Tuesday, November 13, 2012

CJ: most expensive plug horse in the world?

I'm sure there are folks out there that have spent even more money on horses with even less utility but I needed a quick title.

CJ is our pack horse.   He can be ridden as well but has never been ridden beyond basic levels.  He is an easy going "good old boy" type of horse and will carry a rider or an elk nicely enough going along with a buddy or two and that is all we use him for.   He isn't really conformed to be very athletic and seems to have some early onset hock arthritis and a couple/three years ago a hind fetlock was bothering him. 

 He IS quite good for the basic "packer horse" duty: last year I never tightened the saddle one morning when I  put my rifle in the hard sided scabbard on CJ (I was not even trying to carry it on my AYRAB greenie) after dad had done initial saddling for me because my shoulder was weak.     The saddle was going to the side with the rifle scabbard bumping CJ on a back leg and only the hiking hunters we passed saying something brought it to my attention --   CJ had just kept walking along, not fussing a bit about things.

But two years ago sis had to bring down an extra horse because CJ got sick with pigeon fever right before we going to go hunting.   This year he had a colic episode up at the hunting campgrounds after I had come home and it was just dad and sis up there so they had to run him to the vet in Meeker, then friday he was better but not right so they took him to Glenwood Springs to get put on IV fluids.  The GS vets think there was a liver problem that caused the colic.  Possibly CJ ate something toxic and his liver will regenerate, but we might have put several hundred dollars into saving  a horse that is going to advance with the liver issues and not even be around or be able to do the annual pack horse duties next year. 

Oh well, he is a sweet thing.  Not just tolerant with packing stuff, but just super easy for managing.  Easy to give shots to,  If we put him in with an "I'm the boss" horse he just goes to the other feed every time they push him out.   If he is with a horse that he is bigger than he doesn't push them around other than keeping them out of the first food he comes to (very rarely even bothers to check if their food might be better unless the hay happens to be less palatable that day, or he is in a rare mood.) 

 I hope it is either a temporary thing after eating some toxic plants or we can manage his condition and have him do packing duties for at least a couple more years.   Darned big lug is just one of the loveable lug types. 

1 comment:

Gerrick said...

Hoping it's just a temporary thing.