Two Month Mark

We have officially had Harry for two months as of today. He is eating well and still packing on the pounds. He has gained 150 lbs and looks fabulous. He has a smashing new saddle pad. I swear that black horses can pull off any color.

I'm working on getting some pics sans saddle to show his weight gain a little better, but for now, voila...

May 13th

July 13th

Teeth and such

So according to the vet who floated Harry's teeth, he has been unable to chew properly since a "bucket fracture" to his jaw roughly 10 years ago. This has been corrected as much as possible with a proper float but his teeth still don't sit as they should.

He has also gained over 125 pounds so we couldn't be happier! Pictures are coming soon.

Oldies

Goodness it's been awhile. Harry is still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. His been in maybe 5 lessons so far with 3 different people. I haven't been doing more than jumping on bareback everyonce in awhile since he's back to work. Everyone loves him and it really seems like he's gaining some weight.

He's really eating well now. We have him on Progressive Senior sweet feed, One n' Only, Profile Nuggets, alfalfa, coastal, and some supplements. A friend of the family who happens to be a vet saved us a solid $75 by drawing a blood panel up for us. Turns our all of his vitals are great but he has low levels of red blood cells so he's on a supplement for that as well.

One student in particular has fallen for Harry. She is on the older side, and she recently had her own elderly horse pass and has been riding her young teenage Percheron cross (and getting bucked off). She quickly fell in love with Harry and they've had a few really awesome lessons together. They even had a circle or two of canter in the last lesson. It really is quite a good match since they both need their walk breaks.

Everyone is always amazed at what he can do: he's just about the easiest horse I've ever tried to connect, his lateral work is still superb, and he has suspension in his trot that you wouldn't believe.

Not bad for 28, I think

Picture Day

First walk-trot day with Harry boy today. It was a suprisingly nice day considering the recent Houston weather and we actually had a breeze. Harry hasn't been eating like he should so we thought that a little exercise might jump-start his apetite. He was a perfect gentleman as usual.

What is so surprising to me is how people still ooh and ah even though his twice the age of most of the horses on the properties. As a tell my boyfriend, I now have another tall, dark and handsome guy in my life.

I included some pictures of bath time. He's falling asleep in the sun in most of them but I'll post the good ones. He still looks much too ribby for my taste. Better pack on those pounds.

One step at a time

Harry is coming along so nicely. We started riding him in a saddle again on Monday. I had been riding him around a bit with halter and lead rope so he could look around since he's always such a curious one.

It was meant to be a calm first day back under saddle but since one of my mom's other lesson horses was acting up, I offered to trade Harry for Wren. The student had a wonderful little walk lesson. Wren is notorious for being hard to put together so it was quite a nice change for her to feel what a proper, constistent connection is.

All the kids thought that he was gorgeous, and he is still quite an impressive guy even for his 28 years.

We had another great little ride on Wednesday. It was nice having a calm one after taking a tumble off our little quarter horse mare. We did a little bit of trot work, and about 5 seconds of canter just to see how it felt and see how push-button he is on his cues.

Eight hours of work then out to ride for a bit tomorrow.

I also want to mention how appreciative I am of the information that Peggy Sue Blair of OK provided about Heristol. It seems that he has a guardian watching from afar who has known him since he came across the lake. We now know that he was imported by Linda Zang, esteemed "O" FEI dressage judge.

More importantly, he has a half-brother who is still alive and kicking all be it with fewer teeth at the ripe age of 30 so we still have a few solid years if we treat our old boy right. He's loving the alfalfa. We had tried the chopped alfalfa with some water like we do with our other old timer (25 year-old Arabian gelding), and we wasn't going for it so we upped the ante. He's also decided that he will only eat his One n' Only if there is nothing else on earth to do. He also prefers dozing under his shade tree or taling to the horses across the fence to munching down grass in his paddock. An easy keeper he is not! No skin off our nose. We'll do what it takes to get him fat and keep him happy.

Cheers!

One Week

Today we reached the one week mark. He is still bright-eyed and bushy tailed with (we hope) a little more fat on his old bones than he came here with. Since he still refuses to eat properly in his paddock I hand graze him as much as possible. We're also pumping him full of as much alfalfa and One n Only and Profile nuggets as possible. He's not huge on the hay though.

I hopped on him today with his halter and lead rope. He was awesome. I have no clue if he'd ever been ridden bareback before but he seemed absolutely great about it. He was very attentive and has that look were he seems to be watching the whole world.

I was riding Wren the other day while he was loose in the arena with us and it took about 15 minutes of us working a the trot, walk, and canter that he couldn't just chase after us for the whole time. A good source of low impact exercise for him though I guess. Good thing they get along.

Nobody hardly notices the skinny aspect of him. With his shiny coat and (now) well-trimmed mane he's quite the ladie's man in fact. He's made quick friends with the next-stall neighbor, an Arabian mare.

Again, if anyone has any information on my boy I would love to hear it!

"Internalized Stress"

The OO told us that he "internalized stress" and often didn't eat when moved so we were eager to see how he handled this change and to make sure he actually ate.

Sure enough he ate everything we gave him. He put out in an individual paddock but was much more interested in socializing and looking at anything and everything then actually eating.

Unfortunately there isn't much grass in their paddocks so I took him out those first few days and just walked with him. For a while he would graze, and he lulled us into thinking that there was a possibility that he would keep doing that so we unhooked his lead rope and he immediatly took off at a quick march to the open gate out that leads out to the road, ears pricked at attention. I had to jog to catch up and imprison him again.

I did a little research on my big boy. I'll go ahead and put all of his real information considering at his age I'm sure that he has touched a lot of lives, I would love to find some more info about him. Here is what I have so far.

Name: Heristol aka Harry
Born: Jan. 22 1980

Black w/ medium star and crown over S brand on left hip (now faded)
Imported from Sweden.

He is a registered Swedish Warmblood, and he's also registered with USDF, USEF, and has an FEI passport.

He was also still competing at 4th level in recognized shows under Julie Berry as of 2003.

Sire: Herkules 504- Many placings in FEI dressage; World Cup Toronto-1986, Olympic Games, Seoul-1988 Premium A stallion with 10 approved sons. I have his topside registration going back at least 12 generations so that's no problem. He looks just like him I think.

Dam: Aloett by Wilmorence- I have no clue about this mare or her sire and would love more info.

What I would like more than anything is to see some pictures of him in his prime. I imagine that he was quite a looker (as he still is), and would love to see.