Miracle One Year Later

I can hardly believe that it will have been one year ago this week that we brought Miracle home. We made the trip to Sunkissed Acres in Georgia to pick her up on March 14th last year. It is almost surreal to think that at one point in her life Miracle was so starved and abused that she could not stand on her own. When she was rescued she had to be dragged onto a piece of plywood, and then the plywood board was pulled onto the trailer. She literally could not stand up. She then lived in that trailer while her rescuers, Mr. and Mrs. Gurley, and Lori of Sunkissed Acres, fed her and tried to give her a chance to live. To read the complete background of Miracle's circumstances and how she came to be rescued please read this post.

Miracle in Mr. Gurley's stock trailer, early January 2011

Miracle in her make-shift sling in the Gurley's garage

a few weeks after her rescue Miracle was strong enough to be moved out of the Gurley's garage to Sunkissed Acres; Mr. Gurley with Miracle in front of the barn at Sunkissed Acres

Miracle was finally strong enough to be adopted and move to a new home in March. I can't believe that in a couple of days Miracle will have been with us for a year. Please read this post for a complete recap of Miracle's moving day along with a picture history of her progress from her initial rescue to when we met her. She has changed so much during that time. The most obvious changes are the physical ones. She was covered in a massive, matted, unhealthy looking coat of hair when we got her. Lori called it the "starvation coat" and said she sees it on a lot of rescue cases. The starvation coat came off to reveal a gorgeous dappled grey coat underneath.

Her many horrible wounds were well on their way to being healed when we brought her home but the remnants could still be seen. They finally fully healed, and other than some parts of her coat that are more white than grey the evidence of her abuse has healed on the outside.


Of course she continued to gain weight and muscle. I haven't looked at her "before" pictures in a long time and I had forgotten just how skinny and starved she was. She has filled out tremendously all over her body. We were amazed at how much her condition had improved when we picked her up at Sunkissed Acres. I can't believe how much more weight and muscle she continued to gain.

with her first babysitter Sky March 16, 2011

Miracle and Sky romping in the arena March 31, 2011

Miracle and Sparky September 2011

Miracle and Jo the fainting goat sharing some food

Finally confident enough to be part of a family group, Thanksgiving 2011; it was 8 months before Miracle was mentally ready to be part of a group

It probably shouldn't have surprised us that her mental scars were a lot deeper than her physical scars but it did. When we met Miracle at Sunkissed Acres she was incredibly friendly to people. Not just to Lori whom she knew, but also to Jason and I who were complete strangers at the time. It was so surprising given her horrible past with people that she would come right up to anyone, nickering and wanting to be the focus of your attention. She acted so self confident and you would have thought she didn't have a care in the world. She never spooked at anything, never acted like the abused baby horse that she was. Now I realize that it was simply because she was so early into her recovery and at that point she still didn't have the energy to do anything but survive.

Don't get me wrong Miracle really did like people and want attention, she still does. However we are still always mindful of certain things when handling her. She was very comfortable being touched, petted and groomed on her neck and shoulders when we brought her home. However the further back you went on her body, the more nervous and uncomfortable she got. By the time you were touching her flanks she was often trembling, occasionally even kicking out. We spent a lot of time slowly and cautiously touching her on the back half of her body, working our way up to grooming her all over. Today she is comfortable being touched, petted and groomed all over. However we still would never just walk up to her and give her a friendly pat on her rump right off the bat, at best she'll just try to get away and at worst she'll fire with a hind leg. We no longer have to do a complete ritual of starting at the front and working back, but you still need to give her a touch or pat on the neck or shoulder before you touch her anywhere on the back part of her body. One pat on the neck seems to reassure her that all is well and we're not going to do anything malicious when we touch her further back and I expect over time that even this need may very likely fade.

The odd thing is hoof handling has never been much of an issue. One would think with her phobias about her back half being handled that picking up her back hooves for cleaning and trimming would be an issue. Surprisingly that has never been a problem. Give her a pat on the neck or shoulder and then she is good to go as far as hoof handling, front or rear.

She is an incredibly feisty personality. I can see how her personality led to her horrible treatment when she was broke to ride as a weanling. She has lightening fast reflexes, no doubt sharpened and honed by her months of abuse. She also acts like a typical baby horse who thinks she knows everything, doesn't want to be told otherwise, and has lots of energy. Miracle spends a lot of time running and playing, she is not a low energy girl. Combine that with her self assurance that she knows better than people and I can see how, in the wrong hands (understatement of the year), she wound up being tortured, starved and abused as they tried to break her to ride. Although her abusers did their very best to break her spirit they did not succeed. It will be interesting to see if she mellows or stays the same as far as personality while she continues to grow up and mature.

The other big surprise with Miracle was her complete lack of self confidence, in fact downright terror, about being with other horses. This really shocked me. Self assured Miracle was terrified of being around other horses. She loved interacting with them as long as there was a physical barrier such as a fence between her and the other horse. However put her in a paddock or pasture with another horse and she was terrified. My mare Sky ended up being her babysitter for the first few months. Sky was perfect for the job. She never pushed interaction with Miracle and would just graze and ignore her. Curiosity finally prevailed and Miracle would slowly inch her way closer and closer to Sky with Miracle soon becoming Sky's shadow.

