Here is my family zoo

[Zorak]

Now that you have all seen my tarantulas and Cyclura Cornuta here are the other animals that are part of our family zoo hehe. First we have Winston. Winston is a 4 year old Thoroughbred horse that stands 16.2 hands. He used to be a race horse and we adopted him. He's a loverboy. He likes to lay down and put his head in your lap. That's kind of strange for a horse hehe.



Next we have Dozer the English Bulldog and Rygel the Pug. Dozer was abandoned in an apartment building by his owners. The people that moved in 2 weeks later found him in a crate filled with his own urine and feces. When we rescued him he was complete bald and had major infections in his eyes and ears. He had entropia in one eye and cherry eye in the other. After surgeries and lots of antibiotics and love he's the dog you see now. We call him our living piece of furniture because all he does is eat and sleep.

Rygel we bought as a puppy. He's now 5 months old and quite a handful. Him and Dozer are best buddies. And no we didn't set them up for this picture. They actually hang out together like this all the time lol.



Next we have BJ. Stands for Blue jeans you perverts. We found him as a kitten wandering around a Walmart parking lot. There is an interesting story about him also. I don't like having cats. My wife wanted one very badly. So I told her that if she ever found a certain type of cat then she could have it. I made up in my mind what I thought would be an impossible cat to find. I said it had to be a manx cat that was all grey and looked just like the one on a commercial I saw. The very next day we see this manx kitten running around the parking lot all skinny and looking like he's going to starve to death. So my wife grabs him and says look just like you said. So I had to give in and let her get him. Go figure

[prismwolf]

OH GAWD!!! Those dogs are freakin' hilarious!! For some reason I expected them to be a little closer in size...not like George and Lenny from the Grapes of Wrath...lol!

You've got a great crew there! And great stories. I love rescue stories the very best. ;D

[Zorak]

Ok two new additions to our family last night. We adopted two more horses.

Here is Journey. She is an 8 year old Tennessee Walking horse. As you can see by her picture she wasn't fed properly. She needs a couple hundred pounds put on her. She is a wonderful friendly horse.




Next we have Bert. An 8 year old Halflinger gelding. He's quite the handful. We will be working with him to teach him some manners. He is very affectionate though. He just needs some bad habits unlearned. When we tried walking him out of his pen at the rescue he went jogging off to see the mares nearby. All the while my wife dragging behind on the lead rope lol.

[ChamZilla]

hey there those are some great animals you have there. We also used to have an x race horse as a companion pet to my mom's barrel horse. We also had a pony that my brother was suppsoed to ride when he was a kid, but the pony couldn't be broken from biting, laying down or running you into the fence or the barn. My brother out grew him in no time, then when it was time for me to ride horses I got to ride the big one instead. So he was just a companion horse as well.

Your walker should turn out to be a beautiful girl. And hopefully she hasn't substained any injury to any of her legs and you should be able to get her up and moving when she is in better health. They are very beautiful horses. Most are well behaved when trained properly. Has she been trained for anything before?

As for the little boy you have there.... He definatly looks like a handful!! Is he around 13.5 or 14 hands high? Or feet if you don't know hands. He is the same color as my sister in laws dad's draft horses. They are BIG handfuls. I hope he comes around and is broken from his bad habits. I'm sure you know horses with bad habits can become dangerous to be around for sure!

Good luck with them and let us know about there recovery progress

[Zorak]

Actually we found out the Halflinger is half Percheron and half Halflinger. He's 15 hands tall. Kind of big for a halflinger. You can see he is a bit more stout than a regular Halflinger also. He rides great though. We found out last night while riding him that he's neck reigned which makes it even easier to ride him. His only bad habits are that he doesn't want to be ridden. So when we walk up to his pen to saddle him he runs away from us. Once we get a hold of him he will stand there and let you saddle him up and mount. Nothing spooks him either which is great. Once we can break him of running around the stable when he sees a saddle coming his way things will be much better.

You wouldn't believe how well he rides based on his behavior before you put a saddle on him. But once you do he turns in to a different horse. Even my 10 year old can ride him with ease.

[ChamZilla]

Yes he is a pretty big boy. But Percheron's are a very large breed to begin with. And you never know what you will come out with mixing two different breeds together. Just like other animals, its a suprise. Maybe he has been abused at one point with someone bringing a saddle to him. Obviously he has some fear of it. If its just when he see's the saddle then its a mental thing. He is scared of it or he has associated it with a negative experience. I hope you can break him of that habit soon. Maybe try offering him a treat when he is good. Leaving the saddle on the fence around the pen also helps, not all the time, just to get him used to it that it won't hurt him and nothing bad will happen to him by it being there. Thats the big thing of getting an animal from someone else. You never know what has happened in that animals life or what caused there fears. Which is really sad but it happens a lot.

Wishing you luck with him and let me know how he is progressing. He does sound like a wonderful boy and hope he comes out of his funk with the saddle.