and talking with some of the characters who were competing.  Seeing the variety of dogs.  It was especially neat to strut (Yes I did!) through the grounds with the fancy badge stating you were an exhibitor.

One of the best things that came from the whole experience was meeting a handler named Vickie Close.  You see, not only is she a handler but she's a photographer and artist as well.  Today, on our way home Tessa and I met up with Vickie (who's from Idaho) at another handler's farm and Tessa has some professional pictures taken.  (Tessa is notoriously difficult to photograph.)  I can't wait to see how they turn out!

What a great experience!  I can't wait for next year!

In the pictures: Top:  Tessa and I waiting to go.  Bottom: Tessa moving the sheep around the post and to the chute.

Belly Ache?

The most interesting conversation occurred last night as I drove to the middle of nowhere for a dog trial.  On the phone was a man named Hollywood.  Hollywood is a cowboy who I used to do College Rodeo with.  Back in the day he was a man's man and could be very cowboy with his horsemanship practices.  

I was telling him about Buddy and how I can't quite get him figured out.  His response was maybe he has a belly ache.  As my jaw flapped loosely in the wind he proceeded to tell my about this German guru who comes to Canada periodically and does homeopathic work with horses.  He explained how they discovered how his head horse has an ulcer and how once they followed this man's diet the horse became much calmer and lost some it's weird quirks.  How the mare that wouldn't catch had a twisted ovary and caught immediately after the voodoo doctor got finished with her.  All very interesting.  As I struggled to wrap my brain around the words coming out of Hollywood's mouth (it was a wee bit disconcerting), a plan began to form.

I'm going to do some things with Buddy - to see if it's not an internal problem causing his personality problems.  And with Hollywood's help am going to try and track down this master of horse voodoo to see if I can't get Buddy down to see him.  In my mind its worth a shot.  You never know maybe it's something that simple.

Dazed and Confused

I've been having difficulty figuring out what exactly I should do with Buddy.  To help solve his bucking problem.  I've received all kinds of advice as to what I should do - what will cure him.  What I do know is that I don't want to do whatever it is that needs to happen.  My poor body aches and I have no wish to create more aches.  

I look at him sitting out in the field and think he looks so lovely.  He's even been acting lovely for the little I've been doing with him.  But I keep waiting for the demon to reappear.  To pop out when I least expect it.  So what do I do?

Should I send him to another trainer and dump more money into him?  What type of trainer should he go to?  Should I send him to a stock contractor to buck out in practice nights until he decides to stop bucking or the contractor purchases him?  Should I beat on him?  Throw him? I don't know what the solution is to his random and explosive bucking fits.  I only know he's of no use to anyone like this.

Any and all suggestions are welcome...

Say Hello to Joe

Let me tell you a story about a dog.  A little and lovely dog who we discovered a tattoo on when he was getting his pre-neuter hair cut.  A lot of speculation surrounded this dog.  Where did he come from?  What's his breeding?  What happened to shape his behavior?  Why is he so skittish around people?  And now I know.  I know Gunner's story.  Except his name isn't Gunner.  His name is Joe.  And I have the Canadian Border Collie Association papers to prove it.

For the first five years of his life Joe (Gunner) lived with a family.  He mostly lived in a dog run to keep the other dogs safe (from pregnancy) but he got to help the rancher's wife do chores.  He'd ride in the box of the truck or run beside the mule (like a quad) and when they got to where the cattle were penned, he (with virtually no training) would help her by doing things like moving the bulls off the troughs so she could fill them.  He was a good dog who played with the family's kids and occasionally got into trouble for killing kittens.

When this family heard of a local rancher and hired hand was out a dog and needed something to help him move cattle, they gave Joe away, with the belief that Joe would work well for this person.  Eventually they heard that the rancher didn't like Joe and Joe was no longer there.  When one night a breeding client dropped off a mare and they got to talking about Border Collies.  Can you see where this story is going?

You guessed it.  I have Joe.  When I described some of his quirks they were shocked.  The Joe they know didn't act like that!  So - it wasn't Joe's previous owners that wrecked him.  It was the one I got him from.  You remember - the one who was going to shoot him because he wouldn't even look at a cow.  The one who said some rancher dropped off for him to try.  Not even close!  He went and picked up the dog.  

So Brad and I, as best as we can figure, think that Grant did something nasty to Joe.  After all, what else would cause a keen dog to stop working stock?  And have some serious trust issues with humans?  You do the math - I sure did!

On an interesting side note - Joe is related to Tessa.  Joe's mother is Tessa's maternal grandmother, and his father is a litter mate to her maternal grandfather.  Pretty cool what a small world it is.