First Blog!

I'm totally new to this whole blogging thing, but fuglyhorseoftheday.com has really made owning a blog a must. Plus, it's like she knows my thoughts and publishes them about stupid horse owners.

I'll make a few things perfectly clear :

1. I love horses. <3
2. I adore musicals. :)

These two things tend to clash with each other as they are both pretty pricey to take up as hobbies, but it's totally worth it! I would rather work myself silly to come up with the money for these two luxuries than go without.

So on that note, let me show you my fuglies! These were all upgrade cases and I'd never part with them.

Forgive the craptastic pictures, this is just what I happen to have on this particular computer.

Hershey. Morgan (?). 26(?). She was sold to me when I was young (15) and naive and I believed the people when they told me she was a purebred morgan.

Hmmm...I totally second guess that now.

You can't tell from the picture, but this mare was severely abused before changing through many owners, until I got her. She still had a 2 year old suckling on her when I paid a whopping $700 for her. It took a long time to get her to trust me, but now she's pretty good around everyone (however men make her uneasy).

These old scars surely tell me EXACTLY why she was so afraid.

I got really lucky with this mare. I was young and stupid and I bought the first thing that looked into my eyes and said 'take me'.

I now know she was actually screaming 'get me away from this filly! I can't nurse her any longer!!!'.

I'm pretty sure that first scar, in the smallest image is a belt buckle. The ones on her neck are probably from being roped. This girl is stubborn and spirited. I'm 99% sure this is why the ranch she came from treated her this way.

Oh, she's also got a brand. It's an 'M' with an 'F' on it's side, just under the 'M'. I'll get pictures of it later.

Ben. Quarter Horse/Paint. 9. I bought this boy on backboard. He has several chucks/divets in his muscles along his chest and hindquarters that suggest injuries at a young age. The spot on his withers is from a poor fitting saddle, he has a matching one on the other side. He's got a cigar burn on his lip.

This guy is a dream to ride, but he just can't seem to trust me not to ride him off a cliff or through a barbed-wire fence, and that is truely sad.

Reese. Reg: Miss Kitty Jo Reed. Palomino Appendix Quarter Horse. 15. This poor girl was bred for COLOR. Which is a pity because she has several half siblings and full siblings who are colored AND wonderful athletes. We purchased her when she was 6 (?). She had a two year old filly on the ground already (guess what they bred her to? A fugly recessive sorrel paint. Guess what they got? A fugly white with 1 tiny spot of palomino filly).

Over the years she has developed a nice mind, she's well behaved on trail, if she's quirky and insists on making things far more exciting than they should be then that's her only vice, but she's not a spooker, or flightly.

The odd thing with this mare is that she started getting trimmed wrong on her feet, as you can see in this picture. It screwed up her one back leg so bad that her tendons, to quote our vet, 'turned to mush'. We were told that putting her down would be the only fix. Now the horse when in support wraps was not in pain and moved around fairly well, so the vet did some research while we were trying to come to terms with euthanizing her. It turned out that her condition wasnt thought to be treatable, however we were willing to attempt to rehab this horse's leg so long as she wasnt suffering. Needless to say, she made an amazing recovery and with the proper support can do moderate trail riding and light arena work.

Banjo. Reg: Peppy Banjo. Appaloosa Quarter Horse. 22. This lazy bum was the first horse to worm his way into our life. He was a cribber, had two gaits: slow and slower...correction 3 gaits: slow, slower, mach 5. Mach 5 was always a rush because it always took extra effort to get him to stop.

This kid had it going for him though. He was build super well (you cant see his shoulder too well in this picture but it was nice), for an appy he had nice feet, an 'ok' tail, and a naturally pulled looking mane.

I mean, this horse was in no way a fugly waiting to happen. He was gelded at 6 when they decided he wasnt fast enough, he's never sired anything. He came from a posh barn with a fabulous owner. He was well cared for.

Oh and he was John Lyons trained which makes me snicker now, but it really helped this guy out because it employed and rewarded being lazy. I can shamefully say that he developed cancer, and when my parents could not afford his vet bills any longer, AND a nice couple was willing to adopt him cancer and all so that he could live out his last years ambling around a pasture, we jumped at it. If I was able to afford him and my other two fuglies, I would have taken up his expenses, but I was a broke college student at the time (I know it's an excuse, but it's the truth).