Updates since adopted:
He was adopted by a wonderful young lady near Baltimore in February
'07. By then he has filled out from the rail thin youngster to
the beefy, athletic quarterhorse adult horse. The new home reports
he is trusting and eager to please, as if he was never mishandled.
They're thrilled to have him, and he's thrilled to be there!
Chip's story:
Chip is an unregistered quarterhorse about 4-5 yrs
old when he arrived. . He was found November 2006 at a big "livestock"
horse sale along with 30+ others like him, all from the same place.
Some ranches in the midwest breed dozens to hundreds of horses
every year. What doesn't sell gets shipped off to a "livestock"
sale (a place where many buyers go looking for 'meat' horses to
fill their orders).
Chip was sold as broke, but once we handled him
we could see their idea of "broke" was to force him
into submission and strap a saddle to his back.
One of our fosters spent an amazing amount of time
with him on the ground. She regained his trust and she restarted
him as if he had never been broken before. She sacked him out
and got him ready for saddle. His stand-off attitude began to
change, and he started coming up to people. We knew it was time
to find him a home with someone he could bond with.
We had the usual work done to him: vaccinations,
vet exam, farrier. When it came time to do dental work, the vet
could see why we called him "Chip". He arrived with
a chip missing out of a top front incisor perhaps from a kick
or someone hitting him in the face.
