Daya's Story

Daya's Statistics





Registered Name: Zips Pine Bar Hope


Stable Name: Daya


Breed: Appaloosa


Age: 11


Height: 16 to 16.2 (haven't had a stick on her yet...)


Weight: 1200 lbs





Daya's Story:


I get a lot of weird looks and questions as to why I named my new appy mare such an odd name. The name Daya is cherokee for kindness/mercy. For the first 3 years of her life she was starved and severely beaten. At the age of 3 1/2 she was bought (more like rescued) by a very nice gentleman who had hopes of re-training her, but unfortunately things didn't work out very well for him. He suffered a severe back injury at work that would bring his love of riding and training to a screeching halt. He refused to sell her, scared that someone wouldn't know how to handle her and end up sending her to the stock sales to be picked up by a kill buyer. He turned her out with some of his other rescues for almost 8 years. He figured as long as she was fed, had shelter and companion horses to keep her company all would be well.





One day while out 4-wheeler riding with my husband, we stopped to see a nice herd of horses grazing by the road. I hadn't been around horses for almost 2 years and my husband knew I was homesick (he called it "horsesick" haha) for them. Some came to the fence to greet me and a gentleman walked over, introduced himself and told me the stories of his rescued friends who never got a chance to show their full potential. He went on to tell me the winters were getting the better of him and he feared that the workload would fall on his wife. I told him my story and how much I missed having horses in my life, even got a chuckle out of him when I told him how hard it was not to tear up when watching horse shows on tv and seeing horses trying so hard for their riders (all the true horse lovers know what Im talking about... the kind of horses that nearly bust at the seams with heart and always give their all!)





He ended up selling me the appy mare that seemed to click with me almost instantly. She had minimal contact over the years but was letting me lightly touch her face and rub under her chin. He took a chance on me and saw that we were a good a match. We wrote up a contract there and then, and I promised I never allow her to be sold at a stock sale. My husband (bless his heart) traded a gun and $200 for my dream horse.





Daya's Problems:


Since I brought Daya home I have uncovered a lot of things that she has issues with. We are taking it day by day. This mare tries so hard and is still learning to trust me. We have had to completely start from scratch with her training but she improves everyday. Below is a list of things that she is fearful of doing or has never been taught to do:

1. She is very head shy! Its taken me a month to be able to touch her ears and muzzle. Any fast movement and she turns to flight mode. Her mouth is the same. Ive been working with her a lot to allow me to touch, open and stick things (bits, wormer. etc.) in her mouth. She is doing well. The first time I got a good look inside he mouth last week almost brought me to tears. Her front teeth have been chipped/cracked and she is in need of a good floating!


2. She will absolutely shut down when it comes time to get a shot. I had to have her regular vaccinations done the first week I had her and you would have thought we were trying to saw her in half. It took another week of desensitizing before I could touch her neck without her flinching.


3. Her feet....She does really good with her front feet but is a little sticky when asked to pick up her back feet. My farrier also believes she has been beat with a rasp. He barely touched her leg with it and she started panicking. He is great though and does natural horsemanship exercises until she clams down.


4. Blanketing and anything under her belly. We had a few night here where it was in the low 30's and my girl doesn't have a winter coat yet. So it took me about 2 hours in the round pen desensitizing her to it. Needless to say I have some big muscles in my right arm lol. She hated the the straps under her belly at first too. I was told she was saddle broken as a 2 yr old but Im betting it wasn't a pleasant experience. So I've got my work cut out for me!

5. She doesn't tie which is becoming a big pain.

I'm still finding things that freak her out but we are making tons of progress in the round pen. My post's are behind, its getting cold out and as soon as the ground dries out enough to get some work done. IT STARTS RAINING AGAIN! lol I also have another blog on her as well that I haven't updated in a long time! Please feel free to check it out as well! http://mrsburke1208.blogspot.com/