After a few weeks with Sky and playing with Bonnie, Sparky and a couple others over the fence I thought she was ready to be part of the group. Wrong. The most normal of horse rituals such as sniffing noses absolutely terrified her when done with no fence separating her from the other horses. She literally just went off into the woods and hid, and if another horse approached her, now matter how friendly their demeanor, she ran away. She and Sky went back to living in a paddock together.

After a few months of Sky as a babysitter I switched her babysitter to Traveller the pony with whom she had shared a fenceline for several months. Miracle was terrified of him as he grazed and totally ignored her. It took about 3 days for her to overcome her fears and then she happily lived with Traveller for a couple of months. Next up was a month with Sparky the donkey, another one she knew well over the fence. We went through the same ritual of terror progressing to friendship. After several weeks with Sparky her babysitter was my gelding Hoffy. There is no more gentle of a soul than Hoffy yet once again Miracle was terrified.

However she progressed from terrified to friends with Hoffy in less than half a day which was a record for her. A few weeks after she and Hoffy had been roomies I decided to put her in with the group consisting of Sky, Sparky, Hoffy and Bonnie. Finally she was able to feel comfortable in a group of horses and was right in the middle of everything. As her confidence continued to grow so did her interactions with her friends. In fact she is quite the bossy little thing these days with other horses now and does not hesitate to assert herself. There was a point in time when I never thought she would be able to live with a group of horses. Now we are so used to watching her run, play and be snarky with them it is shocking to me that she used to be scared of other horses in her space.

In other areas of Miracle's life my dad spent hours teaching Miracle what treats are. The first time she finally took a carrot from him he was elated. It took a few weeks for her to understand the concept of treats. She definitely understands the concept now! She is tolerant of grooming but she doesn't love it. She remains stubbornly hydrophobic and wants nothing to do with having a bath. She would probably get past this if we worked with her on it more but I've seen no reason to force the issue.

That summarizes the first year with Miracle. We've seen a lot of physical and mental changes in Miracle during our first year with her, even more than we were expecting. Before I wrap up this post I want to answer a few common questions that are often asked:

1. What breed do we think she is? We have no idea. She was advertised as a Tennessee Walking Horse but we don't know if this is accurate or not.

2. How much has she grown? Not very much. She has filled out a lot and put on a lot of weight and muscle but as far as height very little change. We don't know if her growth was stunted due to her extreme starvation at such a young age or if she really is a pony. She wears a 66" blanket.

3. Will she be sound to ride? The jury is still out on that

4. What are our plans with Miracle (this question always surprises me especially given she was around a year +/- when we brought her home)? We have no plans at this point other than to provide her with a good home. She's approximately 2 years old so her job is to be a baby and grow up for at least another year or two.

Below is a history of Miracle's first year with us in videos and pictures. Enjoy!

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Miracle, Sky, Bonnie and Sparky on the run October 2011

Miracle & Sky playing in the arena March 31, 2011; home two weeks

March 15, 2011; first full day home

March 15, 2011

March 24, 2011

April 2011

May 2011

June 2011

July 2011

July 2011

early October 2011

late October 2011

New Year's Eve

Addicted to Gravel; Miracle Video

As Jason mentioned a few days ago we have had a lot of gravel trucks coming and going lately. I lost count after 20 or so loads. We needed to finish putting gravel on the driveway. We had been driving around our rock for quite awhile. We finally dealt with that and now have 3,500 feet of fully functional driveway. It is nice to not be navigating around the rock every day and not be creating a dust storm or a muddy mess when driving on 2/3 of the driveway.

We also had been dumping load after load of gravel around the gates and run-in sheds. Of course this is all in addition to the numerous other loads of gravel that we had already had delivered over the last year. However we had always had it delivered 3 to 4 loads at a time, not 20+ loads at a time like we have in the last couple of weeks. Yesterday Jason and I were discussing our gravel situation and assessing our gravel needs. We were thinking that we would have another 2 to 4 loads delivered and then be done.

I made the comment during this discussion that we were addicted to gravel. Apparently when your names are Jason and Melissa you cannot have too much gravel. When we were discussing where we would place our last few loads our inner gravel addicts still were not going to be satisfied. However we had lost count of how many loads had been delivered, like I said I lost count at 20.

Today we got the bill for our latest gravel extravaganza. I have previously written about one of my meltdowns when being handed the latest and greatest construction bill that is larger than anticipated. We have a lot of practice with this scenario at this point but we are only human and sometimes it just gets to you. Today it was Jason's turn to have a meltdown. If there had still been a dump truck parked on the farm he probably would have started shoveling some of the gravel back in by hand. Needless to say we will not be having a few more loads delivered and we will have to be happy with the gravel that we have.

However addictions are powerful, and by the end of the day we were back discussing about where we could use more gravel. I was joking with Jason that maybe we should buy our own gravel pit, then we would never have to deny ourselves. If anyone is racking their brain for the perfect Christmas gift for Jason and Melissa, we can give you the number for our gravel delivery guy. Hint hint.

