It has been awhile since I’ve given everyone a Miracle update. She is thriving and enjoying life. Her weight is right where we want it right now, not too heavy and not too light. She has learned a lot of “big girl” things as well. She is very good about hoof handling now and is good for the farrier. Her leading manners are much improved as well although she does still have typical baby horse moments on occasion.
We have not completely mastered the concept of being tied yet however she’s made a lot of progress. This is another area where she still has “I’m a baby” moments. The one thing we haven’t done well with is having a bath. Apparently Miracle is hydrophobic with the exception of rain. She does not want water applied to any part of her body whether it is done with a sponge or with a hose. I will also admit I have not spent as much time working on this with her as I could. I’m not too worried about it, she just needs more time and eventually she will realize nothing bad is going to happen when water comes from a sponge or a hose.
We’re also still working on teaching Miracle that she does not have to be scared of other horses. In addition to the many horrors Miracle has suffered in her short life she was also out with two other horses who apparently beat her up as they all fought over whatever scraps of food they could find in their hellhole they called home. Miracle is super friendly with other horses over the fence but very leery of them when together.
Miracle did really well with Sky serving as her friend for two months. For the last two weeks her “friend” has been Traveller the pony. It took eight days for her to get near him (and she and Sky had shared a fenceline with him for two months) but now she is as comfortable with Traveller as she was with Sky. I thought the transition to friendship with Traveller would be easy since they had been so friendly over the fence but I was wrong.
The question that we get asked most often is what do we have planned for Miracle? I always answer the same way. She is right around a year old and she has already been ridden into the ground, literally. The plan for Miracle is to let her be a baby horse for a couple more years and then see where we’re at. Maybe she will be able to be ridden at a later date, but I personally don’t believe in riding horses until they are three. I do like to introduce the saddle and the bridle and teach them to lunge and ground drive at two, and sit on their back and walk around a few times, but that’s it. Even at three I think undersaddle work needs to be basic and not too physically taxing.
Given my personal philosophy on starting horses this would mean that Miracle will just be hanging out and being a baby for quite awhile. And of course it is still a big question mark as to whether or not she will be able to physically handle being ridden (again) when the times comes. Jason and I adopted Miracle knowing there is a good possibility that she might not ever be anything other than a big, expensive pet. I think it would be unfair to Miracle for someone to be pinning all of their hopes on her being a riding horse. She’s seen a lot of abuse in many forms and who knows what the long term effects of it will or will not be.
Miracle is a happy, healthy girl right now and it is a true pleasure to see her happy face every day.
Miracle; she is such a pretty girl
Traveller is currently serving as Miracle’s friend
B-Rad decided to roll and he started a chain reaction
Alex rolled next; I love B-Rad’s goofy post roll/shaking his head expression
Chili was next
Clay
Fuzzy Punch
Murphy
you can see his lips flapping while he does his post-roll shake
Dutch was the last man down
Elfin and Grand
Leo (Levendi hiding behind him) and Chance
Hoffy
Johnny, Tiny and Toledo
