Penny calmly tolerated her bath. Afterward, she immediately rolled on the ground.
This story begins with a bit of romance.
My hubby surprised me with a 30-year-old horse trailer.
He bought it on a rainy night at a ranch east of Dallas, known for offering massive, gorgeous Friesian horses as photography props for quinceaneras, which are Latin American celebrations of a girl’s 15th birthday, marking the transition to adulthood. Picture a girl in an elaborate ball gown posing with a majestic, fairytale-esque horse.
Shawn drove hours in snarled traffic, towing the trailer for the return trip. Before he purchased it, he crawled under the trailer in the rain and mud, using his phone’s flashlight to inspect the undercarriage. What an act of love.
He gave me vague reasons for why he would miss dinner, then called me out to the driveway to show off his find.
While it had plenty of rust to give it character, the structure and tires were in decent shape. Bonus: we could use it to move our belongings to Kansas, one load at a time.
Penny following her first ride in her trailer
A few days later, the first load for the trailer was Penny on Halloween, so Shawn and I met her owner around 4 p.m. at her property south of Fort Worth.
Who is Penny, you ask? Penny is my first-ever horse, a gorgeous 15-year-old Palomino and ex-Texas prison horse. In case you missed my earlier posts, here’s more on my long quest to find a good adult beginner’s horse in Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
Penny loaded up just fine, and we headed north.
Driving 40 miles in rush hour traffic towing a horse trailer is a little stressful. I drove behind Shawn who drove the pickup towing the trailer and Penny.
Because of all the traffic and the soaring interchanges, we opted to go on surface routes once we hit the heart of Fort Worth.
When we stopped at traffic lights, I could see the trailer rock back and forth as Penny nervously adjusted her position. I say nervously because the rocking was pretty frequent.
The trip to the boarding/lesson barn took well over an hour.
A rough welcome to her new home
Because it was Halloween, no one from the barn was available to meet us, but I had instructions to put Penny in a paddock with a paint mare. The boarding/lesson barn divided their herd into several paddocks, or pens, each with plenty of room for horses to move around.
At first, the horses circled the pen, keeping a wary eye on each other. When Penny approached the just-filled feeding trough, things got serious real quick.
Horses are herd animals and need to establish or find their place in the herd. Feeding time is when the worst altercations can occur.
Penny after her first night in the barn. I’ll spare you the pics of her bloody scrape.
The pair began squealing, and the paint mare kicked out at Penny. I saw Penny stumble back, then she turned around and threw a few kicks in the paint’s direction.
Thankfully, I was on the other side of the fence when this happened, but I started yelling. I grabbed Penny’s rope halter and swung it around to clear the paint mare out so I could get Penny out of there.
Fortunately, there were two women at the barn who had just finished riding their horses.
I took Penny into an empty stall, and they helped check her over for wounds.
They found a bleeding scrape on her upper right leg. Then they raided the barn’s first aid box for pain medication and antibiotic ointment. I’m forever thankful that they were there to help me because, as a first-time horse owner, I was woefully unprepared for the situation.
That’s how the first pictures I took of Penny in her new home were of a bloody wound.
The ladies who helped me told me reassuring/concerning stories of how horses find all sorts of ways to get hurt, and you just have to learn to take it in stride and treat it or call the vet for more serious situations.
Now I know a new horse might need a space of her own while getting used to a new location. Penny spent a few days in a barn stall while I doctored her leg. Then she had her own pen outside and met a few members of the herd over the fence before interacting with them more.
The barn owner gave me a comprehensive list of items to carry in my horse first aid kit, so I was prepared to treat another scrape (probably a bite mark) near her eye a few weeks later.
You can see 3 of 4 of Penny’s “prison tats” in this shot.
Penny and the penitentiary
Fortunately for this horse newbie, Penny is an exceptionally patient patient. As part of her training as a Texas prison horse, she waits calmly for all manner of treatment.
What’s a Texas prison horse, you ask?
Texas prison horses are bred and trained to work in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). They tend to have great temperaments to work in challenging and changing environments. Some guard prisoners, some work the large TDCJ cattle herd, others work with dogs to track escaped prisoners, and a handful are used for breeding.
Each Texas prison horse is marked with four brands: a star for Texas and a number on the left shoulder for the birth year, a number designating the horse’s dam (mom) on the left hip, and a letter just left of the tail for the sire (dad). Many of them are ¾ quarter horse with ¼ draft horse because they want prison horses to have good size for their jobs. And to carry the heavier prison guards.
Penny is getting her first set of shoes from the farrier. You can see the 32 on her hip and the N on her backside.
Penny had an 8 for 2008 (just one number, as they figure vets and experienced horse people can tell the difference between a 4-, 14- and 24-year-old horse. The teeth make it pretty obvious in those ranges), a 32 for the dam and an “N” for the sire.
I’m part of a Facebook group for owners of former Texas prison horses, and the resident expert, who raises the horses from foals, said the 32 mares are known for being smart, steady, and “cowy,” which means they like to work cattle.
The “N” stands for the stallion, who was Nu-Bar and the son of a famous stud (breeding stallion) Doc Bar.
All that’s to say that these are very well-bred animals that receive great training that makes them wonderful partners.
Several times a year, the TDCJ auctions off some of its horses. They have a production sale in September, when they offer some of their best mounts. This last year, horses sold for between $2,250 and $28,500.
