Ambassador Award

Native, adopted by Amy

Proudest Native landed at Midatlantic Horse Rescue in 2010. One night, while hanging out with my husband, I was playing on Facebook and saw a picture of a horse that looked just like our OTTB Gretzky. I looked up his lineage from his name, and sure enough, they were cousins. I looked at my husband, and reading my mind as usual, he said "just send them an email and find out about him." So, I did. And that's where the story of how Native changed my life begins.

After several phone calls and a loan from my employer, we made the trip from Georgia to Maryland, hoping to purchase a horse we only knew about through email, a YouTube video and photos. And we're talking about someone who couldn't be LESS spontaneous! I just had a feeling - I cannot explain it, but he was meant to be ours.

Bev very sweetly offered for us to come and meet him that Saturday even though she already had plans for the day, and as soon as I saw him, I knew. The fact that he was GORGEOUS didn't hurt, either! I fell in love immediately - as did my husband.

After a 16 hour truck ride, (where I feel it's important to know that at every stop, I had to wake Native up for his snack and water!) we got our boy home. When we first got him home, he hung out at my friend Debbie's farm for a couple of months to get used to his new state. At that time, I decided to semi-retire my other TB for the winter to give him a much needed break. So, we swapped horses out - Native came to our training farm and Gretzky went to go live in Debbie's pasture.

After a couple of months, Native was flourishing (even thought he WAS driving everyone crazy with his "playing in the water trough" antics!) and after all of our ground work and the time he and i had spent together, it was time to ride! He was so different from Gretzky - Gretzky is such a power house that you feel every single movement he does. Native is more quiet and such a floaty mover. He was easy to work with from day 1. My favorite day was when we were done working on the flat, I hopped off of him an we both jumped jumps together on foot. He was such a ham during it - playing and enjoying himself. He really was starting to show his puppy dog side.

A trainer was coming to our farm to give a clinic. After about 15 minutes in the ring, she decided he wasn't paying enough attention and it was "time" to bring out the whip. That was when I yanked him out of her hands and walked away. This is a horse who had NEVER had a whip in his presence for as long as I had had him. As far as I am concerned, there is a time and a place and that time and place is not 15 minutes after you meet my baby.

Two weeks after that, Native got kicked - badly. I knew he was being bullied, but to that extent? Not to my baby. I had found a farm a little farther from home (but closer to work) that I could board both of the boys together - which was a blessing since running to two farm was exhausting and Getzky's semi-retirement was almost over. We moved in the first of December. Native's hock still hadn't healed after 2 weeks of working with the wound and trying to get the swelling down. At that time, I called our vet out to do some x-rays. Something had to be bad wrong.

Vet took the x-rays and found a hairline fracture. Poor baby - he was up and comfortable, but I wish I had known. The vet explained that the way it was and the way it appeared, without x-rays you never would have know that it wasn't just a bad kick wound. So, she gave me his regime (up for 2 weeks in stall, 4 weeks in paddock with Gretzky, wrapping 3x per day on/off with poultice). Being the OCD mom I am, I did it religously, and he was better so much quicker than I assumed he would be. We started slow after 6 weeks with training on the ground and then in the round pen.

The vet came out a couple of weeks after his "off" time was up to pull their coggins and she said she had "never seen a horse recover that quickly, or that well." It was hard, but together, we did it. He was a wonderful patient, and I couldn't have asked for a better horse.

On May 14th, Native went to his first horse show. At 5:30 that morning I fed the boys and wrapped Native for his trip. When I got the trailer ready, I grabbed Native for a car ride - and he was having NONE of it. That's when I realized that since I had put the boys together, they had never been seperated (duh!). So after a serious fit was thrown by him, and some calm words from me, he loaded. Danced the whole way down the driveway, but was ok by the time we hit the big road. When we got there, he looked at everything, but in all honesty, was most fascinated by the goats in the nearby pen.....couldn't care less about the other horses or the announcer! He went into the Baby Greens (walk/trot) and was a complete and total super star. He acted like an old pro - he even fell sleep before we went into the ring! After our classes, I tied him to the trailer with hay and my friend and I went to go watch a couple of friends do their classes. When we came back, he had his head resting on his hay passed out! We had to wake him up to load up to go home :)

He is my puppy dog, my love, and he is one of those beautiful horses that has no clue how awesome he is. We are taking his training slowly and not rushing him, which seems to be working as he takes every new challenge in stride and without much thought. I always explain our two boys as: "Gretzky is a jerk, but I love his vain self, and Native - Native is so sweet and will let me love on him all day if I want. He is my Teddy Bear."

PO Box 407
Chesapeake City, MD 21915

For information call: 302-376-7297
or Email: Bev@MidAtlanticHorseRescue.org
MidAtlantic Horse Rescue is
a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
©2002-2012 MidAtlantic Horse Rescue

MidAtlantic Horse Rescue is a Federal 501(c)3 organization, that buys slaughter
bound ex-racehorses and adopts them into good homes as pleasure and sport horses.