I first saw Spirit February 9, 2000. I'd gone to Centennial Auctions just to see what they were running through the ring. Everything else was pretty standard...old ranch horses, young ranch horses, broken down horses. There were two mares, though, that caught my eye. One was a blue roan overo mare, ready to drop her foal. The other was a big, nice moving blue roan mare. They were both scared and not comfortable around humans. I didn't have the money to even think about another horse at the time, so I just watched them go through the ring.
I went back to Centennial the next week, and was shocked to see the big blue mare out back. I watched her in her pen before the sale, listened to people talk about her and discovered she was a bucking horse. She'd leave if anyone tried to approach her in the pen, but she didn't display any signs of aggression. I still didn't have any cash, so I watched her go through the ring again. She didn't sell.
After that, I began scraping up cash. When I had what I thought was enough (based on her sale price through the ring the first time). I left a note at Centennial, crossed my fingers and headed out to the barn to work my other horses. By the time I got home, Dan Kruse had already called to talk about selling the big blue roan he'd picked up a couple weeks ago. We quickly decided on a price and set a date a couple days out for the transfer. Dan called back once or twice, just to make sure that I knew the mare wasn't broke. He said his wife was worried about me.
On February 21, I gave Dan a check, got the brand inspection papers and brought the mare home. We unloaded her in the dark, into the round pen, using the round pen door as one side of a chute and my Explorer as the other. All I knew about her was her butt tag number was 1752, she was rumored to be a bucking horse, she had nice clean straight legs under a very well built body, and an awesome trot.
My plan with this big blue mare was to get her broke, show her in a couple horse trials and get her sold by the end of the summer. Ha. I was naive.
The next few days, I discovered just how much work it is to work with a horse that's afraid of humans. I realized that I really wasn't capable of taking this kind of rehab case on. Still, I wasn't going to give up. I called my friend who had rehabbed dozens of horses a couple times for advice. The mare displayed absolutely no signs of aggression in many hours of work--if she'd made one threatening move towards me, she would have been back at Centennial. I at least knew I wasn't experienced to handle *that*. By the second day I was able to at least touch her, and that helped me to believe I really might be able to get somewhere with this broken horse.
She progressed well after that first week or so. Sure, we had setbacks, and an experienced trainer would have gotten it all done much faster. She's been one hell of a learning experience. We gradually started trusting each other, and she got better as that grew.
Spirit got her name after a few weeks. I wanted something that fit her personality, and what she's been through. "Spirited Journey" seemed to work pretty well, although if I show her in a horse trial, I'll probably use the name "Blood, Sweat and Tears" cause that's sure what it's taken.
I learned more about Spirit in May. I'd been able to track the ranch where she'd been bred and born because of her brands. After sending a letter to Powder River Rodeo, I got an email back from Lori Franzen. She said that Spirit did indeed come from her ranch. She'd been bred to buck, but she wasn't very good at it. Instead of being used in rodeos, she'd been sold as a practice bucking horse, but didn't do that very well, either. Lori also told me that Spirit was born in 1993, and was out of a brown mare named "Wedding Bells" and by a brown roan overo paint stud named "Poison Ivy".
So, I still don't know all that much about Spirit. I only assume that she's suffered through some pretty bad abuse. I think she's been sold a few times...she was bred in Wyoming, initially sold to some people in Wyoming, but was brought into Centennial from New Mexico. I think she's also had a foal or two, based on the size of her udder. There was stud in Fort Collins for awhile that looked like her colt--and for all I know, it could have been. They certainly looked and moved the same.
My plan with Spirit is to breed her. Although I would love to get her going under saddle and event her a little bit, I think her mind may be too "broken" for the chaos of a show. I think she'll be able to handle being ridden--I just need to find the time to work on her under-saddle training. She's a very special, sweet, kind horse. She always tries to figure out what I want and I don't think she has a malicious bone in her body. I really don't think I'll ever sell her. I enjoy working with her too much, and, honestly, it would take a very special person to take her on with all of her issues. |
