Adoptable Horse of the Week: ‘Fancy’

This week’s adoptable horse, Fancy, is from our March featured rescue, White Bird Appaloosa Horse Rescue in Burkeville, VA. Presented by SnarkyRider.com.

About Fancy:

Now, why on earth would anyone want to adopt this horse? She’s opinionated. She will occasionally rear up when she doesn’t trust what you are doing. She gains too much weight on lush pasture and she will try hard to convince you that she is the boss of YOU.

Sometimes that has worked for her, as she did indeed convince her previous owners that she was the boss of THEM. As a result, she was left to blow up like a tick on their pasture. And when we asked them if she’d ever worn a muzzle, they told us in hushed tones that they could “never, ever do that.” She would “just go crazy” if they tried that. But none of this was really their fault. She was sold to them as a beginner’s horse by someone who found her already loaded in the trailer they’d parked empty at a sales lot. She is many things, but a beginner’s horse is not one of them.

But this is what else we know about her: This is a really cute, halter type, foundation style Appy mare, about 15H and in her early to mid-teens. She has a surprisingly fluid, extended trot, especially given her body type. She is sound and has no health issues that we are aware of. She does respect the people who earn it. And even better, when worked with on a regular basis by someone who is firm and fair, she loses the old stink eye and begins to enjoy her job. The rearing seems to be idiosyncratic. She goes up, we just pull her back down and then she looks apologetic. She has never done this under saddle, rather it’s when you doing something else, like trimming her. She has no other vices, other than a skeptical view of the world (and hey, who doesn’t these days?).

Fancy is  just longing for consistency in her life with someone she can bond with. She is not mean or rebellious, just untrusting of your opinion. We really think this mare has a lot of potential but she needs a home with someone who has a little experience and who will take the time to explain things to her.

She also needs some dietary control. When we put a muzzle on her for the first time, she went screaming around the pasture like a banshee for twenty minutes or so. I don’t remember what we did. I think we might have yawned and then gone in for dinner. But she learned quickly that “going crazy” didn’t impress us. Today, she is just super about wearing that muzzle. With a little time, we think she’ll be super at a lot of other things, too.

Interested in Tilly? Or any of the other amazing horses available at White Bird? Click here!

Presented by SnarkyRider.com: