From Bones To Beauty: Heee's herrrrre!

Blue Spruce Rhian, that is! Rio's old owner hauled him to our barn on Friday. He handled the 1 hour 45 minute drive great- no sweating and not very worked up. He unloaded nicely, and settled in his stall quickly. I'm really happy with how fast he is settling in at the farm. Before I go on, I want to share Rio's story. I asked his previous owner to type it out for me, and this is what she said,

"In January 2010 he was a part of the seizure of 42 horses owned by Robin Vess in Toledo that had been being watched for several months by the Humane Society. They were starving and neglected and there were also some dead in the pastures. Before I go on I will say that even before this seizure, I was not and never have been a fan of the Humane Society, and this event made my feelings even worse about them.

In their infinite wisdom, the Humane Society raided the Vess farm at 3am with only a few trailers and jammed as many horses in the trailers as they could thinking that they were acting in the horses best interest. While they were doing this some of the weaker horses were injured badly and a couple even died as a result. They then transported the horses to the county fairground for shelter. They had 2 or more horses stalled per stall because there wasn't enough room for all of them. They had people caring for them that didn't know jack shit about caring for horses. The Arabian Rescue Mission got wind of it and got involved to try to help the horses out. The humane society didn't like their help and even went so far as to get a court injunction to keep the rescue mission away. Why, you ask? Because the humane society wanted the horses all to themselves because they knew they had excellent bloodlines and National Champions in this group of horses and their plan was to get the horses back into shape and auction them off to make money. But, they were not feeding them hardly anything because they wanted the court to see how bad of shape they were in. In the meantime the rescue mission was in court trying to get the injunction lifted and they did. Most of the horses actually lost weight while in the humane society's care. The rescue mission and the humane society also went to court fighting over ownership of the horses and the mission won that battle too. The judge ordered that the horses could go to foster homes within a 45 mile radius of the court during Vess's hearing so that they could start getting healthy and for the mission to determine where the horses would go after the trial if Robin Vess lost. But Vess signed ownership of all of the horses over to the mission. I got on the foster home list as soon as I heard about the whole mess, and after the court released the horses we went and got Rio that March.

Rio was one of several horses that Robin Vess acquired from Classicala Farms, the owner of Classicala was a business partner of Vess's. Rio and the other horses that Classicala formerly owned all had to go back to Classicala before anyone could go get their foster horses because they were still the registered owners and the mission wanted them to have first option of which if any they wanted to keep. Classicala ended up fostering them all out and we got Rio. She told me that she got him and a few other horses from a herd dispersal in Colorado a few years back, and that those horses had all been abused by their breeder. He was a nasty man that would beat them with his crutches and prod them with cattle prods to get them to do things because he was "handicapped". She got them all under saddle and back to living normal lives. She said that they were all great horses and were trusting again until this happened. She told me that Rio was one of her best sport horses and that she thought by letting him go to Robin's that he would get used to the best of his abilities. Obviously they are not partners anymore.

So the poor guy started life out in a living hell, went to a wonderful home and had a good life, then went through another living hell.

If you google Robin Vess arabian horse seizure you will get all kinds of newspaper articles and chat room stories. It's really sad and disturbing."

So, Rio truly has had a horrible past, so I'm not taking any accomplishment lightly.

We've worked on groundwork and a little bit of lunging. He has great manners, and responds to groundwork really well.

Today we worked more on groundwork, lunging, and long-lining. He hasn't been tacked up in nearly two years, but he stood like a champ. He (really) disliked the lunge lines on his hocks, but got used to them after a few minutes. I didn't work him very long, only 30 minutes or so. He was SUCH a good boy, he got extra treats! ;]

I already really like this guy. I think he was a really good choice.

Today, I also went to a Fun Show with a fellow boarder, Jen. She took her QH mare Bella. Bella is 20 years old, and has an extensive show record in Western Pleasure and Barrels.