2022 Riding Journey

#20 New Pony Nibbs

So, I showed up at my trainer's place, and started folding feed sacks, as per usual.  When I looked down the pens, I noted a white pony in the pen that Mistletoe and Riggs used to be in, before the fence got broken down and they merged with the rest of the horses. 

Well, the fence was back up, and there was a new horse in it. (Actually two new horses, but I didn't see the chestnut till later.) 

After I'd finished with feed sacks, and hauled some full feed sacks with the wheelbarrow to place them beside the lesson horse pen, plus shoving the flack of alfalfa that horse who was tied up and eating on it had pushed away, my trainer told me to go get that white pony.  She said his name was Nibbs, and that I was going to ride him today. 

She also said that Nibbs had a thyroid condition.  This condition makes it so that, if he ever stops working, his muscles just leave.  Like, not the regular, slow fading away that happens to all horses if they're not in work, but like, they're gone.  Like, it makes him look so skinny! 

Thus, this horse was sent to my trainer for the summer.  He's a pretty well trained horse, so I believe my trainer is going to use him in lessons for the summer.  He gets worked, so his muscles come back and don't go away, and my trainer gets an extra lesson horse.  

Trainer told me he might need one of the inflatable pads for his withers, like what we use on Cordell and Mariah, but that she'd let me make the judgement as to whether he did or not.

About as soon as I went in that pen and got a good look at his withers, I was like, "Yeah, we're sticking a pad on that."  It was, I think, worse than Mariah's shark fin withers, so if she needed one, I was pretty sure Nibbs would.

Nibbs might be the same height as Shorty, but it's honestly hard to tell because he looks so skinny right now.  I know his head's a lot smaller than Shorty's.  

He was easy to catch and tie.  He has to be above 6 years old, for his coat is all the way white, but I don't think he's very old.  Of course, he was a muddy mess, and I gave up on ever getting him completely white.  My main goal was just to clear all the clumps of mud off of him XD

He would pick his hooves up for me, but on his front hooves, he'd try to take them away from me.  I just stuck with him, until he let me set them down on my terms. 

My trainer saw me do this with one of the hooves, and she was like, "Thank you for doing that" XD  He needs some help with that. 

After that, she asked, "Isn't that chestnut in there with him the fattest horse you've ever seen?" 

Yeah, he was the fattest horse I'd ever seen.  Okay, like, obese fat.  Not just chubby, but fat.  Like, if we don't fix this soon he's going to have some major health problems, type of fat.  

She explained that at his home, he lived in a pasture with two other horses.  These horses got grain, and Romeo (the chestnut) didn't get all of it.  Because the pasture's grace is literally only two inches tall, or less, he shouldn't have ballooned to that big of a size.

For these reasons, my trainer thinks that he has Cushings.  But the owners don't want to get the bloodwork done to see if he actually has it.  They think he's so fat because their grass is so 'good'.

So, my trainer is going to treat him as if he has Cushings and see what happens.  That means absolutely no grain for him, just plain, dry hay.

Anyhow, onto the ride with Nibbs. 

As I led Nibbs up the mounting block, and stopped when I wanted him to stop, he literally just ran into me.  Not meanly, or even that intentionally.  But no respect for my personal space.  It's so weird because I'm used to my trainer's horses, who know that you don't do that.  So...  Guess we're going to work on that XD