The story:
I had been looking at Standardbred Retirement Foundation for several years. Their ads for horses sounded really great and I was just drawn to the Standardbred breed for no reason that I could explain. Some of it may have been because I simply liked the idea of helping out a rescue to get what I needed in a horse--a win-win situation for both. Since I kept coming back to it again and again, I thought I'd investigate further.
I phoned the rescue to get some general information, explained what kind of horse I was looking for--rock solid, gentle, relatively bombproof, etc. Could have some age on it, but it had to be sound enough for (mostly) walk trail rides in hilly terrain for up to 2 or so hours at a time, with proper conditioning of course. They had almost 400 horses in their care, about 120 riding-ready, and they thought of several that matched that description while I was on the phone. The representative said most of their horses were ex-Amish road horses, so they had been there, done that and had seen it all. They had them vetted and worked with them until they were sure they were appropriate to adopt out as riding horses. Adoption fees were low because
they were mostly late teens-early 20's. But these horses were tough and they often finished with the Amish still sound for general trail riding.
It all sounded pretty good to me! I completed an adoption application, sent them the requested pictures of all my animals and property. They checked all of my references--farrier, horse vet, small animal vet, neighbor, and friend. They interviewed me by phone for over 1 1/2 hours, asking me a lot of questions about general horse care, diseases, injuries, cost of horse keeping, etc, etc. I've had easier job interviews. But I thought this was a sign that they really cared to match the right horse to the right person.
My trip to New Jersey to see the horses was delayed for a couple of months due to COVID-19. They finally gave the all clear mid June. So down I drove with high hopes that I would find a great horse.
The horse I had been discussing with their trainer, Jenna, had acted up on a ride a couple of days before my visit, so I was greeted by Jenna with Giorgi, a 20 year-old chestnut mare, on the end of the lead walking in from the pasture. Their facility is nice--many board fenced pastures with run-ins or groves of shade trees, a tidy barn with perhaps eight box stalls, tack room, and a large run-in on the other side of the aisle that led to a small paddock where I'm guessing horses needing daily vet care or special feeding were kept due to a couple of them having bandaged legs.
I groomed Giorgi. She seemed patient but not very expressive--very stoic. Jenna tacked her up with my saddle and led her out to their nice sand riding arena. Jenna rode her first. Giorgi was SLOW. She needed prodding to keep a regular walk, and a lot of prodding to trot and maintain the trot for even part of the arena. Jenna told me she was just a slow and lazy horse. I had experience with lazy horses and that is actually what I was looking for--patient, not in a hurry to get anywhere.
I rode next. I hadn't ridden since I had fallen off Rex and landed in the ER. I was nervous. I fumbled my way into the saddle and then we walked off. Giorgi was very well behaved. She was indeed SLOW. I only got a few trotting strides out of her, but I wasn't concerned because Babe was like that when I bought her green broke and even though Babe was lazy she became much more responsive to my aids with time and consistency. Since Giorgi had been primarily a driving horse, I thought she was also simply green to riding and would improve with time much like Babe had. In fact, she reminded me so much of Babe in general. She was even chestnut, which is rare with Standardbreds.
I returned home, thought more about Giorgi, and decided I would adopt her. At 20 years old, I knew my riding time with her would be limited, but my plan was to ride her for a couple of years, regain my confidence and improve my strength and agility, and then semi-retire her to guest horse status, and then eventually retire her fully as she aged. But I never wanted to adopt a horse that was a retiree from the start. I am planning to retire from my job in two years. After that, I will have more time to care for multiple horses, including a retiree if necessary. I am not in a position where I can do that now. Little did I know, I would have some tough decisions ahead.
Giorgi was not current on her 2020 vaccinations or her teeth. I had a local vet do these things before bringing her home. I needed a health certificate for trailering across state lines as well. Her feet were also in bad need of a trim. I had noticed was ouchy on gravel at the rescue, so I asked if their farrier was due any time soon so I could get front shoes and a rear trim as well. That all worked out rather quickly. All at my expense.
My friend Mike and I drove the truck and trailer to New Jersey to pick up Giorgi a week and a half later. The trip went well except for horrendous traffic for last couple of hours, as we neared Philadelphia and into New Jersey. I had never trailered in heavy traffic. I did a lot of white knuckle driving, but I did it! I really was quite proud of myself for getting through it. It wasn't easy. Whew!
