Filthy terrified ragamuffin to show ring Angel in 3months.So proud of my Scruffy Baby

[FinkleyAlex]

Massive respect to you for tackling all those 'first times' with him! I'm terrified of the prospect of taking my 2yo to a show as it will be his first time too, you've given me some much needed confidence so thank you for your post! Hopefully mine will be as chilled as yours seems to be!

 

[bensababy]

I have a real soft spot for your boy, something about him and his face. Might have to steal him

 

[Kallibear]

Well done, I was there with my two year old too! Little chestnut who placed 2nd. He arrived with me ten weeks ago unhandled after running with a herd at his breeders. He's come on so much in the past ten weeks Im absolutely over the moon with him. Has his little quirks but they make him who he is

Your lad behaved very nicely, he's going to be a big boy!

I was please to see another scruff orange baby. Your boy is lovely: much less lanky and gangly, although def going to be smaller! Roo's prob going to be 17hh The tiny judge made him look especially huge!

Also can you tell me a bit about his white schlera as I havent heard of this before?! My foalie (ok technically a yearling! ) has an eye very similar although it seems to bother her a little looking quite bloodshot and watery at time. The vet is due out in a couple of weeks for my other horses vacinations and was going to get him to have a look then.

Roo's is just a lack of pigmetation round the 'whites' of his eyes. His left is almost competely white, his right has half and half. It's not uncommon in his colouration: he's chestnut sabino with quite a lot of roaning through his coat and a big white face, although no big white legs. His eyes don't bother him at all.

Stranglely enough he has the same colour and markings as my most favourite horse even as a child (I ADORED that horse), who was anglo arab and also has a partly white schlera.

Wow. What's the past story - how did you come to end up buying him unseen?

I am envious of people who can judge a horse in poor condition and knwo that once they put on condition they will be stunners (if you know what I am trying to say... I find conformation hard to judge when they are poor)

Have a stalk though my old posts and you'll see the 'opinions on a scruffy baby' thread. After humming and harring about my little cob Piper not really being enough horse for my tastes (also see a thread!) I decided I'd like something a bit bigger and a bit more athletic, BUT didn't want two ridden horses, so wanted a baby. I called the dealer Rebel came from (also bought unseem from Ireland) and said I had a limited budget and wanted something to make about 16.2hh ish, gelding, 2 or 3yrs old, not grey, and QUIET and SENSIBLE. ID or IDx. Talent would be nice but not interested if it's temperament isn't up to scratch. He sent me a couple of pics of horses and I chose Roo that way. He was shipped over 3 weeks later.

Not much skill involved in buy him: he was a good price, he was a sensible colour, good size, four legs and a head, he was breeding I liked (his dad is rebel's brother) and I liked his face marking!

This is the main photo I bought him off:

looks like he is going to be HUGE!! how old is he?

Yep, bigger than expected. He's about 15.3 at the moment and is only just turned 2yrs old Just as well I'm tall!

Thank you for your kind comments on his handling, but I can't take much credit: he's been so easy and eager to please! I've just spent a lot of time with him, making friends. Living on his own for the first 6weeks really helped (he had ringworm). He gets told he's a good boy a lot, told off occasionally and had a smack once or twice. And I'm confident handling him, which is the most important thing: any panicing or hissy fits are just ignored and I keep doing whatever he didn't like, calmly and quietly. He still prefers me to his horse friends: the only time he got briefly upset at the show was when I handed him to a friend whilst I nipped to the loo, and he called and called for me

Massive respect to you for tackling all those 'first times' with him! I'm terrified of the prospect of taking my 2yo to a show as it will be his first time too, you've given me some much needed confidence so thank you for your post! Hopefully mine will be as chilled as yours seems to be!

Go for it! Most important thing is you're calm and relaxed and EXPECT him to behave. Don't think ' I can't do that because he'll do this' or ' I need to be careful about this because he'll do that'. Just treat him like a sensible adult horse and he will behave like one!

 

[Kallibear]

I'm almost inclined to crow 'told you so'!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Huge congratulations on all your hard work but just remember Irish horses rock.

You're more than welcome to say 'told you so' as many times as you like, esp if it always works so well He's not perfect confo but he'll more than do the job I want and I really like his as a horse (he really is as cute and affectionate as he looks!)

Totally agree on Irish horses. Totally sold on ID and IDx: can't go far wrong!


P.s I didn't metion how much he stank when he arrived! I had to change and wash clothes the second I got home after handling him, the first couple of days. He was so caked in manure it was hard to tell what colour he was. It took weeks before I realised he had a blonde mane and tail! Now he smells of nice outdoor horse (mud, grass and faint horse)

 

[Kallibear]

P.S Saz5083: there's photo's here of your boy. And one of Roo eating his show cane