New Horse Coming on Friday

Today all the horses are over at Mel's Meadow. Cocoa is home again from Magic and Alan's place. So Mel is getting to look out her window and see six horses. It will soon be 7 -- yesterday morning Elizabeth, Cordell, and I went to see a horse named Mo (registered name Real Cool Ice Te) who was advertised as being free. According to the ad, he was not sound. He's also severely underweight. But when we got there, the owner said that he had an abscess on his foot. So as it turns out, what she's giving away is a well bred quarter horse who's underweight but perfectly sound once his abscess heels. And he's well trained. He's just the kind of horse that I like to put into my program. He doesn't need training so much as he needs recuperation and then he'll be ready to become somebody's special horse. I'll post pictures once he gets here. Once he arrives, he will go through a series of treatments for his foot -- mostly Epsom salts soaks twice a day and careful attention to the ground he's standing on, because his feet cannot get wet. He'll probably need to go back and forth from the stall to the ring. After two weeks of careful treatment he will be turned out with the herd and fed like Dante is (that is, a lot) so that he can gain weight. His previous owner neglected to feed him and he's about 400 pounds underweight. He has some dietary restrictions because he has a congenital problem that affects many quarter horses which causes him not to be able to cannot process potassium. So he can eat only oats and hay and grass, but no treats. I think I'll have to put a sign up at the Meadow so that people don't feed the horses. Cordell says that he sees evidence of people giving them treats. A lot of people walk by that Meadow and enjoy spoiling the horses, but unfortunately, spoiling Mo would be harming him. Oh -- and very importantly, he needs a new name. We can't change his show name but we can change his barn name. He is a chestnut with a gentle, kind disposition. He usually ends up at the bottom of the hierarchy in a herd. But get to know him a little bit better and then start brainstorming names for him.