The first thing I noticed when I arrived to pick her up was that her feet still looked awful. The hooves were out of whack (still)--left front 1/2" longer than the right (I measured them after I got home), the longer front hoof had a big medial flare and was longer on the inside compared to the outside of the hoof. Her back hooves hadn't been trimmed AT ALL. What?! I paid for this, but I just figured I would deal with it once she was home. Nothing to be gained by making waves about hooves already done and paid for. I put in an SOS call to my farrier, who was kind enough to squeeze her in several days later. He agreed that the shoeing and trimming job left much to be desired, but we would get her fixed up. He did a great trim and reshaped the shoes, trimmed her back hooves. They looked 500% better.
I spent a lot of time the first week just being with Giorgi while she grazed or stood in front of her stall fans escaping from the flies. She absolutely hated flies! She would leave her stall to graze, spend about 15 minutes out, and then literally RUN back to the barn to hide out again. At first she even stayed in a lot at night. One day early on, I stood next to her petting her as she grazed on a relatively fly-free morning. She was behaving as if her butt itched, so I gently lifted her tail to make sure she didn't have ticks or irritation there, only to be met by a swift kick and her head snaking around at me with mouth open. Holy Crap!!! I tried to make sense of the situation and thought perhaps her tail had been handled roughly when the Amish put the harness crupper around her tail head. I made a mental note of it as something we would work on in the future--I need to be able to lift a horse's tail for temperature taking and checking to be sure everything is OK under there.
Things went fairly well over the next few days, but Giorgi was still tense around me. It was like she was expecting things to go bad. But within a week, she had softened her demeanor and I had gained her trust. I rode her only one time she was here--about 15 minutes at a walk in the pasture. Her back seemed tense under the saddle. I re-evaluated my saddle fit and it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't as good as I like it to be, so I did research and ordered a new saddle online. Further riding would be delayed until the saddle arrived.
As the days went by, I fell in love with her. She did have a few odd quirks with her behavior, but in general, she was very sweet and kind. Then, one day a couple of friends visited to meet my new horse, we had been hanging out with Giorgi in the stall for a while. Everything seemed fine. But, then I ran my hand across the top of her ribs, while telling them that I thought she had already put on some needed weight. She snaked her head around with her mouth wide open and bit me in the back--HARD! I have never been bit that hard. It shook me up. Why on earth did she do that?
I began to add up the odd things she had done: The way she always stood with her back legs tucked up under her, how she was so slow and reluctant to move out when I rode her at the rescue, the way she didn't like to be groomed any further back than her withers, her tight back when I rode her, the kick, a couple of other half-hearted "warning" bite attempts, and, of course, the "big bite." Gentle, sweet horses do not do these things if they feel well. I palpated her body and got a lot of ugly looks and flinching on her back and her butt. My sweet Giorgi was in pain.
I had the vet out two days after the big bite. She found Giorgi was sore across most of her spine extending to her croup. She gave her vitamin B12 trigger point injections, prescribed a few days of bute, and asked me to do gentle carrot stretches. Re-evaluate and decide what to do next after two weeks. I tried to do carrot stretches with her but she bit my arm when her neck "snapped" and she took it out on me. That was the end of carrot stretches.
I had some tough decisions to make. Do I keep her knowing that a 20 year old former hard working Amish buggie horse may have something chronic and unfixable? Should I go through all the diagnostic testing and specialist exams it might take to find out what was wrong with her and if it could be rehabbed? None of this was looking good. I made the difficult decision to return her 3 weeks after I had brought her home.
During my decision making time, I was in contact with the rescue and explained everything that was going on and what my vet found. They said I could bring her back and her adoption fee could be applied to another horse at the rescue. The problem was that most of their horses were not suitable for a clumsy, partially disabled rider. Still, I decided the best thing to do was to return her.
The day I returned her I was met by a volunteer. I gave a quick summary of what had happened since bringing her home. When I explained how the "big bite" happened,the volunteer said something about Giorgi needing to learn better ground manners. I looked at her with this "Don't you understand anything I just told you?" look and said--"No, her ground manners are just fine when she isn't triggered by pain. She needs her pain figured out and resolved." I left her there reluctantly, but I trusted that those in charge would have her checked out by their vet and other professionals and give her the treatment she needed--we had discussed on the phone and by email. I didn't give the volunteer much thought because she didn't know the whole story.