A few other times each year, they auction batches of horses who are too old for the job, who may have minor to serious lameness or health issues (always disclosed), or don’t have the temperament to work in corrections.
I bought Penny from a woman who likes Texas prison horses and buys them when she finds them for a good price at auctions or from individuals. She works with them and resells them.
Penny was largely a pasture ornament for a few years for a couple who bought her at auction. The woman bought Penny from the couple and worked with her to make sure she was a good, safe mount.
I have been unable to trace Penny back to a specific auction, but I suspect some minor lameness was the reason she was sold.
I paid for a vet to check her out before buying her, a common practice in the horse world called a pre-purchase exam. He said she had some stiffness in her back legs but would be fine for anything except high-level sports performance activities.
He said she would be great for lessons and trails.
Penny was a great surrogate mom for the little filly Peach.
Penny and Peach
I paid extra for the first few months I had Penny for training, but I saved some money by allowing her to be used in a few lessons each week. The lesson barn owner said that Penny needed shoes because she acted like gravel was hot lava. That meant I went from paying $50 every 8 weeks to paying $100 every 6 weeks for the farrier. Except for the first few months when she needed $20 pads inside the shoes while her hooves became stronger.
I’m guessing that being a pasture pet for so long impacted her hooves. Also, we had a very wet fall and she was standing in mud a lot, which can weaken hooves.
I stayed awake nights thinking about her health, worrying about the latest scrape or hoof crack or trip. Penny seemed especially prone to tripping at first, probably a lack of conditioning. Neither the vet nor the farrier saw any physical problems. She still trips more than most of the other lesson horses, but it’s just once or twice a ride.
I opted to start her on a supplement for her joints and hooves, which she loves because I mix it with a little of her favorite grain. The girl likes to eat!
In her first few months at her new home, Penny got a paddock pal, a just-weaned sorrel (reddish brown) filly named Peach. Penny took her surrogate mom role quite seriously, chasing other horses away if they dared to get too close.
Peach needed a protector because other horses would chase her around the pen, given the chance. Not Penny. This was her baby. Except it wasn’t.
Peach loved to traipse after Penny and get in my way when I tacked up Penny for rides. When we had lessons, Peach had to be penned up.
Penny injured her nostril on her first day in her new home by running into a wire fence.
In early January, the owner of the lesson/boarding property sold it, but the man who owned the lesson/training/boarding business found another place nearby to keep the horses and have lessons.
The new property was much better for the horses than the old property because instead of 5 acres, the horses had more than 20 acres. There was a nice pond and plenty of trees and open pasture, but no barn, just a lean-to shed with space for feed, saddles, and a stall for a sick or injured horse.
On the day they transported the herd to the new property, Penny got into trouble. They took multiple trailer loads, and Penny was briefly separated from Peach.
I wasn’t there, but the trainers told me she got upset and ran right into a wire fence in the pen where they placed her.
She sliced a notch about ¼ inch long in a nostril. The trainers called me and sent pictures, and they did a great job of doctoring her wound. We’re two for two on getting a wound in her first hours in a new home.
Because of Penny’s extreme reaction, the owner of the lesson/boarding operation decided to move Peach to his other property where he runs lessons. We needed to nip this behavior in the bud.
Penny soon healed and adjusted to life without Peach and to her new home.
Riding bareback is a lot harder than riding with a saddle.
Overcoming fear, learning new skills and building confidence
A few months ago, I rode Penny bareback for the first time. For you non-horse people out there, bareback riding is a lot harder than sitting in the saddle. You have to use your core and legs to keep your balance. Holding tight to a hunk of mane and avoiding sharp turns and quick pace changes all help keep you from making an unscheduled dismount. And you can bet that you’ll be more sore than usual the next day.
Not long after that, a trainer took Penny and me, along with the horse she was training, and an experienced trail horse and rider to the equestrian trails at Lake Grapevine. Penny was a little nervous, but soon settled in behind old trail hand Goose, a handsome speckled white horse with an unfairly gross official color name of flea-bitten gray.
Penny’s first big trail ride at Lake Grapevine
That trail ride was a significant milestone for the two of us because that’s what I want to do on a frequent basis once we move to Plum Prairie Ranch.
We take a lesson together once a week, and we enjoy trail riding around the property a few times each week, just the two of us.
There’s always something new to learn and a lot of room for both of us to improve. Case in point, we’re not very good at loping, or cantering in the English riding world, which is the fastest gait Penny and I will attempt.
Penny’s been loping all her life, but I’m dealing with a lack of experience and a sizable dose of the fear of falling off. When we lope, I’m bouncing around in the saddle and if Penny makes an unexpected turn or sudden stop, I could make an unscheduled dismount. The closest I’ve come to falling off was when she stopped suddenly at the end of loping, rather than slowing to a walk. I started to go over her head and grabbed her neck, jamming my thumb. My fear is not unwarranted. A woman who rode Penny in a lesson fell off while loping when Penny suddenly veered off track.
If I ride horses often, I WILL at some point fall off. I’m not going to let fear keep me from becoming a good rider. I’m not going to let fear keep me from enjoying Penny in all her sweet, silly, strong, scared moments. Overcoming challenges builds confidence.
Penny and I will continue to work together and learn new things because that’s one of the keys to a vibrant life.
What new skills do you want to learn?