ROCKY

Rocky is a 4-year old Palomino Appendix (half Quarter Horse half Thoroughbred) Horse gelding. I first met him when he was five months old and he had never been handled and he was very wild, scared and defensive. When I first saw him he had a rope halter on him that was tied so tight I had to cut it off with a knife once I got him to trust me a bit. It had probably been on him for months while he was growing. He also had a sticker with a number on it stuck to his hindquarters—Rocky was a PMU foal and that was what they used to identify him at the ranch he was from. PMU stands for Pregnant Mare Urine, which is produced and collected for help in creating the drug Premarin. Certain ranches focus on keeping many mares pregnant at a time in order to produce the urine, and then they usually sell the resultant unwanted foals to slaughter.

But that was not to be Rocky’s fate. Due to a program called FoalQuest and some good people here in Maine, Rocky was saved.

When I first met him and saw how wild, scared and defensive he was I referred to him as the most dangerous horse I worked with that year. But now he is almost 5 years old and he and I have come a long way together, to the point where I refer to him as the softest, kindest and gentlest horse I have ever been around. I have never had the level of trust with a horse that I do with him. What I am happiest the most for Rocky is that he feels free to be himself and he is happy in all aspects of his life. He seems to love all the horses and people that he meets, to the point where he sometimes becomes a nuisance—his nickname is “the bother boy” as he loves to play and he won’t take no for an answer.

Rocky has taught me more about horse training, about being a good person, and about life than I could ever list here. I guess what I like best is that just like he is happy and feels free to be himself, I feel that same way when I am around him—happy and free to be myself.