This is what their rescuer-owner said about their past lives,
"All three of the ponies were born to the evil man. They have never known anything but hunger. The first kind hand that has touched them is yours.........and mine through the fence when they went by. They have never had a real home with someone who cared about them. Honeybear was a herd sire and Dancer was not. We thought all of the mares were in foal but Tango turned out not to be, thank God since she is so young. I have never seen her cycle. She may not ever do that since she was starved all of her life and may not have developed properly."
These are three of over 200 ponies taken in by a horse rescue group near Kansas City. Their story was reported in the April 1998 Western Horseman magazine.Tango(middle) is 4 year old mare. She has the white star. She was the most difficult pony to train, and is very much her own supreme judge.
Second Chance to Dance, Dancer (left), is a fourteen year old gelding. He is a sweet pony and deserves a home with lots of love for him. He and Tango are best friends. They often share their feed pan. NEW UPDATE ON DANCER! He has gone to live at a wonderful home where he has a new best horse friend in addition to two minidonkys that he gets to herd. He has chickens, cats, tame geese and even two peacocks to keep him busy. His new family thinks that he is the most beautiful pony on earth. He is only 20 miles from Hidden Paradise and lives with a good friend of mine. He will be well taken care of!
Honeybear is a 7 year old cute-as-a-button palomino gelding. He is the hackney herd leader, and loves "to herd" his friends. He runs them hither and yon all over the large pasture. He is energentic and loves to play. He has a "take charge" kind of style with lots of verve.
Click on Honeybear to read and see his STORY!
Honeybear and the Young Horse Whisperer-more Honeybear pictures and another Story
Their first contact with humans was to be captured, gelded, wormed, shots, and their horribly long curved hooves trimmed. In one weekend, 113 stallions were gelded. Do you wonder why the ponies were scared to death of humans?These ponies were wild horses when they arrived in the Hidden Paradise herd. It took about half of the summer for them to trust and respond to love-with the help of:
TANGO BETRAYED/TANGO HATED SUSAN After several sessions of three and four hours in the round pen, lots of food treats and round pen savvy, I was able to catch Tango after a few minutes in the round pen. Then I let the vet come to give her shots and look in her mouth.
Unfortunately, we had to give her several tranqulizers...two fell out. She got her shots. I took part in snubbing her to the fence so the vet could look at her teeth. BOY HOWDY, was that a mistake! The TRUST that she had for me was evaporated. I lost all the hours and hours of training that I had invested.
AV (After the Vet), Tango knew that I was responsible for forcing her to be hurt. She wasn't afraid of me anymore, she just didn't trust me. I spent about three weekends with Tango locked in the round pen with me her only contact before we overcame my horrendous betrayal.
It took me longer to regain her trust than it did for me to get her trust in the beginning!
We are friends again. Now, it is a big deal for me to be able to pet her while she eats her grain. (She used to run off.)
We need another round pen session for me to put a halter on her out in the pasture. Here's the wild pony standing perfectly still for our natural horseman farrier, Tony Vaught.
TRUST GAINED FROM:
- Natural Horsemanship Techniques
- Jenny Vaught, Natural Horsemanship trainer, who, early-on, caught Honeybear when he developed an eye problem
- The round pen
- Jennifer Vaught, who caught Tango, after I betrayed her trust and let the vet hurt her
- Plenty of sore, hours-of-round-pen feet
Email: susanfxtrt@aol.com
This Hackney WebRing site owned by Susan Engle.
Want to join the The Hackney Webring? Previous 5 Sites | Skip Previous | Previous | Next | Skip Next | Next 5 Sites | Random Site | List Sites