Our poor driveway only had gravel on it for the first 1500 feet

But now our redneck driveway is gone and we actually have a functional driveway

another before . . .

. . . and after

one of our beautiful curves that we almost straightened out over a stupid rock

Thankfully the curve stayed; we started with crush and run as you can see here and then came back and added inch and a quarter gravel on top. Maybe we should have stayed with just the crush and run for now, or maybe we shouldn't have lost count of the number of loads!

Spreading gravel in one of the pastures; as the truck went back and forth with the bed lifting higher and higher they just stood in the shed without so much as a second look. Of course it goes without saying that if anyone had been trying to ride them you would have been bucked off.

A short video of the horses watching the gravel truck (this is Sam, Fuzzy, Dutch, Wiz, Sebastian, Alex, Renny, etc.); by the end the truck is less than a foot from the shed and nobody moves.

Contrast the above video with this video from two years ago. Some of you may remember this video of the Big Boys acting silly spooking at their new gravel pile at the old farm. The Big Boys are an endless source of entertainment and as you can see it is the same cast of characters:

Dutch and Sam finally came over to check out the gravel

A load of gravel being dumped in the not yet finished barn at the end of the driveway. Jason is in his element, feeding his addiction and directing the placement of the gravel.

Jason guiding the gravel truck into the mare/pony pasture

Cinnamon gave the truck a passing glance on her way to the water trough

Norman and Cuffie were hanging out in the shed and uninterested in the gravel truck

Maisie was only mildly interested in the gravel truck. There's Jason directing away. I was looking at all of these pictures and was playing "Where's Waldo" with Jason. Anywhere there was a gravel truck Jason was nearby directing and looking happy. He was looking a lot less happy when he got the bill!

A brief video of Miracle running in the pasture along with Sky, Bonnie, and Sparky the donkey

Stormy and Clayton

Darby

Moe

The Big Boys grazing; they were way out in the back of their pasture when gravel was delivered to their pasture. It would have been fun to see if they reacted as strongly this time around to the gravel delivery!

Kennedy napping

Trigger grazing as the sun was coming up

Chance, Leo and Homer

Clay and Fuzzy

Asterik, Silver and George

Miracle Update

It has been awhile since I've given everyone a Miracle update. She is thriving and enjoying life. Her weight is right where we want it right now, not too heavy and not too light. She has learned a lot of "big girl" things as well. She is very good about hoof handling now and is good for the farrier. Her leading manners are much improved as well although she does still have typical baby horse moments on occasion.

We have not completely mastered the concept of being tied yet however she's made a lot of progress. This is another area where she still has "I'm a baby" moments. The one thing we haven't done well with is having a bath. Apparently Miracle is hydrophobic with the exception of rain. She does not want water applied to any part of her body whether it is done with a sponge or with a hose. I will also admit I have not spent as much time working on this with her as I could. I'm not too worried about it, she just needs more time and eventually she will realize nothing bad is going to happen when water comes from a sponge or a hose.

We're also still working on teaching Miracle that she does not have to be scared of other horses. In addition to the many horrors Miracle has suffered in her short life she was also out with two other horses who apparently beat her up as they all fought over whatever scraps of food they could find in their hellhole they called home. Miracle is super friendly with other horses over the fence but very leery of them when together.

Miracle did really well with Sky serving as her friend for two months. For the last two weeks her "friend" has been Traveller the pony. It took eight days for her to get near him (and she and Sky had shared a fenceline with him for two months) but now she is as comfortable with Traveller as she was with Sky. I thought the transition to friendship with Traveller would be easy since they had been so friendly over the fence but I was wrong.

The question that we get asked most often is what do we have planned for Miracle? I always answer the same way. She is right around a year old and she has already been ridden into the ground, literally. The plan for Miracle is to let her be a baby horse for a couple more years and then see where we're at. Maybe she will be able to be ridden at a later date, but I personally don't believe in riding horses until they are three. I do like to introduce the saddle and the bridle and teach them to lunge and ground drive at two, and sit on their back and walk around a few times, but that's it. Even at three I think undersaddle work needs to be basic and not too physically taxing.

Given my personal philosophy on starting horses this would mean that Miracle will just be hanging out and being a baby for quite awhile. And of course it is still a big question mark as to whether or not she will be able to physically handle being ridden (again) when the times comes. Jason and I adopted Miracle knowing there is a good possibility that she might not ever be anything other than a big, expensive pet. I think it would be unfair to Miracle for someone to be pinning all of their hopes on her being a riding horse. She's seen a lot of abuse in many forms and who knows what the long term effects of it will or will not be.

Miracle is a happy, healthy girl right now and it is a true pleasure to see her happy face every day.

Miracle; she is such a pretty girl

Traveller is currently serving as Miracle's friend

B-Rad decided to roll and he started a chain reaction

Alex rolled next; I love B-Rad's goofy post roll/shaking his head expression

Chili was next

Clay

Fuzzy Punch

Murphy

you can see his lips flapping while he does his post-roll shake

Dutch was the last man down

Elfin and Grand

Leo (Levendi hiding behind him) and Chance

Hoffy

Johnny, Tiny and Toledo