Mr. Sandman’s Dream
“Sandy”
Sandy is a palomino Shetland pony. He joined our family on August 22, 2020. His nicknames are Sandy, Sanders, Sandman, Sand the Man, Ponyboy, and Colonel. Although Save a Soul has rescued horses in the past, Sandy is our first pet horse.
Shetland Ponies
The Shetland pony is one of the most popular horse breeds and it’s easy to see why. Most Shetland ponies have an easy-going and sweet nature. Spend five minutes with Sandy and you’ll love the breed. Like most Shetland ponies, he’s sweet and gentle, curious and playful, and loves being around people.
Sandy’s Past
Since Sandy is a rescue, we don’t know a whole lot about his history. Before coming to us, he lived at our friend’s home where he was loved and cherished. Our friend gave Sandy to us because she wanted a loving home for him and she knew we would love him as much as she did. She couldn’t keep him because she also had larger horses (who she has had for years and years) and was afraid Sandy would eat too much being around their food rations. The two larger horses bit him, but that didn’t deter him from trying to take their food. Before that home, Sandy was at a rescue. We don’t know why he was at the rescue.
Ozark Mountain’s Currys Treasure
“Treasure”
Treasure is a white miniature horse. He was born in 2015 and came home to us on September 5, 2021. We adopted Treasure from a local horse rescue. When his previous owner moved out of state, she took most of her miniature horses with her. She decided not to take Treasure so she tried to sell him. When she couldn’t get the amount of money she wanted for him, she sent him to a livestock auction. Before being sent to auction, he spent his entire life performing as a unicorn pony at children’s parties.
At the auction, the horse rescue we adopted him from was bidding back and forth against a kill buyer and eventually put in the winning bid. We knew about Treasure’s history as a unicorn pony because we knew his owner, so when Tabitha recognized him on the rescue’s website, she told the rescue’s director we wanted him. Tabitha was the first person to say we wanted him so as soon as he was available for adoption, we filled out the paperwork and agreed to a home inspection. The paperwork and home inspection were approved so we were allowed to bring him home.
Meeting Treasure
When we went to the rescue to meet Treasure, we were told he’s disobedient, hard to handle, an awful horse, and we shouldn’t get him. We were told to look at the other horses in the rescue because they were better behaved and just overall a better choice. We kept insisting that we wanted Treasure. After lots of back and forth with the rescue, the director realized we weren’t going to change our minds, so we paid his adoption fee, and he became part of the family. Later that day, the rescue had a veterinarian look at him one last time and, after she was done, the rescue drove Treasure to our farm.
Overcoming the Past
Treasure is extremely skittish and has a lot of trust issues. Being a unicorn pony was very traumatic for him, not to mention the harsh training tactics he experienced in his previous home. To make matters worse, I look almost identical to his old owner so he gets anxious when he sees me. We’re working every day to gain his trust and prove to him that he’s in a safe, forever home where he’s not going to have to perform again. Sandy pony has helped a lot with showing Treasure that he can trust us. Treasure seems really happy and loves to run around with Sandy.
Medical
The horses see an equine veterinarian twice a year. Treasure is in great health. We haven’t noticed any medical concerns with him. Although Sandy has a couple of minor issues, his doctor is really happy with his body score and overall health. She estimates his age is around ten years old (as of 1/1/21).
Sandy has locking stifles. It’s a condition in horses usually caused by either not enough exercise or trauma to the stifle. Our farrier said he sees a lot of horses with locking stifles. He thinks Sandy’s condition was caused by farriers in his past being too rough with him. The doctor said as long as we take it slowly, there’s no reason why he can’t eventually pull a cart and go on long walks.
Sandy also has an ulcer scar on both of his eyes which causes a milky spot on his corneas. His doctor said it was probably due to an injury since it also looks like one of his teeth is fused with another tooth. This can happen when trauma to the mouth has occurred earlier in life. We’ll never know if the trauma was caused by another animal or a person at some point in Sandy’s life.
Hoof Care
The farrier comes to the house every eight weeks to trim hooves. Sandy is usually fidgety for the farrier, but Treasure stands stills and patiently waits to be able to go out and play afterwards.
Best Buddies
Treasure is the dominant horse and can be a bit bossy to Sandy. He insists that he should eat the first of the hay we put out and he decides when Sandy is allowed to graze. That being said, they’re getting along better than we could have hoped for. They both sleep next to each other during the day in the pasture and where one is, the other is guaranteed to be nearby. They groom each other and when one is getting his hooves trimmed in his stall, the other is right there to make sure he’s safe. Sandy loves his goat friends, but he seems happy having a horse friend on his farm!
Feeding
We feed the horses grass hay in feeding bags. They have a couple of bags in the pasture and one in each stall. The bags help to reduce wasted hay and they also slow the horses down so they don’t eat too fast. They also get a specialized feeding every morning and evening. This is their feeding routine:
Morning
1/2 cup soaked timothy pellets
1/4 cup soaked beet pulp pellets
1 scoop Enrich Plus (a vitamin supplement)
2 tablespoons black oil sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons garlic (during warmer months)
Evening
1/2 cup soaked timothy pellets
1/4 cup soaked beet pulp pellets
1 scoop Enrich Plus (a vitamin supplement)
2 tablespoons black oil sunflower seeds
1/2 teaspoon magnesium
1 scoop garlic (during warmer months)
Watering
The horses have a five-gallon heated water bucket in each of their stalls. Outside, they have another five-gallon bucket that’s unheated and an unheated fifty-gallon stock tank. Horses don’t usually like to drink cold water, but the boys seem to prefer the unheated buckets. All of the buckets are emptied, cleaned out, and refilled every day.
Housing
Sandy loves the goats, especially Faylinn. Treasure is terrified of the goats. Although Treasure lived with goats in his previous home, we decided to make some changes in the barn when he came home to us. We expanded the pasture behind the barn and blocked it off to separate the horses and goats. Although Sandy did great living with the goats, we were concerned about having the goats housed with two horses (especially since Treasure tends to spook around them). The horses can go in and out of their side of the barn whenever they want to, and the goats still have a very large space in the barn to get out of the weather. So far, the new arrangement seems to be working for everyone.
Inside the barn, each of the horses has his own stall with a stall mat, water, hay, and a salt block. The stalls are right next to each other so they know the other one is there, but they’re separated so Sandy can eat his hay at night without Treasure moving him away from it. We close the boys in their stalls at night to protect them from coyotes and the neighbor’s dogs. First thing in the morning we turn them out into their pasture. Every morning when we let them out, they run around together bucking and playing as if they’ve been away from each other forever.
Housekeeping
We use wood shavings in the horses’ stalls. When we only had Sandy, we tried using shredded paper, which was less expensive and worked well to soak up urine, but we changed back to wood shavings. The paper kept sticking to Sandy’s hooves. It became a huge hassle trying to get the paper off his hooves every morning when he was excited to get out of his stall. And, even though we kept the bedding 5 inches deep in his stall, the paper stuck to the rubber mats in his stall which took a lot of effort to get off.
We clean the horse stalls every morning. Every day during the colder months, we scoop out the dirty and wet wood shavings and put a fresh new layer on top. Once a week we remove and replace all of the wood shavings in the stalls. When flies are a problem during the warmer months, we remove all of the wood shavings every morning, scrub the floor, let it dry, and then replace the bedding before we close the horses up for the night.