Three days after I returned Giorgi, I saw an ad for her on the rescue's facebook page. She had a rider on her and they were advertising her for adoption as a riding horse. What!!!???!! I was so upset. Why on earth were they riding her so soon? There was no way she had healed by then. I immediately composed an email to the rescue pleading with them to stop riding her and to not adopt her until she was truly better. Not only was it unfair to Giorgi to ride her, but it was only a matter of time until she acted out again. Giorgi was the type that would put up with her pain until she "blew." She didn't give much warning. I was worried she might be adopted as a child's or beginner's horse and then that adopter would get bit or kicked the way I did--my "big bite" was severe enough to take off a child's ear or nose. This was nothing to be taken lightly!
I never received a response. As upsetting as it was, I had to let go of the Giorgi situation. But, I will never have any further dealings with this rescue. I believe they have so many horses that they are unable to screen them properly. A horse that can't be ridden is hard to adopt out--they have many companion-only horses already. I believe they overlook a lot of problems--both behavioral and soundness. Maybe inexperienced people don't notice? Maybe a pain issue like Giorgi's gets written off as a behavioral problem and the horse is punisheded so they just suck it up and keep going despite pain. This is not good. I like to hope they aren't doing this on purpose to get double adoption fees--once from the first adopter (me) and then another by the second adopter who comes along a little later. Adoption fees are non-refundable. I lost her fee in less than a month. I told my vet about this fiasco. Her response was: "Having too many animals in their care leads to making inappropriate decisions." So true.
**Update: After an acquaintance contacted someone she knows at the rescue about my situation, I received an email from the rescue stating that the picture and facebook write up was only a photo for general publicity. They will be getting a vet check done on Giorgi and aren't riding her. I have to say ... I don't believe they weren't riding her at the time the FB post was put up. They have MANY other horses to saddle up for a photo shoot. Why saddle up the one that was returned for a back problem?? I don't think they believed me and were just forging ahead. The facts are: I never heard a thing from them until a week and a half after I expressed by "unhappiness" with the FB post and saw a rider on her with her description, which related to her adoptable traits. They contacted me only after my acquaintance contacted the rescue with her concerns. Too much of a coincidence. But, regardless, the bottom line is that more attention has been placed on Giorgi's situation and she will be helped by it. And that's a good thing.**
Lessons learned from this:
Don't believe everything they tell you, even when working with an established rescue--just because they've been in business a long time, doesn't mean they do everything right. Sometimes they miss things or just don't get caught. Look for a reasonable number of horses for the staff and size of the farm. Ask about how they cycle through the horses--they should only have a small pool of adoptable horses. Although it's noble to want to be able to save every horse, look for a rescue that is realistic about what they can handle. Be suspicious of rescues where the horses don't have the basics up to date--hooves trimmed, teeth floated, vaccinations current. I ignored this because Giorgi's adoption fee was so low, but this should have been a red flag. Get a basic vet check--even on a rescue horse. I'm so sure a vet would have discovered her spine problems quickly and easily, saving me a lot of heart ache and damage to my bank account. I didn't get a vet check because this rescue founder's husband is a track vet and they talked about having horses vetted all the time, so I assumed they were correct when they deemed her sound enough for my purposes. Don't get me wrong--I knew a 20 year old was going to have some nicks and dings; she would need some extra TLC, which I was very willing to do. But maintenance care like joint supplements, routine chiropractic adjustments, etc. is a whole lot different than a horse that is just plain unsound.
Between Rex and Giorgi, I am worn out. I'm taking a break from looking for a riding horse. I lost most of my horse shopping budget between those two ordeals anyway. Not the smartest moves I've made, but I'm being honest about them hoping I can keep someone else from making my mistakes.
Sweet, beautiful Giorgi
My future plans: I have the perfect horse in a pint-sized package already--Rosie! I have put her driving training on the back burner. No more of that! Rosie is going to get back to work. She is already loving that there are fewers horses to take up my time and attention. She walks around with an extra spring in her step. I can tell she is dancing the jig because she knows she is number one again. She forgets that Jerry needs love too. But I do visit with her first because I know it's so important to Rosie to be my main sqeeze. Jerry is more mature and patient. He knows his turn will come next and seems fine with that. So onward Rosie!
Her recent birthday photo!
She looks so thrilled! lol
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