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Joe is a 6 year old sorrel gelding. He is originally from Joliet, Montana. He wasn't broke until he was about four and a half years old. When he was a weanling, he was put in a trailer with food and water for about a week so he couldn't see his mom. That's why he became so skittish.
When my trainer Troy Lusk got him, he would buck, kick, rear, and bite. All of the trainers that had tried to ride Joe before Troy had all gotten bucked off. Beside from Joe being a brat, he was fast! About a month after Troy had gotten Joe, he was so broke that his five year old daughter could ride him! It was pretty amazing! After seeing how fast Joe was, Troy decided to start training him to run barrels. He was pretty good and he learns pretty quick.
When summmer rolled around, Troy started taking Joe to shows and showing him in barrel racing, pole bending, and some other events. After seeing what Joe could do, we decided to buy him. At this time, I was riding my Welsh/Arabian pony Lacy. At one show during the summer, Joe got hurt. Joe had chipped his right hock. After having it X-rayed, we had to give Joe about 6 months off. That stunk. Joe finally got better and I started riding him again. Someone once told me that if a horse is off for 3 weeks, it will take 3 weeks to get the horse back to where it was before it got hurt. Since Joe was off for 6 months, I thought it would take around 6 months to get him back to where he was before he got hurt. Well I was wrong! Since Joe was a quick learner, in about 3 months he was back to where he was before he got hurt!
Now Joe is doing great! We are working with him on poles and barrels again and he is learning! I can't wait till show season starts so I can start showing him again!
*Shows*
Well, show season has started again! It was all going great until yesterday (May 18, 2000).
I was exhibiting Joe at the All American Youth Horse Show at the Expo Center in Columbus, OH.
Everything was going great until my last class (Poles). I was warming Joe up out in the warm up
arena when my trainer (Troy Lusk) noticed something was wrong with Joe's right back leg (the
same leg that had had the chipped hock). I got off Joe and we checked it out. We discovered
that his stifle muscles were not tight like they're supposed to be. I couldn't do anything about it
right then because I was up to run Poles. I went into the arena and ran Poles. I definetly noticed
that the way he turned on the end poles wasn't as swift and smooth as it is supposed to be.
But Joe and I ended up placing 3rd out of about 20 horses. By this time, it was about 11:00 pm
and I was dead tired. But, I still had to cool Joe out, unsaddle him, take him back to his stall, and then load up the trailer.
While I was cooling Joe out, I could hear his stifle's cracking a little bit. The next day (May 19, 2000)
my dad took Joe to our vet and asked him if we should get Joe's stifle's injected or if there
was an alternative. Our vet told us that Joe would have to have his stifle's rubbed down with
Absorbine linetment every day for 2 weeks and during that 2 weeks I couldn't ride him at all. All
I could do was take him out everyday and walk him and let him eat grass. Well, there's good
news and bad news to this. The good news is that Joe's stifle muscles will tighten up again and
he won't need them injected. But the bad news is that I'll have to miss a total of 5-8 shows, 4 of
which count for points. On the bright side, I did great considering it was only me and Joe's third
show together this season! Joe did really good in Barrels. because of his stifle's his turns weren't
as smooth as they usually are but even though he was hurting, he still ran. That shows that Joe has
the biggest heart. He doesn't care is he's hurt or not, he'll run! I didn't place in Barrels, but I placed in Flags
and in Poles! I was really excited because Youth is a pretty big show! I placed 8th in Flags
and 3rd in Poles! That made my day! So, instead of me showing Joe this coming Thursday at
the Richland County Fairgrounds, I'll be walking him around and hoping that he heals up fast!
